A fishy situation

More than 200 goldfish removed from Winter River pond

The discovery of more than 200 goldfish in a Queens County river has fish and wildlife officials reminding Islanders not to release their pets into the wild.

In a Facebook post, Fish and Wildlife P.E.I. asked pet owners to refrain from releasing their unwanted fish into waterways after staff pulled 220 goldfish out of a pond on the Winter River Sept. 21.

Rosie MacFarlane, freshwater fisheries biologist for the province, said she was not sure how the goldfish got to the river, but believed they could have been from someone’s backyard pond.

“It’s a lot of fish to be in an aquarium, so it’s got to be from somewhere bigger than that,” she said, noting the fish were quite large.

Finding an invasive species such as goldfish in an Island

waterway is problematic, said MacFarlane, as they can sometimes bring diseases and parasites into the water habitats.

“There is also the competition factor, these fish are taking up space and eating food our native species are looking for,” she said.

“Then there is the nuisance factor. If you get a lot of these fish in a pond for instance, they may root around in the mud looking for food and create turbid conditions.”

The goldfish, which had been in the river for at least a month, were captured by electrofishing, which uses a generator to send electricity into the water to stun or impair fish in the area.

MacFarlane said after the goldfish were caught, they were euthanized as per protocol.

This is the largest pull they’ve had, said MacFarlane.

“We haven’t had a lot of places to deal with something like this,” she said.

“It’s common in certain places where you would have a pond, for example in Victoria Park’s Dead Man’s Pond. In the past, there have been goldfish in there, places like there where people find them convenient to dump them.”

Goldfish can also present unique issues for native species, as they can grow quite large, said Tracy Brown, executive director of the Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association (BBEMA).

“The biggest issue is they will prey on native fish species,” she said.

“All goldfish are carp, and if you leave carp in an area long enough, they will grow to a humongous size and will prey on other fish.”

While BBEMA hasn’t had any similar issues with invasive species in their waterways, Brown said she wouldn’t be surprised if other goldfish from the captured group got away beforehand.

“This pond is likely connected

“The biggest issue is they will prey on native fish species. All goldfish are carp, and if you leave carp in an area long enough, they will grow to a humongous size and will prey on other fish.”

Rosie MacFarlane

to other waterways, and usually when you throw a fish in a pond, they don’t tend to stay in that pond,” she said. “(Fish and Wildlife) took these fish out, but there is a good chance there’s more that have migrated out of this water system.”

While no other goldfish could be seen in the area, MacFarlane said they are planning to return in case there are more.

“We are going to go back in a week’s time and repeat what we have already done,” she said.

“They can get under rocks, the concrete and so on where they can hide. We didn’t see any left when we finished, but I would not be surprised at all if over the next few days a few more show up.”

MacFarlane said those thinking of getting fish as a pet need to consider what they will do with them when they either can’t take care of them, or no longer want to.

“These fish can live a very long time, and they are a big responsibility, they are a living thing,” she said.

“If you are no longer able to fulfil that, then you have to find options to deal with them. Releasing them into the wild is not a good option.”