June 18, 2020

For Immediate Release

 

For those angling in Cultus Lake this BC Family Fishing Weekend, June 19-21, and through the summer, please note there is a program to monitor Smallmouth Bass in the lake.

A team of fish biologists from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and from Thompson Rivers University is tackling the issue of invasive Smallmouth Bass (SMB) in the lake.

A number of SMB have been tagged for research purposes. If you catch one of those with a visible, bright green or pink ‘spaghetti’ tag, please return it live into the lake.

If you catch an untagged Smallmouth Bass, please remove the fish from the lake; record its size, the place and time the fish was caught, and email the information to margettsw19@mytru.ca

Invasive species can be extremely harmful to local species because they usually have no natural predators to keep them in check, as would happen in their native habitat. Keeping them out of our waterways is one way to help BC salmon survive.

Canada Nature Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk is funding this project.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO: Smallmouth Bass Info Sheet-June2020