Fort Qu'Appelle Fish Culture Station

The Fort Qu’Appelle Fish Culture Station is the only fish hatchery in Saskatchewan that stocks fish for public angling opportunities. The station is operated by Saskatchewan Wildlife Assets Management (SWAM) Corporation and stocks approximately 125 lakes and rivers with trout every year, and 75 with walleye. The hatchery is solely funded through the Fish and Wildlife Development Fund. Thirty percent of the money raised through the sale of hunting and angling licenses sold is transferred to this fund. The station is capable of rearing fish through their entire life cycle from the egg stage through to adult. Depending on the species and other factors, station stock are distributed to waterbodies at any of these stages: as eyed eggs, fry, fingerlings or adults. The vast majority are distributed at the advanced fry and fingerling stages. Eggs: Millions of annually stocked fish begin their lives as small eggs obtained from brood stock kept at the station or from wild populations at spawn camps. Eggs collected from female fish are placed into moistened pans and fertilized with milt (sperm) from male fish. These procedures do not harm the fish and they are returned to the water body. Fertilized eggs are then transferred to the hatchery for incubation. The first stocking of a Saskatchewan waterbody took place in 1900. Eight million whitefish fry from a Manitoba hatchery were transported 300 miles by rail and horse-drawn wagon to the Qu’Appelle Valley lakes. The demand for prairie fish stocks increased due to the rapid settlement of the west in the early twentieth century. The Fort Qu’Appelle Fish Culture Station began operating in 1915. During the station’s early years, the vast majority of its stock was whitefish. Cisco were introduced (1918), perch (1920), bass (1923) and walleye, brown trout and rainbow trout (1924). Additional species raised over the years include lake trout (first introduced in 1926), brook trout (1933), smelt (1944), arctic grayling (1947), kokanee salmon (1961), alpine char (1964), splake trout (1966), coho salmon (1969), cutthroat trout and tiger trout (1988). Walleye, northern pike and the various trout species presently comprise the majority of station stock.