MassWildlife is expected to once again begin stocking local waterways with fish in the coming weeks to ensure plenty of catches for anglers in the warmer months. But this year, an environmental group in the Berkshires is now calling for an end to the practice.
Berkshire Environmental Action Team, a local nonprofit, launched a new campaign Tuesday that aims to end non-native fish stocking in Massachusetts.
“We believe this routine stocking of non-native fish stands in direct conflict with the state’s biodiversity mandate,” said Chelsey Simmons, stewardship director for BEAT.
Fish stocking involves filling lakes, rivers and other waterways with fish, including non-native species, raised in hatcheries to provide anglers with a broad variety of species to catch.
MassWildlife primarily stocks brook, brown, tiger and rainbow trout across more than 450 bodies of water throughout the state each year, with stocking typically taking place in spring and autumn. Last fall, 12 ponds, lakes and reservoirs throughout Berkshire County were stocked with a mix of rainbow trout and brown trout.
Fish stocking involves filling lakes, rivers and other waterways with fish, including non-native species, raised in hatcheries to provide anglers with a broad variety of species to catch.
While BEAT’s campaign is focused primarily on non-native stocking, the organization is opposed to fish stocking in general — even with native species, such as the brook trout.
“Activities like stocking really have nothing to do with making improvements to native brook trout’s ability to survive,” said Brittany Ebeling, executive director of BEAT. She said the organization favored other approaches to conservation, such as improving existing habitats.
Citing concerns about the mortality rate of stocked fish and the possibility of crowding out native species, BEAT is encouraging advocates to contact state officials and encourage them to reconsider the practice of non-native fish stocking.
“[Stocked fish are] really not equipped to survive in the wild and many die very shortly after they’re released,” Simmons said. “As we’ve looked more into it, we realize just how incredibly harmful the practice of fish stocking is.”
“There’s really no accountability at the moment for that potential harm MassWildlife is causing,” she said.
Anglers try their luck last March at Farnum’s Crossing in Cheshire. Facing pushback on its stocking program, MassWildlife says the practice is crucial for generating local interest in fishing and securing revenue from fishing licenses.
However, MassWildlife maintains that the practice is crucial for generating local interest in fishing and securing revenue from fishing licenses, adding that it can be carried out alongside existing conservation efforts.
“MassWildlife’s trout stocking program is popular with hundreds of thousands of anglers statewide and a key part of our mission to expand access [to] recreational fishing for all anglers,” MassWildlife wrote in a statement to The Eagle. “Stocking supports our shared goals of connecting people to nature, supporting nature-based economies, and addressing food security.”
“At the same time, MassWildlife is committed to the conservation of wild trout, focusing on habitat protection and conservation, improving water quality and quantity, and restoring connectivity,” the statement said.
MassWildlife also notes that fewer than 10 percent of wild trout streams and rivers are stocked.
About 600 rainbow trout, raised at MassWildlife’s McLaughlin Hatchery in Belchertown, were released into Onota Lake in Pittsfield last April.
Leaders of local fishing organizations are also weighing in. Justin Adkins, president of Trout Unlimited’s Taconic chapter, said that BEAT’s initiative aligns well with his organization’s own mission to reduce stocking and that he has been meeting with the group’s leadership to discuss their approach.
However, he said, he hopes that fish stocking can be phased out on a case-by-case basis that accounts for existing native fish populations in select waterways.
“There is a concern that if you just completely stop stocking, then people are just catching and keeping that native and wild trout,” he said, which he feared could negatively impact their populations. But ultimately, he feels positively about BEAT’s mission.
“The end goal is the reduction of stocking and a healthy native and wild trout population,” Adkins said. To that end, “I am personally very invested in us all working together.”
BEAT will host a webinar on March 3 to discuss the practice of fish stocking and instruct attendees on how to seek policy change. Simmons said she also expects members of the local Trout Unlimited chapter to tune in.
“We realize that this is a very nuanced issue,” Simmons said. “Certain rivers that are stocked regularly are very important for fly fishing and small businesses. … I hope the angler community and fishing communities don’t take it personally.”
Still, she said, “If we continue stocking non-native fish, we’re just going to have a less healthy ecosystem.”
