Wilmot Valley Fish Kill

Wilmot River recovery from fish kill in question
Last Updated: Friday, October 26, 2007 11:27 AM AT
CBC News
P.E.I. environment officials will return to the Wilmot River on Friday in an effort to find what seemed to be missing last week — fish.
The Wilmot River, which runs into Summerside Harbour, was the scene of a devastating fish kill five years ago. More than 10,000 dead fish were collected from the river after two separate fish kills in 2002.
Last week a group of volunteers went to four areas along the river to collect fish for a UPEI study. Rosie MacFarlane, the freshwater fisheries biologist for the province, said they didn't find any fish of spawning age.
"We were looking for fairly small, by spawning standards, size fish. We were looking for anything half a pound and up," said MacFarlane.
"Ordinarily it takes a river about five years to recover from a fish kill, so we should be seeing relatively normal levels of fish there now."
A team will go to different areas of the river in the hopes the previous group had just picked the wrong places to look. MacFarlane said the areas explored last week were heavily silted. On Friday the search will focus on areas upstream where fish tend to spawn this time of year.