Looking for rainbow smelt larvae near Lake Utopia

 Lake Utopia Rainbow Smelt

The rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) populations in Lake Utopia are endemic, meaning they are cut off from the other populations of smelt which inhabit the rest of the rivers and coastlines in New Brunswick. These Lake Utopia Rainbow Smelt (LURS) populations are endangered. Since 2018, ECW has been working with DFO to test new methods of determining the distribution of LURS in the streams that feed into the lake.

Understanding where the smelt are will help us better protect them from population decline and the possibility of extinction.

Four different methods are being used:

  • Underwater cameras take time lapse photos to photograph adults swimming upstream to spawn;

  • ECW staff is paddling upstream to the headwaters to see if visual surveys will reveal spawning adults;

  • Dip net surveys are being used to determine if there are eggs on the rocks at the area where the stream feeds into the lake;

  • A plankton tow (cone-shaped net with very small mesh) is being used to catch larvae if they hatch in the stream.

 
 
 

Thanks to Fisheries and Oceans Canada for their partnership and for making this research possible.