HARRISBURG (TNS) — With thousands of lakes, ponds and sections of streams across Pennsylvania stocked with untold thousands of fish of unknown species by unaccountable private individuals each year, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is moving to gain some oversight and control over the activity.
Private buyers have for decades purchased whatever species might be available from commercial fish producers and dealers, quite possibly including non-native, invasive species, and released those fish into the wild.
Very little regulation currently applies to the process, apart from restrictions on the stocking of triploid, or sterile, grass carp that pond owners deploy to control aquatic growth in their ponds and permit requirements on those organizations holding fishing derbies that usually include pre-derby fish stocking.
“We really don’t know what private individuals are stocking,” explained Kris Kuhn, director of the commission’s Bureau of Fisheries.
“It’s difficult to manage fisheries” of natural resources, including native aquatic species that could be impacted by misdirected stocking.
He acknowledged that new regulations that will come up for a second round of approval by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissioners later this year are designed “to prevent problems in the future to finally get ahead of the game here.”
Pennsylvania is one of 20 states that do not have regulations in place to provide some level of oversight over the fish that are released into their waters. It is the only state in the Northeast without requirements for review of proposed private fish stockings and consideration of the ecological risk they post.
The new regulations also would include health required on the fish being stocked, based on the species and where in the state they will be going.
The 150 or so cooperative nurseries operated by sportsmen’s clubs and mostly focused on trout stocking also would be covered by the new regulations, but for them it will be mostly a change in the paperwork they already do as nurseries working with the commission.
The new regulations also would prohibit the release or disposal of live baitfish into waters of the state. Anglers often dump their bait buckets into the water they have been fishing when they finish for the day and are ready to leave the water.
The commission defines bait fish as “all forms of minnows; suckers, chubs, fallfish, lampreys; gizzard shad 8 inches or less taken from inland ponds, lakes or reservoirs; and all forms of darters, killifishes and stonecats (except those listed as threatened or endangered species). Legally taken gamefish may be used as bait. It is unlawful to use or possess round gobies, tubenose gobies, goldfish, comets, koi and common carp as baitfish while fishing.”
Crayfish, which were widely sold by bait shops prior to 2015, are now banned from sale by the commission. Anglers may capture their own crayfish for use as bait — up to 50 per day — but may not move those crayfish to any water beyond where they were captured without first removing their heads.
The rusty crayfish, which has become an invasive species disaster in many waters across the state, was introduced to those waters in anglers’ bait buckets.
If adopted on final rulemaking at a future meeting, the new regulations on private fish stocking would go into effect on Jan. 1.
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