More wild fish are stocked from fish farms than you think

Here are the 1,789 lakes and rivers in Ontario that get stocked with fish every year.

Where do those “wild” fish come from? Farms!

The Ontario government operates nine farms across the province, and there are 36 more community-based ones. Sometimes they call them “fish culture stations” or “hatcheries”, but they are the same types of fish farms we operate.

Every year, they stock an average of 4.4 million young rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon, brook trout, chinook salmon, lake whitefish, coho salmon, lake trout, splake, walleye and more.

These fish are mainly stocked so that recreational and commercial fishers can catch them later when they’re bigger. And some restocking focuses on restoring threatened species.

There are some controversies with how fish stocking interrupts existing fish populations, and some debates about why we’re dumping so many top-level predators in an ecosystem with very little food. But these restocking programs are generally accepted to be good.

Globally, some 15 to 150 billion fish are stocked in oceans, lakes and rivers.

Where we get confused is when people tell us they only eat wild fish, because the line between “wild” and “farmed” is very blurry.

There are “wild” fish from poor sources, and others from sustainable ones. Just like there are good farms, and others not-so-good. That’s why we always recommend trusting eco-certifications like Best Aquaculture Practices that audit farmers and Marine Stewardship Council and audit fishers!

Perhaps we need to be more like the Japanese who have given up determining if it’s “farmed or wild” and instead just focus on sustainable, good-tasting fish!

Interested in what’s stocked in your area? Search the Ontario Government’s fish stocking tool.