Starting in April of 2005
 50,000 Chinook Salmon will be pen reared in the Town of Newfane Marina
in Olcott Beach, New York

25,000 Chinook Salmon Fry each will be held in 2 frames and netted holding pens
for approximately 3-6 weeks to allow them to grow and more importantly,
undergo the smolting process in the body of water (18 Mile Creek) where it is hoped
they will return as adult salmon in 3-4 years.

In their native Pacific Ocean, Chinook Salmon are what is know as anadromous fish,
that is, they are hatched in freshwater streams and after a short period of time
the young salmon will undergo a process called smolting, which biologically prepares
their bodies for the transition to living in the saltwater environment.  As a part of the
smolting process, the scent of the particular body of water is "imprinted" into the
salmon's memory.  After the smolting process is complete, the young swim downstream
to the ocean where they will live and feed until they mature (typically 3 to 7 years in the
Pacific Ocean).  Mature salmon home in on the imprinted scent of their natal river to return
to the same freshwater streams they were hatched in to reproduce and die.
 

In Lake Ontario, although the lake is not saltwater, the salmon still undergo the biological
smolting process and in the process, imprint onto the body of water that they are reared
or planted and return to that location when they mature and go on their spawning run.

Pen Rearing projects have been and continue to be conducted  in other locations across
Lake Ontario and have shown to significantly improve salmon returns over direct stocking
methods, particularly in the smaller tributaries similar in nature to 18 Mile Creek.

A fin clip study was conducted between two pen rearing sites in the Western Basin of
Lake Ontario, The Lower Niagara River and Oak Orchard Creek.  3 groups of 40,000
Chinook Salmon were given different fin clips each year, alternating annually between the two
test sites to allow DEC Fisheries Biologists to analyze the relative rates of return of the
different study groups for each site.

The 3 groups of stocked Salmon were:
Direct Stocked Salmon reared at the Caledonia Hatchery
Direct Stocked Salmon reared at the Salmon River Hatchery
and
Salmon from the Salmon River Hatchery reared in the Net Pens

Results from these studies to this point, can be found here