YOUNGSTOWN, N.Y. (WKBW) — Youngstown's community is working to repopulate the Niagara River and Lake Ontario with fish.
At the mouth of the Niagara River, where it meets Lake Ontario, there are pens filled with 90,000 salmon and 15,000 steelhead fish on the public North dock.
"We are creating a better survival rate than stocking. It's about 2 or 3 to 1, and it's pretty significant, so we are trying to turn those 90,000 kings into 200,000 hypothetically," said Captain Frank Campbell, who also is the director of sports fishing for Niagara County.
Campbell and other Niagara River Anglers Association members are raising salmon and steelhead fish in pens on the North Dock.
"Fishing is important in Niagara County, and it draws tourists every year, and it brings fishermen in from everywhere across the northeast and the country, for that matter," said Capt. Campbell.
Capt. Campbell is also a fishing charter captain and tells me sport fishing is a 30-million-dollar industry in Niagara County.
The big problem--- cormorants. The birds ate a whole stock of brown trout in Wilson just last week.
The birds are why Capt. Campbell is pushing to create indoor tanks for the salmon and other fish.
"It would enable us to take the variable out when the cormorants come through in their migration," said Capt. Campbell.
The tank project would also allow the fish to be raised all year round instead of just in the spring when their optimal temperature is at least 50 degrees.
Capt. Campbell says the funding will come from the Niagara river Greenway Commission.
"The opportunities here are probably the best in the country," said Capt. Campbell.
The fish inside of the pens in Youngstown will be released into the Niagara River late Wednesday evening.
