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Red Deer Advocate MONDAY, JULY 6, 2015
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Spawning the future RAVEN BROOD STATION SOURCE OF MILLIONS OF TROUT BY MARY-ANN BARR ADVOCATE STAFF Nestled away in the woods, along one of the very best glacier-fed springs in Alberta, sits rainbow trout central. But there’ll be no getting out the fishing rod. This is very much a no-fishing zone, even though there are literally thousands of fish and millions of fish eggs at the Raven Brood Trout Station. Located 13 km southeast of Caroline off Hwy 22, the station has had different fish culture roles since the land it is located on was purchased by the Alberta government from the CPR in 1940. Today it’s all about the eggs of rainbow trout — harvesting and fertilizing them, and getting them to the “eyed up” stage. That’s when they are developed and stable enough to be sent off to fish hatcheries in Calgary and Cold Lake to eventually become catchable fish for stocking Alberta water bodies. Brian Charles, senior fisheries technician with Alberta Environment and Parks, lives at the brood station. The facility’s main role is its production of 3.5 million rainbow trout eggs each year. They also hatch about 80,000 fish, which translates into 30,000 to 60,000 production fish. These, like the brood trout when they are done their work, are eventually placed into Central Alberta lakes. They use three- and four-year-old fish as brood stock. When the female fish are spawning — June and July — the eggs are taken from them and manually fertilized with the milt of male rainbow trout. “I assure you no romance is involved,” said Charles. Alberta has about 800 bodies of water that actually support a fishery but within these, only about 350 are readily accessible to people, said Charles. “We have about 350,000 licensed anglers. That
Photos by Jeff Stokoe/Advocate staff
ABOVE LEFT :Senior fisheries technician Brian Charles monitors yearling fish which will make up the brood stock at the station in 2017. TOP RIGHT: Retired Rainbow Trout brood stock living out their lives in the nearby Raven Springs pond. BOTTOM RIGHT: Rainbow trout eggs sit in an incubator prior to hatching. doesn’t include anybody under 16, over 65 or of First Nations descent. Fishing pressure is actually closer to 500,000 anglers in a season, fishing 350 bodies of water. “If we didn’t manage it in some way shape or form there would be no fish left.” Six months ago the Raven brood station was able
Red Deer woman scores big with scholarships BY MURRAY CRAWFORD ADVOCATE STAFF Between brushing up on her French and getting ready to work towards her PhD at McGill University in Montreal, a Red Deer woman was grateful to receive more than $150,000 in financial assistance from the university and the Canadian government. Emily Moore, 22, finished up her bachelor of psychology at the University of British Columbia this spring and graduated with honours. But she’s nowhere near being done with school — her next step is a five-year PhD program at McGill. Usually a program of that length and that prestigious carries with it a heavy financial burden, but for the Notre Dame High School class of 2011 grad, a financial fellowship has lightened the load. “It’s a huge relief being offered so much money that you don’t have to worry about anything but your studies and research once you get there,” said Moore. “It is a very intense program.” She has been accepted to McGill’s clinical psychology PhD program. At first, she was offered $20,800 for each of the five years, plus the cost of tuition totalling $25,800 annually. Moore was also offered a one-time $5,000 research excellence fellowship in recognition of her academic and research excellence. In total, she will receive $134,000 in fellowship funding to pursue her PhD. And then the federal government chipped in to help the young student with the Canadian Graduate Scholarship Program, which is awarded through the Canadian Institute of Health Research. In April, the Canadian government offered to help Moore out for her first year with a scholarship of $17,500. “For this year, McGill will top up the scholarship (to $25,800), but the majority of the money comes from the Canadian government,” said Moore. “I’m really grateful for the Canadian government’s assistance.” The email informing her that she had been accepted said she was one of 15 people offered acceptance into the program out of the close to 250 who
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to produce up to 95 per cent of Alberta’s rainbow trout but aging infrastructure has seen some of the egg production operation reduced. Now it produces about half the rainbow trout eggs in the province.
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Icon of versatility — the summer beach store BY MARY-ANN BARR ADVOCATE STAFF
had applied. Moore is determining if she would rather focus on researching psychology in academia or exploring the clinical side and be a therapeutic psychologist. “There’s a lot of psychologists who combine the two and work in hospitals doing half time research and half time therapy,” said Moore. “That’s what I see myself doing, but my degree is very research focused.” Four years ago when she started at UBC, Moore took a broad range of courses in her first year. She weas not quite sure if she wanted to go to medical school or law school.
Ice, ice cream, screamers, fishing tackle, booze, DVDs, propane, toys, souvenirs, batteries, and maybe even a latte, or a pair of wooden shoes — all in one place, the summer beach store. You never know what you’re going to need, want or run out of when vacationing — but chances are you’ll find it at the summer beach store down the road from the lake or campsite. Two separate stores along Gull Lake have been friends to holidayers for many years. The Wooden Shoe Gull Lake is on the south end of the lake and Parkland Beach General Store is on the north end. “Can you just give me a minute, I’m just serving up some burgers and fries,” says Parkland Beach store owner Jill Mitchell, so the interview is done between her running the till and pauses in customer traffic. Mitchell and her husband Robert came to Canada from the United Kingdom in 2003. They eventually ended up owning store seven years ago. “I just fancied the challenge and I’d never worked in a store in my life or used the till in fact,” the former youth worker said. The store is unusual in that it also is able to sell alcohol, a big seller, said Mitchell. But they also sell a lot other things like ice cream and cold drinks It has a small kitchen for take out food. “We certainly try to sell everything. ... the usual things including ice cream, children’s toys, a bit of everything really.” When summer hits, it’s batteries, dairy products, frozen meals, maggots and worms and other things in big demand. When they took over the store, located on Parkland Beach road off Hwy 771, the community helped them with ideas on what to sell. They operate yearround and the winter is busy enough selling fishing equipment to ice fishers.
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Contributed photo
Emily Moore of Red Deer will receive more than $150,000 in financial assistance from the university and the Canadian government she pursues her PhD at McGill University.
Hundreds march at climate rally Jane Fonda, David Suzuki, Naomi Klein among those marching in Toronto for greener economy. Story on PAGE D3
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