Sightings of invasive goldfish in P.E.I. pond spark worries they're breeding there
CBC
A central P.E.I. watershed group and the provincial Department of Forests, Fish and Wildlife are raising concerns about sightings of more goldfish in Hardy's Pond.
In 2021, teams removed hundreds of goldfish from the 9.2-hectare pond in the Union Road area, north of Charlottetown. Now they're once more getting calls from the public flagging that the population appears to be rebounding, with some even spotting schools of the brightly coloured fish.
"We've seen quite a few small ones this year even, so that means they've already been reproducing," said Raena Parent with the Winter River-Tracadie Bay Watershed Association.
"Someone told me they've seen about 75, so I'm guessing we're at least at 100."
That's 100 too many, she said. Goldfish are known to be an invasive species that thrives in calm bodies of fresh water like Hardy's Pond. They can carry diseases, parasites, viruses or bacteria, and that's not good for the native species in the area.
"There's a list of reasons why we don't want goldfish around here to begin with," said Parent.
"They'll eat anything ... the vegetation on the ground in the pond, they'll eat other fish, fish eggs, insects, their larvae. The biggest issue, I have to say, would be they're bottom feeders."
Hardy's Pond has been dredged in the past, but Parent said there is still a decent amount of silt in it. When bottom-feeding fish rummage around, all that silt gets stirred up and particles end up floating around in the water.
"It's hard for the light to penetrate, which can then inhibit plant growth. And that then takes away from habitat, what other species need to eat and so on," she said. "So it's very problematic."
P.E.I.'s freshwater fisheries biologist, Rosie MacFarlane, suspects the fish population started off as cast-off pets from home aquariums or backyard ponds.
Maybe the pond overflows and sends the fish into a nearby sewer system or stream, or maybe an owner decides they can no longer care for the fish and thinks releasing them is best.
Unfortunately, MacFarlane said, that's the wrong choice.
"People need to think long and hard before they purchase one of these fish," she warned.
"We would encourage anyone with goldfish that they no longer want to try and rehome [them]... If you can't do that, you should humanely euthanize those fish because we really don't want them in our rivers and ponds."
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