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An unwelcome visitor has made its first appearance of the season at Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site in southern Nova Scotia.
"It's a feisty one," Scott Lugar, a resource conservation technician, said recently as he pulled an invasive chain pickerel from a net trap installed in hip-deep water along a shoreline.
From a single chain pickerel captured less than a year ago, the voracious predator has now spread throughout the entire park.
"It's kind of like a bad dream and it just keeps getting worse," said Chris McCarthy, a Parks Canada resources manager.
Once established in a water system, chain pickerel quickly take over. They eat everything they can — other fish, reptiles, frogs, dragonflies, even ducklings. |
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That is bad news for brook trout — the king of fish in Kejimkujik — and species at risk in the park, like the Blanding's turtle, which is endangered, and the eastern ribbon snake, which is listed as threatened. Both venture into shoreline water.
Exactly how or where the chain pickerel got in is not known. It may have been through a river or stream on the southern side of the park.
Parks Canada had been focused on another invasive species in the area, smallmouth bass, which is established in a lake just outside the Keji boundary.
Managers had developed plans to prevent the chain pickerel from entering Kejimkujik, but were too late. Once inside, the spread of chain pickerel has been surprisingly swift. |
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