Hello Team Newport,
I received information from Victor Munoz at Hubbs hatchery regarding the recent weight and measurements that were taken last week. It appears that the fish in pen 1 are slightly “less plump” than they were a month ago. He suggests that we increase the amount of hand feeding. So if they are hungry, please hand feed them a minimum of 0.5 liter until it seems like they have had enough. It’s not as critical in pen 2 but let’s do that in both pens please. We just don’t want the food to accumulate on the bottom of the pens. I will also add a feeding time to the auto feeders. My apologies if I have already asked not to feed too much by hand. We now need to up it to fatten the little guys up.
Victor advises that we are looking at an early release, as soon as the first week in March. Philip (BAC) is looking to obtain a Commercial or Sport Fishing vessel to assist us in the release. Hubbs is asking us to try a “paired release” whereby one pen is released in the harbor by lifting the end grate and the other pen is taken by boat outside the harbor for release. Volunteers will net all the fish in one of the pens and transfer them into the fish tank on the boat. Then the boat, volunteers and fish will head out of the harbor to release the fish.
Everyone is welcome and will be needed for the “paired release”. It will be a weekday. Please check your calendars for the week of March 2nd-6th for your availability and let me know.
More to come!
Thank you all
Kim