Earlier this week, roughly 134,000 speckled trout were released into Mississippi waters by the University of Southern Mississippi’s Marine Aquaculture Center. The stocking was an effort to restore a fishery threatened by the extremely high freshwater influx from the Bonnet Carre Spillway.
The record-breaking volume and duration of the Spillway opening greatly reduced salinity in the Mississippi Sound, in many places to single digits. Spotted seatrout require spawning salinities of 14-35 parts per thousand (35ppt being ocean salinity). If too low, the eggs are not bouyant and spawning cycles are lost.
Biologists with the USM-MAC are hoping that speckled trout displaced by the freshwater will return and spawn this month. But just in case, the stocking will buffer any losses in the year class.
The Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center is located at the Cedar Point research site in Ocean Springs. It houses the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Lab and marine aquaculture program. The 100,000 square-foot center includes state-of-the-art facilities for culturing juvenile marine fish species for stocking. The species list includes spotted seatrout, red snapper, striped bass and cobia.
The FFI Gulf Coast Council has been a conservation partner with the Gulf Coast Research Lab in it’s efforts to restore striped bass.
