{"id":357042,"date":"2025-12-20T05:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T05:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/357042\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T05:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T05:39:09","slug":"invasive-sport-fish-being-released-into-cultus-lake-b-c-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/357042\/","title":{"rendered":"Invasive sport fish being released into Cultus Lake, B.C.: officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

The B.C. Conservation Officer Service is seeking public help as it investigates illegal releases of smallmouth bass, a prized sport fish, into Cultus Lake in Chilliwack, B.C.<\/p>\n

The service says its investigations suggest “multiple instances” of the invasive predatory species being released into the lake since 2017.<\/p>\n

It says smallmouth bass aren’t native to the popular lake in the Fraser Valley, and pose a serious threat to species such as the endangered Cultus Lake sockeye salmon and the threatened pygmy sculpin.<\/p>\n

Officials say smallmouth bass prey on juvenile salmon and other native species.<\/p>\n

Sgt. Todd Hunter, with the service’s aquatic invasive species unit, says transporting and releasing invasive fish is illegal and anyone with information about the releases should call the poaching and polluting hotline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Fisheries Department says smallmouth bass are only native in Canada to Lake Superior and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system, but have been widely introduced elsewhere for recreational fishing, including southern B.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smallmouth bass fishing tournaments in the United States can have hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money, while the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship in Ontario had more than $70,000 in prizes this year. <\/p>\n

\"AA smallmouth bass is seen in a net. (Gord Ellis\/CBC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-357042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}