Fish Eggs Are Nurtured in the Tunison UV Facility

Fish eggs are reared at the Tunison Lab's new UV water treatment facility. 

Cisco fish eggs are reared at the Tunison Lab's new UV water treatment facility. Testing on the eggs will help scientists determine how to best sterilize them and what water conditions will sustain them in the wild. At this stage, the ciscos' eyes can be clearly viewed without a microscope.

A new, sophisticated fish rearing facility in Cortland, N.Y. will help restore Atlantic salmon, bloater, and lake herring to Lake Ontario, strengthening the local ecosystem and economy.

To restore the population, young Atlantic salmon are reared at the USGS Tunison Laboratory of Aquaitic Science and released in Lake Ontario tributaries. The new USGS water treatment facility will use ultraviolet disinfection to prevent any possible spread of disease, permitting wild fish and eggs to be held and disease-free fish to be reared for restoration release. 

Historically, the Lake Ontario population of Atlantic salmon represented the largest freshwater population of salmon in the world. However, they were eliminated over a century as a result of overfishing and loss of spawning habitat from dam construction.