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Okay, whenever you're ready. Yeah, sorry, I'm gonna wreck your stuff.

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Well, I'm looking through this little tiny square, right?

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So often we'll get schools of them kind of at the pond apron here. So I was hoping that would

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be the case so you could get some footage, but because it's sunny out they might be

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further out towards the edges. So these are walleye ponds. This is kind of a

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traditional way of raising walleye for stalking purposes, certainly in Wisconsin and the rest

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of midwest. So the vast majority of walleye rays in aquaculture are done in ponds just like this.

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Um, raising walleye in ponds like this is kind of challenging because you're subject to the

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weather conditions and a lot of predators outdoors that you can't really control for.

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So we kind of stalk our fish in there shortly after hatch and more or less hope for the best

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well-following best practices. Um, we fertilize our ponds so that we get a good algae growth

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and zoopointan hatch for this fish to consume and then eventually we'll be trucking in minnows

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to feed them as they get to the size where they can start consuming larger fish.

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And then by October they should be roughly nine inches and ready to stock out into the lakes.

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So when did they start feeding on other fish? Um, very shortly. So they as soon as they can fit

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another fish in their mouth ultimately is when they'll start feeding on other fish.

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We order different sizes of minnows so we start with what's called the toughy size fat head minnow.

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Um, and then they'll be on that for a couple of weeks and then they can get full-sized fat head

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minnows and we're ultimately feeding them fat head minnows all the way up until um,

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October when they're ready to be stocked out. So, yeah. Well, how many...

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We started with 50,000 fish in these ponds. So these are the fish. We were up here, we saw some

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of the fish, saw some eggs come out. Yep. So those hatch and then they were split.

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Yeah. So these, the same fish that are inside, um, are the brothers and sisters of the fish out

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here. So they all hatch from the same group and we just split them out into these different ponds

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and into the systems inside. So we'll have what are ultimately the same fish that we're stocking

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both from outdoor ponds and our indoor systems and we'll see which ones ultimately do the best

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once they're stocked out into the lake and when which ones we get the better return strong.

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So this is definitely more expensive. At the moment, yes, because minnow costs have gotten

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really expensive, this way of raising them is now quite a bit more expensive than raising them

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indoors. But that can change as minnow costs change. The other thing is you don't know the

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survival that you're going to get out of these fish outdoors because they're exposed to predation

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and weather conditions. So we have a bit more control over that inside and we can ensure that

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we're going to have a better survival which makes that a little bit of a cheaper option.

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Would these fish be tougher though? That's what we're going to hopefully figure out.

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They might be better at catching prey. They might be better suited to lake conditions because they've

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been raised in a pond. It's hard to say. So the sampling that we do in the next couple of years

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will really tell us the story on if our indoor fish perform just as well as these pond fish.

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And we'll hopefully see it this fall, but how do you tell the difference?

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Yeah, so we're going to be clipping different fins for indoor fish and our outdoor fish.

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That way when we do our surveys and we pull those fish out, we can tell if it came from indoors,

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from outdoors, or if it's a wild fish that hasn't been clipped. So we'll look at the relative returns

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of those different fin clips in our population when we're sampling. And that'll be through

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bike nets, lecture shocking. Yeah, there's going to be a variety of sampling.

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Electroshocking, we have Creole surveys where anglers will tell us which fins they catch if

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they're aware of it, and also our population assessments that Glyphlic's going to run next year.

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Do you ever have any idea? You said you sometimes you can see them, but yeah, sometimes you'll be

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able to see them, but you really don't have any idea what your survival is at any given time.

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What we do do, though, is we monitor water quality really closely. We're looking at

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dissolved oxygen constantly. We're looking at the phytoplankton population. We're looking at the

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relative phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations, and we're trying to keep them in the most optimal

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parameters for these fish to do well. And if we do all that right and we get lucky with the weather

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and get lucky with pressures, then we'll get a good amount of fish out of here. If any of those

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things go wrong, it can change that equation quite a bit, and we might not get very many fish out,

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and that happens sometimes. So it's just a bit more of a gamble with these outdoor systems.

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Keeps it fun, of course, but it's a bit more challenging for sure. What are the most common

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predators out here? Yeah, there's... You have a fence, you have some... Yep, so you'll notice we

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have our fence, and we have that flashing that goes all the way around, and that hopefully

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prevents any frogs and turtles and anything else from getting in. In practice, stuff still

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gets in, certainly. So those can be predators. Birds are far and away the biggest predators that

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we have to worry about. We'll get morgansers flying in here. We get kingfisher every now and then.

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There'll be herons that like to hang out in the shallows and probably do a big number on the

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population in these ponds. So part of it is trying to be out here enough to try to scare those birds

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away as well, but you can't be here all the time, so they're gonna find a way. So we'll actually

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occasionally get otter, raccoons, all kinds of all kinds of fun stuff that can come in here and

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take out your fish. So we have four ponds here, and we're currently running three of them.

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We started with 50,000 fly right after hatch in each of these ponds. So it's really interesting,

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though, even though these are 150,000 in total, and roughly 80,000 inside. So a little bit of a

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different number, but it'll be interesting even though these ponds are right next to each other,

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and we're doing more or less the same thing to each of these. Without fail, we'll get quite a

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bit of different survival among these ponds. So that's why it's good to have replication

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when we're doing studies, right? So, but yeah, 150 fish in total in these ponds, at least up to

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start. Roughly 80,000 total indoors, and hopefully we'll get the numbers that the Lake Association

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and Redcliffe are looking for for stocking, and enough numbers to get those returns for our study.

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So Redcliffe has ponds as well, right? Yep, Redcliffe has three ponds. They look a little bit

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different because they're lined with a HDPE liner, and that's one of the studies that we're,

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I'm hoping to get funding to look at, is in the state of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin TNR is noticed

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that a lot of the walleye raised in ponds will have really skewed sex ratios towards female

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female sex ratios in those ponds. We're not really sure why it could be due to temperature

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differences. Those lined ponds are darker, so the water temperatures may be warmer at critical

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periods, but it also could be due to something leaching from those HDPE pond liners that could

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have endocrine disrupting potential. So I've put in a grant to look at that, take water samples,

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and look at if there's any endocrine disruptors that are at biologically relevant concentrations

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that could be causing those skewed sex ratios. Essentially, killing the males, not changing

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the males as the e-mails. No, certainly not killing the males, but leaching compounds that mimic

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estrogen and combines to the estrogen receptor, and can therefore cause maturation and development

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to go a little bit differently for the males. Increase the telogenin expression, which is a

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egg yolk protein that males aren't supposed to express, and you'll see males, otherwise male

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fish, producing ovaries and having testes that have ovarian cysts inside of them and stuff.

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So it's really interesting when that happens. So we'll be able to look at these fish and kind

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of see if that is happening with those plastic lined ponds. Because interestingly, we don't

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see the same skewed sex ratios in our clay lined ponds. We don't have that plastic liner.

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So are they technically from that predictor, or how do we describe that with that?

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Yeah, so fish are really interesting in sex determination and maturation. So we're still

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figuring out a lot about the processes involved in sex determination for walleye. It's looking

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like they're not XY sex determining, but a lot more research has to be done to figure out the

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exact mechanism for sex determination. There's a lot of organisms that have temperature-dependent

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maturation and sex determination, and it's possible that walleye fall into that category.

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So that's why we're also looking at the temperature aspect with those lined ponds that

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might be a little bit warmer. That could be the mechanism and not endocrine disruptors for those

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skewed sex ratios. So can you sex the fish when you're stocking them when they're that size?

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It's difficult. It's probably about as early as you can sex those fish, but we'll take some samples

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and look at the histology and be able to tell if they have testes or ovaries at that point.

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You wouldn't be able to take one and visually look at it.

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Like when you guys are in the spring when you're harvesting eggs, you have to express

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that they're trying to figure out male and female. And when they're nine inches, it's almost impossible.

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There is a sexual dimorphism where males will be quite a bit smaller than females on average,

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but that's not a reliable enough metric that you can take a cohort and just measure them and say

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this smaller population is likely all male. So yeah. So yeah, but otherwise, how does it look?

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So our ponds we had a really overcast week last week, and that can be a challenge because even if

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we have optimal nitrogen and phosphorus ratios in the ponds, if we don't have sun,

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we're not getting that algal bloom that we want, and we don't have as good of a zooplankton bloom.

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So these are much clearer than we would like. We want them to be more turbid. The walleye like

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that and the things that the walleye eat like that. So they're clearer than we would like. You

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don't want to be able to see the bottom generally. So yeah, but we have a nice sunny day. So hopefully

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that'll kick things off. And we'll see some some algal blooms and really good zooplankton hatch.

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So all this stuff over here, that's good. Yeah, yeah, ultimately. Granted, we want the smaller algae,

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like the small little green algae. So not the large kind of filamentous algae on the top. So

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yeah, I think we're just going to get some b-roll out here. Yeah, and we'll join you back.

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There's the thing that we're looking at.

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Is that dark schedule at all?

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As long as we start to hang tight. Yeah.

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Like do got out there.

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Okay.

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I just dropped one down the grave, why isn't it going to be done tomorrow?

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It's going to be done.

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It's going to be done.