 Aurora Trout Photos Courtesy of Robert McFarlane. |
 Aurora Trout |
 Aurora Trout Photos Courtesy of Robert McFarlane. |
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Content for this site written by Tyler Dunn.
The Aurora's Recovery Strategy 1925 Story of the discovery of the Aurora Trout Original Carnegie Museum Report of the Discovery 1941 Fishing Trip for The Aurora
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THE AURORA TROUT Salvelinus fontinalis timagamiensis also known as the Aurora Trout was originally found in North-eastern Ontario, only in two lakes named Whitepine and Whirligig. These two lakes can be found in the watershed within Lady Evelyn Smoothwater Provincial Park, north of Sudbury, Ontario. The first Aurora specimen ever to be analyzed by humans was brought to the Carnegie Museum located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by a man that was part of a group of American fisherman that returned from a fishing trip in Canada during 1923. William H. Rinkenbach was the man’s name from the group of fisherman that brought the specimen into the museum. A year later even after other fish had been reported, scientists finally came to the conclusion that these anglers had discovered a new species. Mr. Rindenbach dubbed the species “Aurora” after the glistening Canadian Northern Lights often spotted in Ontario’s sky at night.
During the 1960’s acid rain and pollution virtually killed all
Aurora trout reproduction in the two lakes. In 1983 angling was
finally closed on Aurora’s for the entire season throughout
Ontario and in 1987 the Aurora Trout was classed as an
endangered species by the Committee on the Status of Wildlife in
Canada. Before the fish were killed by acid rain and pollution
in the 1960’s, nine adult fish were caught and transported to a
provincial fish hatchery at Hill’s Lakes near Charlton, Ontario.
Paul Graf the hatchery’s manager is responsible for breeding the
Presently the Aurora Trout can now be found in a total of twelve lakes including Whirligig and Whitepine. The Aurora trout is currently still on the endangered species list by the Committee on the Status of Wildlife in Canada and is also protected under the federal Fisheries Act.
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Aurora’s in captivity. Although, Paul Graf is responsible for
today’s population of Aurora’s, he was not the first to bring
eggs into the Hill Hatchery. In the early fall of 1955, A. Elsey
a former district biologist at Swastika collected 10 000 eggs
from the connecting streams of Whitepine and Whirligig Lake.
These eggs were transported to the Hill hatchery unsuccessfully
and Elsey quickly learned the effects of extensive human
handling. Later in the fall he returned to the lake taking eggs
from fish caught from different areas rather than in the stream.
He then airlifted them by helicopter successfully to the
hatchery for further incubation.