Aurora Trout Photos Courtesy of Robert McFarlane.
Aurora Trout

Aurora Trout

 
Aurora Trout Photos Courtesy of Robert McFarlane.

Content for this site written by Tyler Dunn.

Ontario Fishing Lodges

Ontario Fishing News

Tackle Talk

How to ID Aurora Trout

How to Locate Aurora Trout

How to Help Aurora Trout

Fishing for Aurora Trout

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

Champs Natural History Card

Other Aurora Links

Aurora Trout Photo Gallery

Links

Old and Antique Fishing Lures

SG

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 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.

In the late 1980’s the two original lakes were treated with lime to help maintain a pH level of 5 because the aurora trout were going to be re-introduced in the lakes. Natural reproduction has been documented in the lakes since the treatment took place but has since begun to decline, again because of acid rain.

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.