Burbot Released for the First Time

Hatchery reared burbot released for the first time in British Columbia, Canada and Idaho, USA.

Burbot (Lota lota maculosa) are freshwater cod native to the Kootenai River in Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. Burbot are culturally significant to the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho (KTOI) and Idaho’s Kootenai River burbot population once supported tribal sustenance harvests and popular sport and commercial fisheries. Drastic population declines have occurred over the last half-century, primarily due to habitat alteration and loss, now this population is considered functionally extinct within Idaho borders. According to Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG), most recent abundance estimates for Kootenai River burbot were approximately 50 fish.

To re-establish a burbot population in the Kootenai River, the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative (KVRI) convened a burbot sub-committee to help develop a coordinated burbot conservation strategy. Development of burbot culture is one component of a larger multifaceted, international conservation approach that includes habitat restoration. Beginning in 2003, the KTOI, the University of Idaho’s Aquaculture Research Institute (UI-ARI) and the British Columbia Ministry of Environment (BCMoE) initiated a research program to assess the feasibility of conservation aquaculture as an interim burbot restoration measure.

Spawning and semen cryopreservation methods were developed first, followed by incubation methods and larval and juvenile rearing strategies involving intensive, semi-intensive, and extensive culture methods. Additional research to characterize burbot disease susceptibility and to establish burbot cell lines for diagnostic purposes was recently completed. With these fundamental methods in place, aided by the knowledge gained through recent disease susceptibility studies conducted at the UI-ARI, the experimental program enabled the first experimental release of cultured burbot in British Columbia and Idaho.
During October and November of 2009, 247 burbot cultured at the UI-ARI were released into the Kootenai River system in four different locations in BC and Idaho. The experimental release component of this project provides the foundation for studying post-release survival, growth, and condition of hatchery produced burbot. Thirty of the 247 released fish were two years old and implanted with ultrasonic transmitters. These fish are expected to provide valuable information concerning habitat use, movement and migration patterns, spawning habitat selection, and reproductive behavior.

These releases represent a historical milestone for the program, the species, and the Subbasin, as this is the first time burbot have been artificially propagated and subsequently released jointly into U.S. and Canadian waters for conservation purposes. The success of this experimental project paves the way for ongoing burbot conservation aquaculture research, and facilitates needed post-release in-river burbot studies. Ongoing burbot aquaculture research is focused on optimizing techniques for intensive rearing, semi-intensive and extensive culture methods, and determining temperature related growth performance.
As part of this collaborative international project, numerous reports and peer reviewed papers have been published on various aspects of burbot aquaculture, pathology, and management since 2005. This body of literature has contributed substantially to this developing field and would not have been possible without the support and cooperation of the Bonneville Power Administration, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, KVRI, the KTOI fisheries program, the BCMoE, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the IDFG, Cramer Fish Sciences, and the UI-ARI. University of Idaho researchers continue to communicate with European burbot researchers and culturists, further contributing to the success of the Idaho program, and to burbot conservation and restoration in Europe and North America.