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"Working on a fish farm is a lifestyle. It's a quiet life, but it's a busy life…" Nearly 900 tonnes of trout is produced in Quebec every year.
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Trout farm owner Nancy Émard sells about a hundred thousand fish every year, mostly to sports fishing outfitters who charge the public to fish in their lakes. Running a successful trout farm is no small accomplishment. Nancy chops the wood to heat the building where her stock is raised, feeds the fish in the ponds year round and monitors their health, then harvests and delivers the final product and deals with all related business matters as well.
Nancy runs the farm by herself. In winter, she usually works 10 hours a day, but in summer, her days can be as long as 18 hours. Any time of the day or night, she has to be ready to respond to anything that goes wrong. There can be very little time between fixing a problem and losing an entire pond of fish. Did you know? Canada exports over $400 million worth of aquaculture products annually. Fish don't talk, but Nancy understands what they need or want just by looking at them. She gets a real sense of accomplishment raising trout and customer satisfaction is her biggest reward. back
to aquaculture |
SYNOPSIS: The life cycle of Nancy's trout begins in the hatchery where eggs are fertilized. After they hatch and mature into small fish, they are transferred to pens for grow out. Nancy's farm can accommodate the entire process as it is both a hatchery and a grow out site. Countless hours are spent feeding, monitoring and caring for the fish from the early stages of egg fertilization to maturity when they are large enough for harvest. PERSONAL DATA: Education: 3 year college program in aquaculture. Hobbies: Playing hockey, reading. |
