Sightings of invasive goldfish in P.E.I. pond spark worries they're breeding there

Sheehan Desjardins · CBC News

· Posted: May 29, 2025 10:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

A cardinal P.E.I. watershed radical and the provincial Department of Forests, Fish and Wildlife are raising concerns astir sightings of much goldfish successful Hardy's Pond. 

In 2021, teams removed hundreds of goldfish from the 9.2-hectare pond successful the Union Road area, northbound of Charlottetown. Now they're erstwhile much getting calls from the nationalist flagging that the colonisation appears to beryllium rebounding, with some even spotting schools of the brightly coloured fish.

"We've seen rather a fewer tiny ones this twelvemonth even, truthful that means they've already been reproducing," said Raena Parent with the Winter River-Tracadie Bay Watershed Association. 

"Someone told maine they've seen astir 75, truthful I'm guessing we're astatine slightest astatine 100." 

That's 100 excessively many, she said. Goldfish are known to beryllium an invasive taxon that thrives successful calm bodies of caller h2o similar Hardy's Pond. They tin transportation diseases, parasites, viruses oregon bacteria, and that's not bully for the autochthonal taxon successful the area. 

"There's a database of reasons wherefore we don't privation goldfish astir present to statesman with," said Parent. 

"They'll devour thing ... the vegetation connected the crushed successful the pond, they'll devour different fish, food eggs, insects, their larvae. The biggest issue, I person to say, would beryllium they're bottommost feeders."

Hardy's Pond has been dredged successful the past, but Parent said determination is inactive a decent magnitude of silt successful it. When bottom-feeding food rummage around, all that silt gets stirred up and particles extremity up floating astir successful the water.

"It's hard for the airy to penetrate, which tin past inhibit works growth. And that past takes distant from habitat, what different taxon request to devour and truthful on," she said. "So it's precise problematic."

Backyard ponds and aquarium concerns

P.E.I.'s freshwater fisheries biologist, Rosie MacFarlane, suspects the food colonisation started disconnected arsenic cast-off pets from location aquariums oregon backyard ponds.

Maybe the pond overflows and sends the food into a adjacent sewer strategy oregon stream, oregon possibly an proprietor decides they tin nary longer attraction for the food and thinks releasing them is best.

Unfortunately, MacFarlane said, that's the incorrect choice. 

"People request to deliberation agelong and hard earlier they acquisition 1 of these fish," she warned.

"We would promote anyone with goldfish that they nary longer privation to effort and rehome [them]... If you can't bash that, you should humanely euthanize those food due to the fact that we truly don't privation them successful our rivers and ponds."

And erstwhile they get in, it's tricky to get them out. 

"These things are beauteous prolific and they tin turn rather large and they tin unrecorded a agelong time," said MacFarlane. "It is simply a superior issue — not conscionable successful P.E.I. These things are invasive everywhere."

Next steps for Hardy's Pond

The bully news: MacFarlane said the goldfish look to beryllium concentrated successful the pond and not spreading done the Winter River, which has immoderate of the champion trout sportfishing connected the Island. 

Last week alone, her unit recovered astir a twelve specimens. The bulk were just beneath the Hardy's Pond dam and 1 was located further downstream. 

"I inactive deliberation there's a batch successful the pond itself, but we are going to look astatine ways that we tin bash amended appraisal connected that and possibly fig retired immoderate absorption measures down the road," said MacFarlane. 

As for Parent, she said the watershed is keeping a adjacent oculus connected the situation too, and has been tackling the surrounding streams portion the adjacent steps for the pond itself are sorted out. 

"These food tin unrecorded for decades... You person to marque definite that you're prepared to grip the number, however ample they get, and conscionable however overmuch they request to eat," she said.

"Because arsenic we tin spot here, they commencement to populate and turn and instrumentality implicit an area."