River restocked with fish following accident at mill

PEARL RIVER — Staff from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) has released approximately 3,000 “harvestable-size” channel catfish into the Pearl River.

These larger fish will provide an immediate fishing resource to a depleted population, are less susceptible to predation than fingerlings, and will be spawning this spring and summer to help restock the river.

The fish are part of a stocking program to help re-populate the Pearl River after a discharge from the Temple-Inland paper mill in Bogalusa, La., resulted in a massive fish kill last August.

As part of MDEQ’s settlement agreement with Temple-Inland, the agency will reimburse MDWFP for several releases of fish from their Meridian Fish Hatchery into the Lower Pearl River.