FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SHORES & ISLANDS OHIO ADDS NEW UNDERWATER WEBCAM
CASTALIA, OHIO, July 10, 2024 --- Shores & Islands Ohio, the destination marketing organization for Erie and Ottawa counties, is excited to announce the launch of its ninth webcam, featuring amazing underwater views. The idea came from the National Fishing Expo in Columbus this past winter, when someone who enjoyed the region’s webcams for scoping out the weather before embarking on a fishing trip, suggested it would be neat to be able to see under the lake as well. Logistically speaking, an underwater web camera in Lake Erie proved not feasible, as ever-changing lake water can be unclear. But the idea of an underwater fish-cam, was still something the organization thought was worth pursuing and partnered with the Ohio Division of Natural Resources Department of Wildlife to devise an opportunity.
The all-new underwater fish cam is live now, located at the Castalia State Fish Hatchery. It debuted as part of Governor’s Fish Ohio Day on June 25, 2023. Online viewers can no watch hundreds of Rainbow and Steelhead Trout as they are raised in the hatchery’s raceways to be stocked throughout the state, including Lake Erie and its tributaries, for world-class fishing opportunities. The camera is especially entertaining at feeding time!
This underwater camera was made possible by cooperation with the Castalia State Fish Hatchery in Castalia, Ohio. The Castalia State Fish Hatchery was originally built in 1937 by a private trout club and purchased by the ODNR division of Wildlife in 1997. The hatchery was most recently renovated in 2012 to enclose the raceway and build a new production building. Using the Blue Hole aquifer spring located on the property as the primary water source, and a diversion of Cold Creek as a secondary water source, the hatchery produced 58,932 "catchable" Rainbow Trout and 466,132 Steelhead Trout in 2023. The hatchery features 70 indoor raceways, 3 outdoor raceways, and 2 production buildings manned by 4 full-time and 2 seasonal personnel.
The hatchery offers self-guided tours of their facility Monday-Friday from 8 am-3 pm with guided tours available by appointment for larger groups. The facility also offers fishing on Cold Creek via a fishing lottery system, which opens each March online, and during Fly Fishing classes held during late summer/early fall. The Division of Wildlife operates six fish hatcheries in Ohio that produce more than 40 million fish each year.
The webcam page viewable at SHORESandISLANDS.com, is the most popular page on the site, visited over 674,000 times in 2023. Other locations where Shores & Islands Ohio operate webcams include the Marblehead Lighthouse, downtown Sandusky, Catawba Island, the Huron Pier, Lakeside Chautauqua, Put-in-Bay Harbor, Port Clinton City Beach, and Vermilion’s Main Street Beach. Shores & Islands Ohio pays for the webcams and the monthly maintenance fee with streaming partner Pixelcaster. The host locations provide WIFI service and spectacular views. The cameras are set so that online visitors can see views of Lake Erie (and now local fish) from a variety of coastal communities across the destination. When a visitor clicks on a particular webcam for a live view, it directs them to an informational page about the community which hosts the camera and opens up the camera view to a larger screen.
Many thanks to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife and the Castalia State Fish Hatchery for helping make this new camera possible. Check out the new underwater webcam, along with eight other great cameras, at SHORESandISLANDS.com/plan-your-visit/webcams.
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