PING!
Posted on 04/28/2006 4:23:38 PM PDT by GMMAC
Long-gone salmon species to populate Lake Ontario once more
Province set to release about 400,000 Atlantic salmon into three watersheds
Globe and Mail
April 28, 2006
JAMES RUSK
Lake Ontario will receive a massive restocking of Atlantic salmon in an attempt to return a species of fish to the lake that died out more than a century ago, it was announced yesterday.
Over the past 20 years, the province has added a number of the fish to the lake as part of a restoration plan, and over the next year about 400,000 Atlantic salmon will be released into three Lake Ontario watersheds, David Orazietta, the parliamentary assistant to Minister of Natural Resources David Ramsay, told a news conference.
"Atlantic salmon were an important part of the lake's original fish community and a valued resource for first nations people and early settlers in the area.
"Habitat loss doomed the Atlantic salmon, and they disappeared from the lake in the late 1800s," Mr. Orazietta said.
Early efforts to restore the species failed, largely because the streams necessary for spawning and rearing young fish, which stay in the rivers for two to three years before moving into the lake, were severely degraded, according to information on the project.
But ministry research has found that the watersheds have improved enough to support the species, and three watersheds -- the Credit River, Duffins Creek and Cobourg Creek -- were selected for the release.
The salmon are a strain selected from the LaHave River in Nova Scotia and the ministry, which will release millions of young salmon during the next five years, is testing two other strains for evaluation in Lake Ontario.
The fish are predators and the ministry expects that they will live on alewives and rainbow smelt. If the release is successful, they will join rainbow and brown trout and coho and chinook salmon as important sport-fish species in the lake.
Although the intention is that the salmon could be consumed when sufficiently mature, the quantity would be subject to rules that take into consideration the level of pollution in the water.
The initial financing for the project, which includes rehabilitation of the streams selected for the release, will come from a $1.25-million grant from Australian winemaker Banrock Station and $250,000 from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.
Much of the work will be done by volunteers from the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters.
Bob Izumi, one of Ontario's best-known fishermen, said that he welcomes the return of Atlantic salmon to the lake.
"It's a phenomenal sport fish, a real fighter," Mr. Izumi said in an interview from Orlando.
"From what I hear, they are spectacular jumpers, very hard fighters. I'd love to catch one. There is a very small population in Lake Ontario, and I have talked to people who have caught them. But I haven't caught one myself."
Mr. Izumi added that the Fishing Forever Foundation, of which he is chairman, will make a six-figure donation to the project over the next few years.
He said that salmon are a marker for improved conditions in the streams and the lake, pointing out that Britons rejoiced recently when the first salmon in a century swam up the Thames River.
Mark Mattson, president of the environmental group Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, said he welcomes the private-sector donations to restore the fish, but he said the public should be cautious about the project.
"It's a nice thing to do, but it doesn't mean addressing the real problems or the enormity of the problem on Lake Ontario that we are currently facing, and in some ways, it gets us around them," Mr. Mattson said.
"It makes people think we are doing something positive and worthwhile and the government is involved in restoring the lake, but restoration is a big word. This isn't restoration to us. . . .
"Restoration is going and tackling and dealing with the big issues of the rivers that we've lost, the ones that are unhealthy and unable to host these fish."
Angling for a comeback
Salmon and trout fisheries, supported by stocked and wild fish, account for more than three-quarters of fishing on Lake Ontario. Chinook salmon and rainbow trout are the most commonly caught sport fish on Lake Ontario. In order to help Atlantic salmon make a comeback, stocking of three watersheds will take place as indicated below.
Credit River
May 8, 9, 18 stocking:
125,000 fry
Fall stocking:
50,000 fingerlings
Next spring stocking:
50,000 yearlings
Duffins Creek
May 10, 11 stocking:
60,000 fry
Fall stocking:
25,000 fingerlings
Next spring stocking:
12,500 yearlings
Cobourg Creek
May 16, 17 stocking:
60,000 fry
Fall stocking:
25,000 fingerlings
Next spring stocking:
12,500 yearlings
SOURCE: WWW.BRINGBACKTHE SALMON.CA
PING!
When I was living up north here in Michigan they were fishing for salmon with gummy lifesavers candy.
Every step forward helps. Environmentalists don't help when they respond negatively to the good will of others. Keep responding in the negative and people will stop trying.
>>>>>"Environmentalists don't help..."<<<<
Slow alder smoked Salmon is about as close to drowning in your own saliva as you can get. Ohhhhhhhhhh that is sooooo goood!
My brother-inlaw mailed me some just last month, makes me want to move to Alaska.
TT
Atlantic Salmon is inferior to Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, Pink, and even Chum Salmon. It is soft and mushy.
Yeah, I've noticed the same thing. It's just a juvenile attempt to seem cool by being extreme.
Add me to the roster of conservative conservationists. I live in the sticks because I love nature.
I agree! It is hard to beat a coho for taste and firmness of the meat. We catch them along with the Chinook in the fall in northern Michigan.
It is possible that all of the Atlantic salmon I have eaten were farm raised {no muscle}.
BTTT
The environment is of concern to all and the problems will not be solved without the support of the corporate sector. In fact many within this sector are already working to improve the environment. However, whatever they do will never be enough to satisfy the radical environmentalists who want nothing less than to hijack the environmental movement to stage the marxist revolution. It is imperative, therefore, that conservatives address environmental issues with wise and sensible policies.
Atlantic Salmon don't die after going upstream to spawn like Pacific Salmon do they?
If this fish is saved it will be because of the sportsmen.
If the restocking works, add Lake Ontario to the Hudson River, which is now swimmable, as a restored habitat.
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