I used to work at a garden centre that sold plants and fish for the garden. Every year cottagers would come in and buy new fish. I asked them what happened to the fish bought last year. They released them at the end of cottage season. Now there are all sorts of koi and ornamental carp swimming around Point Abino, the Welland canal, Port colborne. The garden centre, for its part, would not post or display information on releasing exotics or invasive species into the wild. It might affect sales.
All across the province people get tired of their aquatic pets, but don't have the heart to kill them. So they release them into the wild instead. Add to that the numerous accidental releases that occcur every year from flooding. Yet the government sees no need to set tighter controls on the exotic pet trade.