My name is Steve Lynas and I am a member of the Metro East Anglers and have been one for approximately 6 to 7 years now.
For those that do not know us we are the host club at the Ringwood Fish Culture Station. We are always looking for volunteers and I would welcome anyone from this site that would like to help raise the entire alotment of Ontario's Chinook Salmon for Lake O.
A regular member of the club mentioned this thread and suggested to me that there maybe some misinformation/misconception or what have you on the subject of OFAH and Ringwood. I will first state that the following is my opinion and does not necessarily reflect those of any other club members. That disclaimer being said I have been involved quite actively since we started the partnership with the OFAH in 2006. I am not supporting or denouncing the OFAH's value as a conservation goup as a whole. It is fair to say they have many, many issues province wide and Lake Ontario Chinook Salmon Fishing is but one small one of many. However I can not help but feel that the recent way our club was dealt with during the closure discussions leaves this OFAH member feeling truly unrepresented.
Anyway let me set the record straight on a few post here.
moemoe states,
"OFAH did an Admirable Job running Ringwood the last 5 years"
Yes and No. It is true that the OFAH brokered the original 5 year lease with the MNR and for that Lake Ontario Salmon Fisherman should indeed be grateful. There is no doubt the place would have shut down with no real decent plan for the 540K annual Chinook stocking Program for Lake O if not for their intervention. However the volunteers, hosted by the Metro East Anglers, have been a very significant part of the Ringwood success story and trust me it has been an overwhelming success. Check stocking numbers for Chinook overthe last four years and this year is shaping up to be the best one yet. So successful was our team that we offered up an extra 100K Salmon to the Americans last year when they missed quota. They were stocked in the Niagara River, Canadian side of coarse.
Before the Metro East Anglers were even allowed to work at the hatchery we were forced to purchase their memberships and still do annually weather we like it or not. Some Bull about insurance. So in that sense it is fair to say that the OFAH has done an admirable job. Since they forced us to purchase a quantity of memberships prior to allowing us to work for them for free. They hired a full time Hatchery Coordinator who was first and foremost an executive member of the Metro East Anglers. It is his expertise and strong will to do the job right that we have all come to depend on out at Ringwood over these last 4 years.
Therefore aside from brokering the original leasing agreement and using some non-profit sponsorship money/membership dues, etc to finance the operation I think it is fair to say their physical involvement was minimal, IMHO.
moemoe makes references suchas,
"Improved Feed for Fingerlings...Improvement in Chinook Size"
No. In year two the MNR/OFAH decided to switch feed suppliers despite the fact that the Chinook program was using a West Coast feed supplier for years named, EWOS. Quite successfully I might add. The OFAH sited the cost difference as the reason and we started using Corey Aquafeed from the East Coast. We went along with it figuring whats the difference, right. We began to notice that the swim up fry taking food for the first time in their lives, did not do well on the Corey feed. Their growth seemed slow and they generally appeared not as strong/healthy as they had in the past. Later as the season continued bag after bag was full of hugh amounts of fish oils that would rack havoc with the belts on our belt driven feeders. The oil residue on the water was like something out of a bad Gulf BP well.
Anyway we lobbied the OFAH to return to the EWOS feed which they refused to do at first. It was only when we offered to pay the difference with donation money to our club that it was re-introduced to the schedule.
On a side note: The OFAH felt strongly that we didn't need to solicited donations to our club independently and they were not that pleased when we did. However they had no problem taking the 20% off the top for administration costs on each and every one of those donation we recieved independently.
As far as I know for the last two years the Metro East Anglers have been paying most or all the cost associated with this "improved feed". In our opinion this feed is so vitally important to the good health of these fish it should be mandated for used in any future MNR operation that raises Chinook Salmon for Lake Ontario. Good luck with that though.
canadadude says,
"Ringwood will survive without OFAH, it is members run hatchery and they run it without publicity"
I am not sure what is exactly meant by this statement, but I can tell you that Ringwood is slotted to close June 2011. END OF STORY. Unless the Metro East Anglers can negoitiate with the MNR some type of use for the facility it will stop producing Chinooks and any other species this fall. Presently it is a OFAH members run hatchery for the reason I mention above. It is being run by those forced members as well as any and all good people who just show up because they give a crap and want to be a proactive part of the solution. I must once again acknowledge the Hatchery Coordintor who I have the utmost respect for and although he is indeed compensated for by the OFAH; he could have just as easily spent his retirement years pursuing warm and sunny Casinos to throw his money at. It would have been alot healthy then spending cold winters in a damp, cold hatchery picking dead eggs and fish from tanks because not enough people who often claim they care didn't show up.
Chessy states,
"The Ringwood Hatchery raises all the Chinook Salmon that Ontario plants into Lake Ontario. Aswell as several thousand Rainbow annually. Additionally the facility will be supplying all of the Atlantic Salmon that are being re-introduced into the Lake"
Yes to all the Chinook Salmon Ontario Plants
Yes to several thousand Rainbow Trout as part of an original Community Fisheries Invovlment Plan (CFIP Program) the Metro EAst Anglers have had for years for the Rouge River stocking program.
But the Atlantic claims are false, unless the author knows something I do not about the future use of Ringwood after we are kicked out in the late summer of 2011. I can not speak to this unknown, but what I do know is we have never really raise any significant numbers of Atlantic at Ringwood and have not raised any for several years now.
In this post I tried to share some of my personal experiences out at Ringwood with the readers of this website. To perhaps clear up some misunderstandings and offer a members personal experience with the OFAH, for better or worse.
It has been my experience that Anglers and Hunters are by and far a very divisive lot. We are divided for many truly stupid reasons and this is what makes us weak. Each year I believe our numbers are getting smaller and as a result politician really don't have to take our wants seriously. There is just not enough votes in it. The OFAH is indeed the largest Non-Profit Conservation orieinted group representing Anglers and Hunters in Ontario. As such, in my opinion, they are like so many election I see these days. We are faced with an election and all the candidates appear wrong for the job, but hey you want to exercise your democratic right to vote, No. So you choose the best of a bad lot or say enny meany miney more. So you cast your vote or in this case buy a membership and while your reading their magazine in the shithouse you say to yourself, "Man their has to be a better way."
Come on out to Ringwood and be a part of the most successful Community Involvement program this Province has ever seen. Of coarse I am just speaking of shear stocking numbers which translates into fishing opportunities for all on Lake Ontario. Produced by people who couldn't sit on the crapper any longer saying there has to be a better way. Come on out and just show the Government that this type of community involvement programs is important to you. Maybe someone will see the Unity for a moment and start taking sportmen seriously.
Contact Info;
Steve Lynas
Metro EAst Angler Volunteer
[email protected]
