Port authority says bye, bye birdies
Cormorants' Farr Island to disappear
Apr 10, 2010
ERIC MCGUINNESS / thespec.com
Hundreds of double-crested cormorants will have to find a new nesting place when the Hamilton Port Authority turns an artificial island into an underwater shoal next fall.
Plans are to make the 30-by-35-metre Farr Island disappear by spreading out the crushed rock with which it was built until it disappears beneath the waves. More stone will then be added to expand the resulting shoal to create a spawning bed for lake herring, whitefish, smallmouth bass, walleye and other warm-water fish species.
The cost of the expansion will be covered by a $150,000 grant announced yesterday by the U.S.-based Sustain Our Great Lakes Program, financed by ArcelorMittal, parent of Hamilton steelmaker ArcelorMittal Dofasco.
John Hall, co-ordinator of the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan (RAP), applauded the multinational company for its grant, saying, "This money coming out of the U.S. recognizes on an international level that our harbour has a role to play in the fishery of all western Lake Ontario."
Jim Bowlby, a biologist working for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, says it's estimated the harbour once had 3.5 square kilometres of shoals. Those on the south shore were lost to filling while 19th-century stone-hooking vessels are thought to have hauled up shale along the Aldershot shore for building material.
A new fisheries management plan says harbour cleanup is bringing back a healthy sport fish population, but that will increase angling pressure.
It also says fish spawned in the harbour will contribute to the health of the fishery around the whole west end of the lake.
Farr Island was created as a platform for a long-gone hydro tower about 250 metres out from the mouth of Burlington's Indian Creek in the northeast corner of the harbour.
Shoreline residents won't miss the cormorants, whose smelly waste prompted a vigilante to trap and kill several with a grid of fine fishing line strung across the island in 2008.
Bowlby and other members of the fish and habitat steering committee of the RAP say they considered keeping a portion of the island for terns, another water bird, but determined that fish habitat was needed more. Besides, young fish will have a better chance of survival away from hungry predators.
Marilyn Baxter, environmental manager for the port authority, said only one tender was submitted for demolition of the island last fall, but expects more interest in the larger project this year.
Money from the Sustain Our Great Lakes Program is also going this year to the Credit River Anglers Association to build a fish ladder at the Norval Dam to allow passage of American eel, Atlantic salmon and other fish.
