Spiel

Managing a Great Lake is no small task November 26, 2009 Craig Gilbert / www.midnorthmonitor.com Managing the many faces of the great Lake Huron is a "very challenging undertaking," but someone has to do it. Greg Mayne is a scientist with Environment Canada. On October 27, he opened the Friends of the Spanish River Area of Concern update symposium with a presentation on the bigger picture: The North Channel, Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. According to Mayne, Huron features four distinct geological attributes: the forests of the North shore, the plains to the south, Georgian Bay and the North Channel. He displayed photos illustrating the physical beauty of each area. Lake Huron is the third-largest freshwater lake in the world, containing about 3,540 cubic kilometres of water. Can you imagine an ice cube a kilometre across, tall and wide? Can you imagine 3,000 of them in once place? At 36,000 kilometres, its irregular coastline is the longest on the globe for a freshwater body. The lake's watershed is approximately 134,000 square kilometres in area. "(But) the population around the lake is minimal compared to Lakes Ontario or Erie, so it is in relatively good condition," Mayne said. In 2002, a bi-national agreement to take care of the lake was endorsed by the governments of Canada and the United States. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency's website, "the Lake Huron Binational Partnership effort focuses on pollution reduction activities in areas of obvious importance, such as Areas of Concern (AOCs), and directly pursues on-the-ground activities to protect areas of high-quality habitat within the Lake Huron basin. Existing stakeholder and agency forums are used as much as possible to support the goals of the Partnership. The Partnership maintains a close association with the Remedial Action Plan efforts in AOCs, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission's Lake Huron Technical Committees, the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC), and domestic efforts that support the Partnership." The 2008-2010 action plan provides updated information on environmental trends, identifies priority issues, and promotes management activities to be pursued over the next two-year cycle. Consistent with an adaptive management approach, the action plan tracks progress on issues identified in the previous cycle, including contaminants in fish, changes in food web structure and protection of critical habitat. It has been expanded to address emerging issues, such as observed increases in near-shore algae and diseases such as botulism and viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS). According to Mayne, contamination levels in lake trout in Lake Huron have been steadily decreasing, but are still triggering fish consumption advisories. He said about six per cent of the problem is mercury and the rest is generally PCBs (94 per cent). Biodiversity changes are also a "pressing issue" for scientists studying Huron. Traditional predators such as walleye, trout and burbot are being replaced at the top of the food chain by introduced species such as Chinook salmon and the sea lamprey. There have also been "very significant changes at the bottom of the food web," according to Mayne. There has been habitat loss as wetlands are drained and in-filled, and the hydrology of rivers feeding into Lake Huron is changing; spawning areas are being clogged with zebra mussels, and human development has increased 85 per cent since the 1980s. "There are six areas of concern in Lake Huron," Mayne said. "There have been significant declines in the forage base for many species, such as the smelt and the round goby." The diporeia (a type of zooplankton) density for example, has dropped 93 per cent in the past seven years. "This is an astounding finding with significant repercussions," he said. "The quagga (similar to the zebra) mussel density has gone up from zero in 2000 to 'lots' in 2007, (so there is an inverse relationship between the two). The number of fish-eating birds has been increasing since the 1970s. The levels of PCBs in gull eggs sampled in three locations have been on a steady decline, but the concentrations of other chemicals are on the rise." That said, the quality of the wetlands throughout the North Channel, according to Mayne, surpass that of many others in the Great Lakes basin. A new framework focused on Georgian Bay is designed to engage towns and cities around the water body in its conservation. Incorporating conservation into a municipality's official plan is one example: environmental concern by design. "It is all about mobilizing the local communities around pressing environmental issues," Mayne explained. "As opposed to top-down, it's very grassroots. We want to integrate the interests of different communities in a collaborative way. It strongly promotes local restoration and protection initiatives."

End of Lake Erie? Asian carp could spell its doom Voracious species may have gotten past barrier and into Great Lakes Monday, November 30, 2009 Spencer Hunt / www.dispatch.com Jack Tibbels built his life and livelihood along the Ohio shore of Lake Erie, offering a marina, a motel and a fleet of six charter boats to people eager to catch walleye and perch. Now, he fears that his business in Marblehead and those of hundreds of his charter-fishing competitors around the Great Lake will sink. "If the Asian carp get in here, we'll all be out of business," Tibbels said. Tibbels' fears, which are shared by conservationists, scientists and government officials, appear closer than ever to reality with news that the voracious carp appear to have slipped past a Chicago-area electric barrier meant to keep them from the Great Lakes. Story continues belowAdvertisement Jeff Skelding, national campaign coordinator for the Healing Our Waters Great Lakes Coalition, said these fish pose nothing short of an ecological disaster for the lakes. "If we let the Asian carp into the lakes, it could be 'game over,' " Skelding said. "There's nothing that can stop them." The Great Lakes are no stranger to invasive species. Experts estimate that more than 185 species of fish, mussels, plants -- even viruses -- that hail from Asia and Eastern Europe are in the lakes system, choking out native species. Jeff Reutter, director of the Ohio Sea Grant program at Ohio State University, said Asian carp could quickly become Erie's most-destructive invader and would join a list that includes zebra and quagga mussels and the round goby, a small fish from the Caspian and Black seas that out-hustles native fish for food. The Asian carp problem began in Illinois in 1993 when floods along the Mississippi River helped them escape from nearby fish farms. The fish typically grow to 2 to 3 feet long and weigh 3 to 10 pounds, but some have topped 50 pounds. The carp eat most of the food that native fish rely on. Asian carp are almost the only fish that researchers can find in many sections of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, Reutter said. State and federal officials installed two electrified barriers in 2006 in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal west of Chicago. The barriers worked until Nov. 21, when officials said that stream tests beyond the barrier found Asian carp DNA. Chris McCloud, an Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman, said his agency will search the stream to see if it can find areas infested with Asian carp. "We have to find out exactly what we are dealing with," McCloud said. What would happen once fish are found is not clear. One option involves dumping a fish poison called rotenone into carp-infested areas. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources will closely follow developments, said Ray Petering, the state's fish management and research chief. "There's nobody with a bigger stake in this than us here in Ohio," Petering said. Erie is the shallowest and warmest of the Great Lakes and is home to more than half the lake system's fish. Thousands of people are drawn to Erie, spending an estimated $1.1 billion a year on lodging, travel and food, for the chance to catch walleye, perch and other sport fish. Tibbels said the carp would undoubtedly change his life. "They would just about destroy this lake," he said.

Old fish makes new Great Lakes comeback November 16, 2009 / www.great-lakes.org LANSING—Lake sturgeon, one of the oldest surviving species from prehistoric times, is making a small comeback in the Great Lakes region. “They’ve increased about a couple of percent since their lowest numbers, but at least the populations aren’t going down anymore,” said Bruce Manny, a fishery biologist for the USGS Great Lakes Science Center in Ann Arbor. The increase is due in part to a spawning project in Black Lake, an inland lake in Cheboygan County. According to a report in the Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 40 % of the lake sturgeon released into Black Lake as part of the project survived their first winter, but Manny said, there are no estimates on the actual number due to a lack of comprehensive studies. Gary Towns, the Southfield-based Department of Natural Resources’ lake sturgeon coordinator for Lake Erie, said industrialization has eliminated most of the sturgeon’s traditional spawning grounds. Towns said reefs built along the Detroit River are beginning to attract some spawning sturgeons. “They might all die or get eaten, but at least they’re spawning,” he said. According to Manny, there are about 2,000 sturgeon in Lake Erie, 20,000-25,000 in Lake Huron and 45,000 in Wisconsin’s Lake Winnebago. “We’re hoping that things are turning around because they’re an interesting and critical part of the ecosystem,” Towns said. To aid the turnaround in population, the DNR enforces extremely restrictive fishing requirements for sturgeon, including a special license and limits on how many fish may be caught and held per year. Manny describes the fish as an environmental barometer that can be used to test the quality of drinking water. “If these fish can reproduce and thrive, we can say the source from which we draw our water is safe,” he said. Jim Boise, a fishery biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Waterford, points to a remediation site in the Trenton Channel on the Detroit River in Riverview as potential spawning ground for sturgeon. Chemical giant BASF Corp. cleaned up the site which Boase said is now regarded as a possible spawning area.

Walleye in Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay carry less PCB contamination than a decade ago November 16, 2009 / www.great-lakes.org Walleye swimming in Michigan’s largest watershed are 80 percent less contaminated with PCBs than they were in 1997, according to a study published recently in the Journal of Great Lakes Research. PCBs are toxic, potentially cancer-causing chemicals that were used in electrical insulators, hydraulic equipment and some paints. The U.S. and many other countries banned PCB production in the 1970s and 1980s PCB levels in Saginaw Bay walleye have dropped 80 percent since 1997, said study author Chuck Madenjian, a fishery biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Great Lakes Science Center. He credits the drop to a dredging project in 2000 and 2001 that pulled more than 340,000 cubic yards of polluted sediment out of the Saginaw River, the bay’s main tributary. “This dredging was really effective in bringing down those concentrations to some really low levels,” said Madenjian, That’s good news for Saginaw Bay’s world-class walleye fishery, said Michelle Selzer, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s coordinator for the Saginaw River and Bay Area of Concern. Areas of Concern are 43 highly contaminated sections of the Great Lakes designated by the U.S. and Canadian governments. “The fish are our ambassadors,” she said. “They’re telling us something.” What they’re telling us is that environmental laws like the Clean Water Act that crack down on industrial water pollution are working, she said. The laws aren’t perfect, but they give environmental agencies a chance to target and clean old pollution hotspots like the Saginaw River’s PCB deposits. General Motors Corp. factories and municipal wastewater treatment plants dumped PCBs in the Saginaw River beginning in the 1940s, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1998, that agency, the state of Michigan and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe reached a settlement with General Motors Corp. and the cities of Saginaw and Bay City, Mich. to pay for the dredging. Though the PCBs were dredged nearly a decade ago, this new evidence of cleaner fish is still significant because scooping polluted dirt out of a waterbody doesn’t always mean wildlife gets cleaner, Madenjian said. “You would expect in general that it would happen, but sometimes you get mixed results,” he said. A 1997 project that pulled 100,000 cubic yards of DDT-laced sediment out of San Francisco Bay left some fish more contaminated than they were before the dredging. Madenjian tested fish from the Tittabawassee River, a tributary of the Saginaw River that eventually flows into Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay. When Saginaw Bay walleye swim upstream to spawn, most head up that river system until they hit a dam on the Tittabawassee River on Dow Chemical Co. property in Midland, Mich., Madenjian said. “You have the bulk of the spawners from the entire bay being concentrated right there at this Dow dam,” he said. Dow Chemical is responsible for widespread dioxin contamination in the Saginaw Bay watershed. Dow, Michigan’s environmental agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently reached a tentative agreement on a plan for the chemical company’s dioxin cleanup. The plan is open for public comment until Dec. 17.

Muddy Mudcat unveiled at last Novenber 18, 2009 MIKE SHEELER / www.dunnvillechronicle.com Muddy the Mudcat has finally been revealed to the world. Approximately 450 people turned out to see Muddy in all her glory on highway three just west of Dunnville. The flow of spectators grew to the point where OPP were called to the scene to help direct foot and vehicle traffic. Dave Welsh, an integral Mudcat Committee member who helped Muddy be possible, said a few words to the crowd. "This has been a long time coming. The idea came three and a half years ago." "This is a wonderful way to attract tourism, and Dunnville needs tourism." added Welsh. The original design for Muddy was to have the site built in the downtown core, but that plan had to be changed. According to Welsh Muddy will now bring people to the area and Dunnville's refurbished downtown will do the rest to attract people and business to the area. The choice to use a Mudcat for representation was an easy one for Dunnville due to its rich history through Mudcat sports teams, the Mudcat festival and the Grand River filled with catfish. The selection seemed only natural for some. There were numerous sponsors and volunteer groups that aided in concept, construction and announcement of Muddy but none was more instrumental, according to Welsh, than the Kinsmen Club who offered their facilities to hold the Mudcat Committee meetings. Aidan Long, the young boy who named the giant Mudcat, was present at the unveiling and was called before the crowd for a round of applause by Welsh. "What a fabulous turnout," said Don Edwards, speaking on behalf of MP Diane Finley, who couldn't attend. Haldimand Mayor Marie Trainer expressed her thanks and congratulations in front of the large crowd. "I want to be the first to thank the committee, the ones that had the vision to make this possible," she said. "They went out and helped raise money, thank you all," she finished. Mike Wakin, creator of Muddy spoke to the crowd next. "We did this to bring people to this community," he said. "Niagara, Grimsby, Hamilton. They don't have anything like this but Dunnville does," added a visibly emotional Wakin. "We have an area that is an hour drive from a million people." The hope is now that they will all come to see the great Muddy the Mudcat on the edge of the Grand River.

Power plant price climbs so eels can too November 26, 2009 MATTHEW VAN DONGEN / www.stcatharinesstandard.ca This eel isn't electric, but it is sparking changes to a planned hydro-power dam on Twelve Mile Creek. You may have never seen an American eel in Twelve Mile Creek -- the sinuous creature is rare and was recently added to the provincial endangered species list. Frank Perri, general manager of hydro dam proponent St. Catharines Hydro Generation, has never eyeballed an eel either. But experts say the creek is both home and highway to the elusive eels, so the planned four-megawatt green power facility will likely boast a million-dollar bypass. "I call it an eel-fish passageway," said Perri, who described it as a series of stepped "resting pools" to help creek denizens move upstream around the $38- million dam -- or downstream without being sucked into hungry turbines. Perri said he expects the project "to be closely watched" for its response to the new provincial direction to protect the endangered eel. The pricey channel is not exclusively reserved for eels, however. The bypass will also help spawning fish and prevent many aquatic movers-and-shakers from ending up as gull food under the dam. But as part of the project, Perri said various government ministries are also suggesting the addition of a specific "eel ladder" at the existing Heywood power plant in Port Dalhousie. Believe it or not, determined eels already climb the almost four-metre-high city weir in Port Dalhousie just to get into Twelve Mile Creek, said Ken Cornelisse, a planning supervisor with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. He said ministry sampling over 25 years has "consistently found eels" in the creek from Martindale Pond to the headwaters near Short Hills Provincial Park. Not in bunches, of course. Creek searchers are lucky to find a couple of the quick, often- small creatures in any given year, although one caught last year measured close to a metre in length. That's kind of the point, Cornelisse noted. "The American eel is endangered, which means the population is declining in Ontario. We need to maintain their access to their habitat and if possible improve that access." Ian Barrett has a soft spot for the plucky endangered American eel. The aquatic biologist with the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority said the slippery creature will try to climb any barrier with a wet surface in its quest for habitat, sometimes even dragging itself over land to isolated ponds. That's usually at the end of an incredibly long migration from its birthplace in the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, where they also return to breed and die. "You have to admire the adaptability of a creature like that," Barrett said. "They already overcome quite an array of challenges." The now-rare eel used to be common in Lake Ontario. Even in the 1980s, it was one of the top three most valuable commercial catches in Ontario's fishing industry. Perri said no plans for fish or eel protection are finalized yet. St. Catharines Hydro Generation hopes to submit a final environmental screening report for the hydro project early next year. Cornelisse said eel ladders are just one way the province is trying to help the population climb. But if the means seem too expensive, consider the eel is a top predator that likes to chow down on invasive species like the gobie. "It's important to maintain the biological diversity of species," Cornelisse said. "Eels are ecological indicators of environmental health."

Superstar, must have cool shades to go with cool hat....

Or all the time.

You seem to be having a number of "best days" lately David but this post is superb. That is an oustanding number of big eyes.

I know plenty of guys who do quite well float fishing for steelies with a spinning reel but you are definitely handicapping yourself with a rod of less than 10'. Another option is a good quality level wind setup on a long rod (I'm loving mine), it would be a better choice than a spinning reel.

Nice craftmanship indeed, good job Bruce. I'm thinking that blue/white jig would come in handy for icing a few lakers.

Wow, now I'm truly impressed. Beautiful work, amazing talent and a great eye for detail.

I am counting the days.....literally.

Stellar outing! I hooked a monster sturgeon on the Niagara a few years back, they are some strong when hooked in the tail....

In case I ever get out fishing Fidel. Oh and there out again tonight if'n you needs to get 'em.

Reminds me of the guy who recently posted a video of himself playing in the water with his "liftime socks". Oh happy days.

If I was able to attend, I'd be there! I expect it'll be a great turnout and great evening for those who can make it.

Thanks again everyone for the well wishes, words of encouragement and the numerous PM's. It's been a week already and each day is a little better than the previous. I'm hoping that I might actually be able to get out and catch the end of the ice fishing season, hopefully.

Thanks Jen, I'm pleased you took the time to share them with us.

The spirit of our community never fails to impress me. Well done everyone.

Those are beautiful Dara, definitely something to be proud of.

I'm doing okay Garry, thanks. Would it be fair to say that given 12 months of summer in the Kawarthas you'd never leave?

Is it just me or does that guy on the left look a lot like TJ.

I suspect that you'll be ponying up Mr. Mercer. Kudos to you and all the wonderful members for stepping up to the plate. Awesome.

There's a few of us in there now.