Spiel

Studies of fish sharing male and female characteristics raise concerns about Great Lakes contaminants Oct. 9, 2009 Elisabeth Pernicone / Great Lakes Echo Fish with characteristics of both genders are more prevalent than previously thought in U.S. rivers, according to a recent U.S. Geological Survey study. While this study did not analyze fish in the Great Lakes, it may raise new concerns as to whether previously noted hermaphrodite fish in this region are becoming more prevalent as well. “Until we take current sampling it is hard to know,” said Chris Metcalf, director of the Institute for Watershed Science at Trent University in Ontario. “However, all studies are symptomatic of more estrogens being discharged into streams.” Fish with reproductive characteristics of both sexes are known as intersex, a condition linked to exposure to estrogenic compounds. Such compounds can disrupt the endocrine system that regulates growth, metabolism, and reproductive processes. These compounds are commonly found in pharmaceuticals and personal care products. The study appeared in the journal Aquatic Toxicology. It comes as the International Joint Commission raises concerns about emerging contaminants in the Great Lakes. “Fish are incredibly plastic when it comes to sex, and they are very responsive to environmental estrogens and androgens,” said Cheryl Murphy, assistant professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University. In this study, fish collected from eight out of nine river basins, from 1994 to 2004, were found to have both sex characteristics. Ninety-seven out of 3,110 were found to have characteristics of both genders. Ninety-six of these were males that exhibited female characteristics. Jo Ellen Hinck, lead author of this study, said a lot of compounds of concern are estrogenic. “These compounds can enter the fish and increase estrogen levels in female fish,” she said “However, when males get an extra boost of estrogen it can have more of an apparent effect.” Studies published in both 2004 and 2008 have confirmed the presence of intersex white perch in the lower Great Lakes, specifically Lake Ontario. Intersex white perch were found in waterways close to discharge pipes from sewage treatment plants. The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives in 2004, found 83 percent of white perch were intersex at a location in the lower Great Lakes. Metcalfe, who is also a professor and researcher at Trent University, was one of several researchers involved in this study. He said that white perch may have been more susceptible to this condition because when they are younger they are relatively sedentary, which would be problematic if they were close to a sewage discharge. Researchers in the 2004 study concluded that intersex changes most likely occurred from exposures to estrogenic compounds and other pollutants. Fish experiencing both reproductive features were more prevalent in areas with high levels of water contamination, the study reported. While more research must be conducted to determine whether human consumption of intersex fish can produce harmful effects, there is information that suggests that intake of certain chemicals in fish can cause health ramifications, said Dr. George Abela, cardiologist at the Michigan State University Clinical Center. “If the contaminant is persistent then humans that eat the fish can accumulate that contaminant in their body,” Murphy said. “Because the variety of hormones and chemical messengers are remarkably conserved across the animal kingdom, contaminants that cause intersex in fish can also potentially cause some type of endocrine disruption in humans,” she said. Metcalf said that natural estrogens, which can be found in birth control, may not be of great concern. However, chemicals such as bisphenol A, which are used to make plastics, can mimic estrogens and can cause problems in humans. Abela said that consuming fish with contaminants does not have a significant impact on the heart, but can have damaging effects on the human brain and gastrointestinal lining. The health effects that this condition has on fish itself are still unknown. However, Hinck said that some studies have hypothesized that it may affect the integrity of male sperm. In the recent study on U.S. rivers, which included the Mississippi River and Yukon River Basins, the intersex condition was observed in catfish, carp, smallmouth bass and largemouth bass, but was most prevalent in smallmouth bass. Hinck said that her study could not conclude that estrogenic compounds or pollutants were directly linked with intersex occurrences. This could be a likely cause given the results of other research studies. However, further lab tests and sampling must occur. She said that a variety of factors could have led to these occurrences in her study, such as water pH, steroids, pollutants and water temperature. “[This study] will hopefully highlight that we don’t know what this condition means for individual fish and the whole fish community,” Hinck said. Murphy, who studies the effects of endocrine disruptors in fish, said more information needs to be known before deciding what actions need to be implemented as a result of these findings. “To combat the problem, you first have to determine what is inducing intersex and the source of the stressor,” she said. “If pharmaceuticals from sewage are inducing intersex, then the sewage would have to be treated to specifically remove the endocrine active compounds before it is released. If it is PCBs, the sediment containing PCBs would have to be dredged.” PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were once used for many different purposes ranging from flame retardants to pesticides. Along with mercury and other contaminants, PCBs continue to be of high concern in all of the five Great Lakes.

I like !

Thanks for the info Norm, I'll be sure to get in touch with them.

Lakes see gains, setbacks Toxic mix changing, scientists say October 8th, 2009 Frances Willick / The Windsor Star There are goose droppings on the beaches, mercury in the fish and pharmaceutical chemicals in the water, but the prognosis for the health of the Great Lakes isn’t necessarily bad, some scientists are saying. Experts who gathered in Windsor Wednesday for the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement 2009 Biennial Meeting said the environmental challenges facing the lakes are mitigated by positive policy changes and public awareness of environmental challenges. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Ted Smith said while some flame retardants — dangerous chemicals that had been turning up in fish tissue and human breast milk in recent years — have been phased out of production, other types of chemicals are on the rise. Pharmaceuticals and surfactants, used as foaming or wetting agents in products such as soaps and detergents, are continually discharged into the Great Lakes through sewer systems, Smith said. “Much of what goes down the drain winds up at these wastewater treatment facilities that are not necessarily designed to knock out each and every chemical that’s out there, and that’s a real concern,” he said. David Ullrich, executive director of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, said he believes Windsor’s plan to build a water retention basin will reduce the discharge of sewage waste into the river and improve the quality of the area’s beaches and recreational waters. Ullrich said many beaches along the Great Lakes are contaminated by sewage, runoff from agricultural land, seagull and goose droppings. While municipal wastewater infrastructure projects can reduce these problems, he said citizens can also help improve the quality of water and beaches by using low-flow toilets, directing downspouts into their yards rather than into the storm water system and not littering on the beach. The jury is still out on whether eating Great Lakes fish is a good idea, though. David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany, said the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids found in fish may counteract the negative health impacts of some contaminants. “People seem to fall into one of two groups: either they think all fish is horrible and you should never eat it, or they think all fish is going to save you from every disease in the world and that’s all you should eat. The truth is somewhere in between.” Carpenter said fish lovers should avoid eating large specimens, focus on species that don’t eat other fish, and remove the skin before consuming them.

Concern over Great Lakes fish will remain even after current toxins fade October 8th, 2009 Steve Orr / Democrat and Chronicle New York’s advisories on consumption of Lake Ontario fish are based on chemicals that, for the most part, were banned decades ago and are increasingly rare in the environment. If current trends continue, officials say, the advisories based on those legacy pollutants can be moderated in the not-too-distant future. But that doesn’t mean that fish will be deemed entirely safe to eat. Lurking in the background are a variety of other contaminants that can accumulate in Great Lakes fish. “We know of other compounds that are likely out there,” said Larry Skinner, who heads environmental monitoring in the fish and wildlife division of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. At the top of this list, said Skinner and others, are polybrominated diethyl ethers, or PBDEs, which are flame retardants that were added to plastics used in electronics, furniture foam, textiles and other products. The sole U.S. manufacturer ended production of most forms of PBDE in 2004, but they remain ubiquitous in the environment. “We know the concentrations in water from Lake Ontario increased exponentially, which was reflective of usage in industry,” Skinner said. Comparable to polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in terms of their ability to persist in the environment and accumulate in fatty tissue, PBDEs have been found in Great Lakes salmon, trout and walleye. There is concern they may prove every bit as toxic as PCBs as well. The DEC does not test fish for these compounds. Federal officials do limited monitoring, and the state hopes to pursue a federal grant to begin PBDE monitoring of its own, Skinner said. Officials at the state Department of Health, which issues fishing advisories after reviewing DEC data, said they probably would not issue an advisory based on PBDEs — based on what’s known today about the compound. “That’s the problem — there’s not a lot of data on PBDEs, and not as much toxicity information to help us decide what levels are of concern,” said Edward Horn, director of environmental health assessment for the state Health Department. Horn said there were other chemicals such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, perfluorinated compounds and the common anti-bacterial agent triclosan — that may build up in fish and bear watching. “There’s no question that a lot of these chemicals are of concern,” he said. One reason that New York has a statewide advisory against eating more than one meal a week of sport fish is the potential impact of these emerging compounds, he said. Only two other bodies of water in the Rochester region have their own advisories — Keuka Lake in Yates and Steuben counties, where consumption of larger lake trout is limited to one meal a month because of DDT levels, and Canadice Lake in Ontario County, where there’s a similar limitation on eating larger lake trout because of PCBs. Both advisories are due to improper disposal of those chemicals discovered decades ago near the lakes, Skinner said. PCBs are the primary driver of the advisories on Lake Ontario. While their manufacture and new use were banned in 1970s, PCBs remained in place in electrical and other equipment and likely are still entering the lake’s ecosystem in small doses, Skinner said. Their level in fish has fallen sharply since the 1970s, and the levels of PCBs, and other legacy pollutants, are now well below guidelines for fish set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But Horn said the agency uses a cautious approach. “We might not change an advisory … until we’re really sure that this isn’t something that hasn’t just happened this year,” he said.

Salmon are jumping at Port Hope fish ladder October 7th, 2009 / Northumberland Today Each year as fall arrives salmon begin their annual spawning run up the Ganaraska River in Port Hope. This provides an excellent opportunity to view the fish as they migrate upstream past the Ganaraska River Fishway. Various species of salmon, including Coho and Chinook, run up the river from late August to mid-October but the main concentration is in September. The eggs are laid in gravel depressions constructed by the females. These spawning beds are called redds. Anywhere from 2,000 to 17,000 eggs are laid in each redd. Although an average female will lay roughly 8,000 eggs the number of eggs depends on the size and condition of the female. The eggs will hatch in four to seven weeks. Other salmonid species using the fishway in the fall include fall run steelhead (rainbow trout) and anadiomous (brown trout). The Ganaraska River Fishway was constructed in 1973 to help the fish get past Corbett’s Dam to the spawning beds upstream. The Ganaraska River Fishway was made possible due to a joint venture of the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, the Ganaraska Sportsmen’s Association, the Municipality of Port Hope and a host of volunteers from Port Hope and the surrounding area. Prior to the construction of the fishway, fish were manually lifted over the barrier. The fishway is a 90-foot long concrete channel. Migrating fish jump up a series of nine pools each a foot higher than the previous one. Fishways are also called fish ladders. The fishway is designed to allow only the species that are wanted upstream to pass through its pools. People who intend to fish should be sure to have a fishing licence and a copy of the Fishing Regulations Summary as some special regulations apply. Fishing is not permitted from Highway 401 to Jocelyn St. This sanctuary is in place to protect the large concentration of salmon as they rest and prepare to run up the steps of the fishway. The Ganaraska River Fishway is located 65 miles east of Toronto. To reach it, exit from Highway 401 at County Road 28 in Port Hope and head south. Proceed to Jocelyn Street and turn right. Turn right onto Cavan Street from Jocelyn and follow the road a short distance to the fishway. Although the best view of the running salmon is from the west side, parking is available on either side of the Ganaraska River.

Cobourg Creek vital to bringing back salmon October 7th, 2009 Cecilia Nasmith / Northumberland Today Cobourg council learned this week that Cobourg Creek is vital in the campaign to restore Atlantic salmon to Lake Ontario. Visiting as what he called “a one-person good-will tour on behalf of the steering committee for the Lake Ontario salmon-restoration program,” Terry Quinney described the success of the first four years of the five-year Bring Back The Salmon Lake Ontario program. In Cobourg Creek, just one of their project locations, 28 restocking projects were undertaken, during which time Bring Back The Salmon invested $40,000 in such things as tree plantings along the bank and stream clean-up. Local volunteer involvement includes classroom-hatchery projects at both Cobourg District Collegiate Institutes East and West, where students receive fertilized eggs from brood stations that they grow to various life stages before being released. The program includes three full-time biologists who monitor the salmon eight months of the year. In Cobourg Creek, they are seeing four-year-old fish released at the beginning of the project, which is a sign of success. “This is not just a species-restoration program, as iconic as Atlantic salmon are to this community. We are trying hard to improve even further the quality of water and habitat associated with Cobourg Creek,” Quinney added. “These creatures demand an excellent water quality and habitat conditions, and that’s a tribute to our community that you have rebuilt the environmental quality of Cobourg Creek over a long period of time.”

If you'd like to harvest roe for bait then salmon roe is the way to go, specifically Chinook.

Local anglers tops at four man tourney October 1, 2009 Allyson Snelling / www.bracebridgeexaminer.com For the third year in a row, Bracebridge anglers Chris Marling and Gary Franklin have been among the winners in an Ontario Bassmasters team-style fishing tournament. For the past two years, the tournament has been known for its six-man format, but this year changed to a four-man team format. Held on Georgian Bay on Sunday, Sept. 20, the tournament saw 40 anglers on 10 teams competing for top spot. Franklin and Marling fished from one boat, while teammates Mike Reid of Gravenhurst and Tim Ellis of North Bay fished from another. Each boat weighed in three fish for a total of six entries. After eight and a half hours on the water, the team weighed in a total of 44.1 pounds for a first-place prize of $1,500, which they split evenly among the four anglers. Marling said each duo brought in about 22 pounds. “The fishing was fantastic. Georgian Bay is a great fishery,” said Marling. He and Franklin had not competed on Georgian Bay before, he added. The fishing was so good that Marling said he hooked one fish and it jumped right into the boat. The fish was covered with the net by Franklin. Several local teams participated in the tourney, including the team of Steve Bossence, Phil Curtis, Craig Stuckless and Scott Thomson, who earned a cash prize for their third-place finish. All the anglers belong to the Muskoka Bassmasters club and rivalry between the anglers kept the competition fun. “Phil Curtis said at the beginning of the tournament that all they wanted to do was beat me,” Marling laughed. “Steve replied, ‘you just jinxed us’, and it did jinx them.” The following weekend the duo competed against each other in the final Muskoka Bassmasters club tournament. Held on Lake St. John in Rama, the tourney, which was open to non-members, saw seven teams compete. Franklin topped the pack with Brock Robertson at 12.54 pounds, while Marling came fourth with Glen Boyd with 9.17 pounds.

Angling for justice Two years after a human rights commission exposed 'nipper-tipping' in cottage country, zero tolerance has led to the trial of a 12-year-old boy. Wednesday, Oct. 07, 2009 JOE FRIESEN / www.theglobeandmail.com LINDSAY — The 12-year-old boy shuffled toward the judge with the timid reluctance one would expect of a child called to answer before authority. Barely four feet tall with a bird-like frame, his tiny stature - unusual even for a boy his age - took the Lindsay, Ont., courtroom by surprise. The judge, peering down from the bench, explained that he had been charged with a criminal assault. "Do you understand what that means?" he asked in a tone adults reserve for small children. "Yes," the boy replied. The child stands accused of being the latest and youngest villain in a peculiar crime wave. "Nipper-tipping," as it is known to its perpetrators, emerged into the public eye two years ago during a spate of attacks on Asian-Canadian fishermen. At first, the act of pushing an unsuspecting angler into the water was viewed as a sophomoric, racist prank: The name itself combines an anti-Japanese epithet with the rural hilarity of cow-tipping. After increased scrutiny and public pressure, a zero-tolerance policy seems to have emerged, culminating in the trial of a frightened, pre-adolescent boy. His alleged involvement could be described as a copycat crime. In April, 2007, an Asian man and his 13-year-old son fishing at Jackson's Point on Lake Simcoe in Georgina, Ont., were accosted, the latter pushed in the water. That summer, four similar events took place from July to August. Each time, the victims had only their hobby and their ancestry in common. The breaking point came on Sept. 17 of that year when a similar incident at Jackson's Point led to a car chase in which a racially mixed group was pursued by locals. Their car crashed, leaving 23-year-old Shayne Berwick with a serious brain injury. "Nipper-tipping" became a political flashpoint. Chinese-Canadian leaders demanded that the cases be prosecuted as hate crimes. York Regional Police responded with helicopters to patrol popular fishing holes and Asian police officers went undercover as fishermen (they weren't attacked but reported being subjected to racial slurs). The Ontario Provincial Police responded by assigning hate-crime investigators to any incident involving Asian fishermen. The Ontario Human Rights Commission weighed in with a report, Fishing Without Fear, that graded more than 20 organizations involved in the events. Did tolerance end at the GTA border? Or were white locals applying vigilante tactics to outsiders they accuse of illegally depleting fish stocks? As the multicultural city extends further toward areas relatively untouched by immigration, these flare-ups may be a symptom of deeper unease. Fisheries have long been a source of conflict between whites and Asians. At the turn of the century in B.C. there was a fight over Fraser River salmon that led to violence, and in 1907 there were anti-Asian riots in Vancouver. There was also an anti-Chinese riot in Lindsay, Ont., in 1919. Patricia Roy, a historian who has studied the history of the Chinese and Japanese in Canada, said these kinds of tensions are not uncommon anywhere in the world. Locals are often hostile to outsiders if they believe they're infringing on a scarce resource, and that hostility is more easily focused if the outsiders belong to an identifiable racial group. "I wouldn't say it's what Canada is, I would say it's what people are," Prof. Roy said. "I think it's more human nature than Canadian." In the Lindsay courtroom last week, the 12-year-old's parents stood with him in court, laying their hands on his shoulders as though trying to keep his fidgety torso pointed in the right direction. They told the judge they planned to hire a lawyer to defend their son, but declined to speak with reporters for fear of jeopardizing his case. The decision to prosecute a child is the strongest signal yet that police and justice officials are serious about cracking down on a practice that remains an open wound for many Asian-Canadians. The victim is a 46-year-old Chinese-Canadian from Markham who was on a day trip this August to the Kawarthas with his family. Fishing at the side of Canal Lake, he was approached by two boys. When he turned his attention to his fishing rod, one of the boys allegedly ran up and knocked him into the water, which was two metres below. The victim's wife, who along with his son and daughter watched the attack unfold, chased and caught the boy and then called the OPP. Still, a criminal-assault charge in this case is somewhat surprising. Officers typically have a great deal of discretion to either arrest or caution young suspects. But with the scrutiny of the Toronto media and the Human Rights Commission, as well as governments pledging these attacks will be taken seriously, the police may feel they have no choice but to lay charges. While the authorities have been cracking down, prosecutors have been criticized for easing up. Last week another high-profile assault prosecution came to a sudden and - in the eyes of the Chinese community - unsatisfactory end. Scott MacEachern, a 21-year-old business student from Georgina, had been charged with three separate attacks on Asian fishermen in York region during the summer of 2007. In each case, he had allegedly shoved someone into the water. Mr. MacEachern pled guilty to only one of the charges, the others were dropped, and he walked free with a sentence of 12 months probation. "I'm shocked that he was let go," said Mike Ma, co-ordinator of the Peterborough Community and Race-Relations Committee. The news of the sentence was splashed on the front pages of Chinese-Canadian newspapers, and call-in shows lit up with angry responses. York police said they did their best, but witnesses in some cases couldn't identify the accused. Mr. Ma, who has lived in Canada nearly all his life, said he worries about his own safety now when he fishes in the area outside Peterborough. "My sister and brother-in-law and their family came to visit me a few weeks ago and we went fishing," he said. "The whole time in the back of my mind I'm thinking, 'Am I safe?' because of the way I look." Very few locals are willing to speak on the record for fear of being branded as racists. But they say their complaints are legitimate: Many Asian day-trippers are fishing without a licence, trespassing on private property and ignoring catch limits. Some of the fishing is happening at night, which can only mean they're up to no good and the catch is being sold in Toronto's Chinatown the following morning. In their view, a centuries-old local fishery is being depleted by outsiders, and the Ministry of Natural Resources is doing nothing to stop it. Confronting the fishermen, pushing them in the water, spraying graffiti - such as the message on a Hastings, Ont., bridge that read "damn You Nips!!, fish thieves" - are all misguided but understandable attempts to redress injustice, they argue. Mr. Ma said he's still shocked by the number of people who characterize these incidents as youthful pranks or a legitimate conflict while down-playing the racial overtones. "Why is it that these attacks are uniformly on Asian-Canadians?" he asks. "It's been quite uniform." The attacks have been concentrated primarily in the Township of Georgina, near Lake Simcoe, and more recently to the east in the Kawartha Lakes area. While Toronto has a visible minority population of 45 per cent, it's just 3.9 per cent in Georgina, and 1.6 per cent in Kawartha Lakes. The number of incidents reported to police involving Asian fishermen has declined, from 10 in 2007 to five in 2009 - but the threat hasn't abated. This week a Toronto woman born in the Philippines was fishing at a Pigeon Lake resort when she was approached by three men who demanded to know what she was catching and whether she had a licence - typical harassment many Asian fishers describe. The police said the woman fled the area and called for help. The OPP said the incident "may have involved physical contact," but they didn't have sufficient grounds to lay an assault charge. They later issued a press release asking people who fish not to resort to vigilante enforcement. Concerns should be taken up with natural resources officers, they said. Ontario's Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield said one of the most important steps taken by her ministry was to meet with the Asian anglers association and have the province's fishing regulations translated into Cantonese to prevent misunderstandings. "Obviously there has been some level of discomfort in the communities - both communities - it's not one or the other," Ms. Cansfield said. "We live in a very cosmopolitan world, especially in Ontario, and we have to find ways and means of how we live together." Thanks to Kickingfrog for the link

Too funny....

I too am glad I was able to get out there Joey.

Read the exceptions/extended seasons for fall trout fishing in your region.

I got to admit I was tempted to jump on this offer Harrison, but alas the timing is not right. Though I've never met Sinker I feel confident that Wyatt has indeed found a good home. I hope you (Shayne) and your family have a great many years of enjoyment with your new friend.

Your life SUCKS ! I thought you'd be used to it by now.

And here I was thinking of banning hockey threads!

Weevils take bite out of Lake Scugog weeds Scugog Lake Stewards say summer pilot project a success Oct 02, 2009 Chris Hall / newsdurhamregion.com SCUGOG -- The jungle of weeds lying beneath the surface of Lake Scugog has proven to be a tasty buffet for the large army of weevils that now call the lake home. According to the Scugog Lake Stewards, a pilot project carried out this summer, using 20,000 additional weevils introduced to the lake in an effort to combat the unruly weed problem, has been quite a success. The effort, which began in early July with the release of the small bugs, has proven to not only be an effective tool in the battle to get bogged-down boats across the lake, but has also revealed a new species of milfoil, said Jamie Ross last week. Mr. Ross, president of the stewards group, summarized the project's results while speaking before a collection of Scugog Chamber of Commerce members attending a breakfast meeting on the Woodman tour boat on Sept. 24. "It's not a quick fix, but it does work and we're happy with our progress to date," said Mr. Ross. The project stretches back almost two years, said the SLS president, pointing to complaints in recent years about weeds so thick "that you could almost walk across" the Port Perry bay to Scugog Island. That got the SLS members thinking about a biological control that would be effective in reducing the tangle of the unwanted underwater plant life, he said. A trip to Puslinch Lake, near Cambridge, in August 2008 to review a success story there sold the group on the idea of increasing Lake Scugog's weevil population. From there, the idea continued to grow and, thanks to $30,000 in support from the Baagwating Community Association, the pilot project got off the ground this past summer, said Mr. Ross. And while a paperwork mess nearly derailed the plan before the weevils could even get their first bite of Lake Scugog weeds, the project came together in early July. With the help of two American biologists, 20,000 weevils were transplanted into Lake Scugog near King's Bay, where they were left to work as milfoil gluttons. At that time, it was also discovered the milfoil that inhabits Lake Scugog is hybrid of the invasive Eurasian variety and the native northern species. "The plant that has taken over the lake is a hybrid between the two," said Mr. Ross. "It's a lot more aggressive, it takes over quicker and grows quicker." Almost two months later, at the end of August, the biologists returned to survey the weevils' work, said Mr. Ross. "The bugs really did like this hybrid," he said. While at first glance it's hard to tell that the weevils are making a huge difference, further scrutiny has shown that the bugs are quickly mowing through the weeds, stressed the SLS president. "The weevils work, the weevils like to eat the hybrid which is critical," he said, noting the weevils have not impacted the local fish population. Reducing the amount of hybrid milfoil in the lake will also make room for native plants, he added. The next step in the project, continued Mr. Ross, is to see how well the weevils survive the winter, how the weed test plot fares next summer and to carry out a study of all the underwater vegetation in Lake Scugog. If all goes well, the group hopes to continue to gather evidence in favour of the weevil work and pursue government grants to continue efforts in the future. Related Articles.... Scugog Lake Stewards reel in funding for weevil pilot project Weevils the answer to weed woes in Lake Scugog? Scugog volunteer group doesn't wobble from weevil project Population boom for Lake Scugog weevils Lake stewards to pitch natural remedy for Scugog weeds

Great Lakes biologists brace for hydrilla, the next big invasive water weed Oct. 1, 2009 Jeff Gillies / Great Lakes Echo Editors note: This story is part of a series relevant to the International Joint Commission’s Oct. 7 and 8 biennial meeting in Windsor. Hydrilla is an invasive species that hasn't made it to the Great Lakes. Biologists want to keep it that way. Photo: Collete Jacono, USGS When Matt Preisser thought he saw a photo of a potential Great Lakes invasive species in a Michigan newspaper, he tracked it down and checked it out. “The plants in the photo were suspiciously similar to hydrilla,” said Preisser, who works for Michigan’s Aquatic Nuisance Control Program. “It was close enough that I didn’t want to pass it up and miss the chance to find out if that’s really what it was.” It wasn’t. But Preisser’s willingness to sniff out a fishy looking plant in a newspaper photo shows how serious Great Lakes biologists are about keeping this invader out. Hydrilla is just the kind of organism requiring a coordinated response that will be discussed next Wednesday in Windsor at the biennial meeting of the International Joint Commission. That’s a binational group of scientists and policy advisers who advise the U.S. and Canadian governments on Great Lakes issues. Hydrilla can form floating mats as large as 100 acres. The mats block sunlight from other plants and are too dense to serve as fish habitat, Preisser said. They clog drinking water and irrigation systems. Native to Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia, hydrilla grows in ropy stems covered in green leaves. It first invaded the U.S. in Florida around 1960 when unwitting aquarium enthusiasts likely dumped the plant into local waterways. Once it took root, it reproduced like mad and crowded out native plants and wildlife. It has since spread to 19 states and is knocking on the Great Lakes’ door. Hydrillia is almost impossible to get rid of once it’s established, Preisser said. “In Florida and some of the other southern states it’s very extensive, and they’ve spent millions and millions of dollars trying to control it,” he said. “It’s still there, and these are annual efforts.” So Great Lakes officials want a basin-wide plan that spells out exactly who does what when someone spots hydrilla so they can oust it before it gets too comfortable. That plan will resolve key issues well ahead of invasions so they can’t bog down the response once the exotic species show up. Those issues include permits, conflicts between local, state and federal regulations, working out who’s in charge of a response and who’s going to pay for it, said Mark Burrows, an International Joint Commission scientist and secretary of the Council of Great Lakes Research Managers. Clearing up those potential show-stoppers ahead of time will help prevent a messy situation where one state or nation knows about a hydrilla outbreak but its neighbors don’t find out until it’s too late. “It causes a lot of bad relations and missed opportunities for response if everybody’s not fully informed on both sides of the border,” Burrows said. The Joint Commission isn’t the first Great Lakes player to hatch a plan anticipating hydrilla’s arrival. In 2004, Michigan’s Hydrilla Task Force drafted a “rapid response” plan to determine which state department would do what if hydrilla was found in the state. But the plan still doesn’t say who will pay for it. “We can’t say that we would rapidly respond to hydrilla if it was found because we have no source of funding,” said Roger Eberhardt, environmental quality specialist in Michigan’s Office of the Great Lakes. Luckily, Michigan is still hydrilla-free. But the plant has reared it’s head in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Indiana. When Indiana officials found hydrilla in Lake Manitou in 2006, they followed Michigan’s plan to squash the outbreak. Three years of chemical treatment and restricted boating access later, the infestation is more than 90 percent controlled, and it hasn’t spread to any other lakes in the state. Indiana’s success is encouraging for cash-strapped states like Michigan. “In Indiana, they didn’t have funding either,” Eberhardt said. “But they kind of cobbled together some money from their current programs.” Some federal help could be on the way. Congress is considering $475 million for Great Lakes restoration, $60 million of which would go to fighting invasive species. One priority for that funding is rapid response plans, said Hugh MacIsaac, co-chair of the International Joint Commission’s rapid response work group. “This would, for the first time, give states money to develop the types of plans that…should be done to prepare for when the next bad invader comes in,” he said.

Pinks attract anglers in one of world's best salmon fisheries Sept. 24, 2009 ERIC SHARP / www.freep.com SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario -- They're a bit late, but the salmon pouring into Michigan rivers from the St. Joseph to the St. Marys will offer some of the finest fishing in the world over the next month at bargain-basement prices. Michigan's Pacific salmon runs rival many in Alaska and are better than most rivers in Lower 48 Pacific streams from whence the ancestors of our fish came. In addition, anglers who come to the St. Marys River rapids on the border between the Soos still have an excellent shot at catching Atlantic salmon that are the quest of the rich in most places. They might even catch one of the rarest fish in the world, a pink-chinook salmon hybrid called a pinook that is found only in the St. Marys system. "When pinks first showed up 30 here years ago, they ran every other year, like they do out west," said John Giuliani, a St. Marys River guide. "Now they run every year. One year there are huge numbers of them. The next there aren't as many, but they're bigger. This is a year for the smaller run, but they're just pouring in right now, and we're seeing a lot that go 4 to 6 pounds." In the past week, anglers also have caught several fish that look like pink salmon but weighed 8 to 12 pounds. Fish that size almost certainly are pinooks, the hybrid that looks like a pink on steroids. "They're amazing," Giuliani said. "They get their size from the chinook side, but they look just like a pink. We're really doing well on them on flies right now, mostly caddis larvae, and there's hardly anybody on the river. We're out here today and there are, what, two other anglers?" Pink salmon were introduced to Lake Superior inadvertently in the 1950s by Canadian fisheries biologists and spread eastward from Thunder Bay, Ontario, along the northern shore until they reached Lake Huron. The St. Marys' runs of pinks and chinooks come from Lake Huron, and the river and its tributaries are the only place in the world where pinks and chinooks are known to hybridize, probably because it's the only place where large numbers of both species spawn at the same time. About 200 miles to the southwest, we had some good chinook fishing a week ago on the flies-only stretch of the Pere Marquette downstream from Baldwin, getting fish 15-20 pounds by sweeping big streamers like gray ghosts and bunnies trough the holes. I also saw anglers catching fish below the fly zone on crankbaits such as Rapalas, Bombers and Thundersticks, a technique that western and Canadian fishermen have used for decades but caught on here only a few years ago. Several anglers I talked with on the phone said fishing has since slowed on the Per Marquette. Due to the long spell of dry weather, relatively few bright fish were coming in from Lake Michigan, and the fish already in the river had been seriously harassed. The St. Joseph River, which enters Lake Michigan near the Indiana line, had a nice push of chinooks earlier this month, but the unusually warm weather of the past 10 days has warmed the water and also slowed that run. I'm hoping the result will be chinook runs in several Michigan rivers that last well into October and even November in the Muskegon and White, which with the St. Marys gets some of the last runs in the Midwest. "The St. Marys gets salmon of some kind almost every month of the year," Giuliani said on a recent outing where we landed chinook, pink salmon, steelhead and resident rainbow trout. The biggest chinooks were about 20 pounds, and the pinks ran 2 to 4 pounds. "We've even caught chinooks in June and July, so we may be seeing the start of a summer run like they get in Alaska. The chinooks just started showing up here three or four days ago, and we'll have them all October," he said. "The chinooks and pinks are really big this year, and I think that's because the smelt are coming back in Lake Huron. I figure we'll have pinks around for another couple of weeks because they started so late." We fished 8-weight fly rods, but anglers do just as well with 9- or 10-foot spinning rods casting spawn or a float-and-flies setup on 8-pound line. Longer rods allow fly and spin fishermen better control of the line in the fast currents. Pinks are fun to catch on a 6-weight fly rod, but while casting to these smaller salmon you'll almost certainly hook up with something a lot bigger, and landing a 20-plus-pound chinook on a 6-weight in fast water is very iffy. A final caveat is to take waders with felt soles or an artificial compound that sticks on slick surfaces. The St. Marys' bottom is pink granite, and after 10,000 years of polishing by swift currents and gravel, it's as smooth as a kitchen counter and as slick as the ice at the Joe Louis Arena after a Zamboni treatment.

Lake Erie algae blooms linked to underwater sediment shifts September 29, 2009 TOM HENRY / www.toledoblade.com A toxic form of algae that has overtaken Lake Erie's western basin in recent summers appears to be thriving not only because fertilizers are getting washed into area rivers and streams by rain but also because the silt doesn't stay put once it gets into the water. Tom Bridgeman, a researcher at the University of Toledo's Lake Erie Center, told members of the Ohio Lake Erie Commission yesterday the new finding is significant because it goes beyond the usual correlation between algae and rain. It also raises new questions about the federal government's long-standing practice of dumping silt dredgings from the Toledo shipping channel into the open lake water, which has drawn the ire of Michigan and Ohio politicians since the mid 1980s. The lake's western basin was blanketed by one of its largest swaths of free-floating microcystis algae this summer, even though seasonal rainfall was average. That apparently was because resuspended sediment made the warm, shallow western basin turbid enough to protect the algae from sunlight. Sunlight usually kills most forms of algae as it rises to the lake's surface. "We really think the turbidity of the water helps microcystis grow," Mr. Bridgeman said. Lake Erie has hundreds of types of algae, most of which are at the bottom of the food chain and are consumed by microscopic forms of life that fish eat. "In general, if there's no algae, there are no fish," Mr. Bridgeman said. But microcystis is one of two notorious types of blue-green algae that have taken a strong hold on the western basin in recent years. It has killed dozens of people in Brazil and has become a costly menace to control locally. Toledo spends $3,000 to $4,000 a day running a carbon-activated filtration system at its water plant to neutralize the algae when they are in bloom, according to Gail Hesse of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, who sat in for agency director Chris Korleski at yesterday's meeting. The commission was told by various people that algae blooms affect more than public health. They drive away tourists, hurt property values, and, in excess, can affect the region's multibillion-dollar fishery. Although most of the resuspended sediment that's aiding microcystis is probably the result of high winds and storms, Mr. Bridgeman agreed the research raises new questions about what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dumps into the lake after dredging the Toledo shipping channel. Toledo's harbor is the shallowest and most heavily dredged in the Great Lakes region. Most of the shipping channel's sediment is dumped in one area of northern Maumee Bay. But Jeff Reutter, director of Ohio Sea Grant and Ohio State University's Stone Laboratory, said the western basin is so shallow there is no place the dredged material can be deposited without it being resuspended and swirling up near the top of the water column again. He said it gets redeposited across the lake's western basin. "If it had stayed all in one place, you would have seen a big mountain of it [in the bay] by now," Mr. Reutter said. The Corps practice is more effective in deep bodies of water such as Lake Superior, he said. Duluth, Minn., has clear water near its surface and few signs of algae because Lake Superior is hundreds of feet deep. "An area like that doesn't exist in the western basin of Lake Erie," Mr. Reutter said. Fishery biologists have long cried foul over the practice of open-lake dumping, claiming that turbidity generated by suspended sediment has kept western Lake Erie - the most biologically productive part of the Great Lakes region - from achieving its full potential for fish production. The Corps has said it deposits about two-thirds of what it dredges from the Toledo shipping channel each summer, material which meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chemical thresholds. The most polluted sediment, typically that dug from Toledo's inner harbor, goes to a waterfront landfill called a confined disposal facility. The agency has said it has few other options unless nonfederal sources came up with millions of dollars to help the federal government build a new confined disposal facility. The question is not whether the Corps is having an impact. It's how much it is exacerbating the problem, Mr. Reutter said. "The Corps of Engineers will look with great interest at any study that involves the health and well-being of the Great Lakes," Bruce Sanders, Corps spokesman, said. Oregon activist Sandy Bihn, founder of the Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Association and the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society, called upon the commission to build an "Eco Island" near the lighthouse. She said she envisions a pilot project in which geo tubes packed with dredged material are used to build a structure in the lake for fish habitat and spawning. Doing that quickly would reduce or eliminate the need for open-lake dumping, she said in a letter to the commission. "We need to think out of the box about ways to help Lake Erie and to enhance economic opportunities created by an abundant sport fishery, bird watchers, and lighthouse lovers," she wrote. The commission, a panel of state agency directors, meets quarterly. Yesterday's meeting was its first at UT's Lake Erie Center in Oregon.

Bass Pro CEO Morris brings passion for fishing to job October 1, 2009 Jayne O'Donnell / USA TODAY Johnny Morris is happiest with a fly rod in hand. He knows how to design stores that can become their states' top tourist attractions. / Photo by Richard Gibson SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Bass Pro Shops is "what most retailers only fantasize about," said Ethan Allen CEO Farooq Kathwari when he introduced Bass Pro CEO Johnny Morris at an awards ceremony last year. But try to get the details of the dream out of Morris, and you'll find he's conveniently "gone fishing." That may say as much about his love of the sport as it does about his disdain for anything approaching braggadocio. But it still took an army of company assistants and no small amount of arm-twisting to get him to agree to, and follow through on, giving his first national media interview in more than 12 years. Given the barrage of bad news that's hit retailers over the last year, it's hardly surprising that a CEO would want to lie low, especially when he's selling what many people — other than him — would consider discretionary items. But lying low has been Morris' position of choice since he started selling fishing lures out of his dad's liquor store here in 1972. Morris' retailing has come a long way: People drive for hours and will even stay overnight to visit one of the chain's 56 huge stores, which in addition to outdoors merchandise are filled with typically free activities ranging from archery to rock climbing. Several movies and TV shows have been filmed at its stores and, in the past nine months alone, nine couples have gotten married at a Bass Pro Shop. Even so, the firm is feeling the recession's pain. It has laid off workers at stores, its boat-building plants and its headquarters. New store openings slowed this year to two, down from eight in 2008; five openings are on hold. Back in the rosier retail landscape days, malls and cities competed and offered financial incentives to get one of Bass' big-box tourist magnets, but these days neither has the money to spend. Though the privately held chain doesn't disclose sales figures, Forbeslast year ranked Bass Pro at 138 on its list of the 441 largest private companies and estimated its annual revenue at $2.65 billion. Retail analyst David Magee says Wal-Mart's successful expansion into fishing supplies has likely hit Bass harder than competitor Cabela's, which is more of a destination for hunters. Magee says both Bass and Cabela's, which is publicly traded, are benefiting as all gun sellers are, from brisk firearms sales but hampered because hunting and fishing don't tend to be growth categories. And both face growing competition from sporting goods stores, such as Dick's, which are capturing more of the market. For its part, Cabela's is planning smaller stores to raise profitability, says Magee, managing director at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. That's not Morris' plan: "If anything, we're making stores better." 100 million tourists The Bass Pro concept stands out among retailers in at least one capacity: It draws tourists. The store here is about tied with the St. Louis Gateway Arch for tourists at about 4 million a year. Visitors to all stores are expected to top 100 million this year thanks to store openings in Altoona, Iowa, and Calgary. That compares with an estimated 60 million annual visitors for Walt Disney World in Orlando. The stores, themed to represent each location's geography, draw customers for the hunting, fishing and other outdoor gear, but also laser arcades, aquariums, fly-fishing lessons and wildlife exhibits. There are conservation lectures at every store in auditoriums named after Morris' beloved Uncle Buck, who introduced him to fishing and is memorialized with a bronze statue at the entrance to the store here. Morris says Sam Walton used to visit the store in the 1980s with no shopping cart, just a pad to take notes. Not that Morris is opposed to a little copycatting: A late '70s trip to L.L. Bean's Maine flagship that Morris and his sister Susie Henry took provided much of the inspiration for the store here, which was opened in 1982. "I thought, 'If they can attract all these people to Maine, I can do something similar in Missouri,' " Morris says. There wasn't too much to brag about in Bass Pro's early days, but Morris learned a lesson in the importance of knowing your customers. Already a regular contestant and finalist for the Bassmaster Classic tournament in 1970, he watched closely to see what "secret lures" the winners used and bought them, as he says many of the winners were "upstart manufacturers" who sold the lures as well. "It was far better than being a buyer sitting in an office at Wal-Mart," Morris says. Uncle Buck also made hand-tied lures and "eels" from sowbellies that were bottled in baby-food jars. Soon, Morris' bait and lures were squeezing the beer to the side of his dad's Brown Derby liquor store, where he got his retail start. Within two years, Morris was selling catalogs for $2, and his grandmother, aunts and sisters were holding "mailing parties." Family has always played a big role at Bass. Morris' father-in-law's company installed the first big aquarium; wife Jeanie, an interior decorator, helped design the gift shop at Bass Pro's Big Cedar lodge; sister Susie set up the company's computer system in 1976; and sister Carol Robinson continues to help with marketing and public relations projects. Humble and unassuming Morris, 61, can be a hard guy to pin down — even to work for — but his apparently authentic "aw shucks" attitude makes him a hard one not to like. He's casual and unassuming to the core, a slightly built man who favors khakis, open-collared shirts and listening more than talking. At breakfast recently at the Big Cedar lodge in nearby Branson, Morris' family got uncomfortably close to flattery. Jeanie said she's "never seen anyone as loyal as he is with friends and family." Daughter Meg, 19, says, "The greatest lesson he's taught me is humility." Says Morris with an embarrassed grin: "Stop it, that's enough." Jack Emmitt, who started 29 years ago as the first fishing department manager and now works as a consultant, says Morris "wasn't the best talker" back in the early days. Having accepted dozens of awards for both conservation and retailing since, Morris has developed if not the gift of gab, at least a bit more comfort at the podium. Accepting the National Retail Federation's Retail Innovator of the Year award last year from Kathwari, Morris was choked up as he gave most of the credit to his employees and his late father, who was his "biggest hero" and "the most savvy merchant ever to come down the pike." By the end of his remarks, in which he apologized for the video introduction — "sorry that big advertisement ran on so long" — Morris was hardly the only one sniffling among the thousands in the crowd. His employees may love him, too, but they may not always love working for him. It can be a "nightmare for some of those people," says Jan Riddle, distribution manager and, at 35 years, the longest-serving employee at the company. Clay Self, the country music singer who's been playing the Buzzard Bar at Big Cedar for 21 years, describes driving anywhere with Morris as a lesson in patience. If he sees a particularly interesting tree — especially a twisted cedar — Morris will insist the driver pull over and take what Self says seems like thousands of photos. Still, Self says, "It's twice the experience it would be if you'd gone out by yourself." It's not just a quirky habit. Morris is involved in the details of his store interiors, right down to the looks of the life-size trees, some of which are — you guessed it — twisted cedars. He sends his employees to museums around the country so the wildlife dioramas closely replicate the natural habitat where animals live in the areas around the stores. Emmitt recalls workers moving a wall at least six times during construction of the store here and realizing it probably wound up just 6 inches from where it started. "He sees things the average person doesn't," Emmitt says. Reeling in costs Morris is learning his share of flexibility these days. When the store here was built in 1982, "No sane banker would have ever approved it because we didn't have a payback model," he says. So Morris used revenue from selling all those lures and sowbelly eels and tapped a line of credit so he wouldn't have to "apply for a special line justification for aquariums and waterfalls." "We were having fun for our customers, rather than looking at what the financial return would be," says the man who calls himself "chief fishing officer" or "chief daydreamer." In 1978, Morris came up with the idea for the best-selling boat in the company's lineup, the aluminum Bass Tracker, and even sold them in a catalog, which people said would never work. They were the "biggest gamble the company ever took," says Morris, as they were sold with motors and trailers as a package, which had never been done before. Bass' boating business, Tracker Marine, has been merged with the store side of the company. The company also is working to promote boating as a lifestyle. The heck with the financial naysayers. "Buy a boat, get a return in the happiness it brings," Morris says. "You've got to sell the fun of things, too." Even if his costly and expansive vision of retail needs more adjusting in this economy, you won't catch Morris racking his brain for more ways to do it. President Jim Hagale, who joined the company in 2002, took on a more active role earlier this year in helping manage all of the Bass Pro properties, including Big Cedar and Tracker Marine. In an interview, Hagale said his job is to inject "some discipline around the vision" while being careful not to "dilute the concept, or we're going to be like everyone else who sells shotgun shells and rubber worms." Hagale laughs that Morris recently summed up their roles and relationship pretty well: "He said, 'I think we're a pretty good team. You stay here and work, and I'll go test the product.' "

Where's the "remove chinook salmon option"?

BINGO! Give the man a cigar. It's simply Gar.

You may have taught the family a few things in life TJ, but fishing ain't one of them. Nicely done Jaden.

I had my first dealing with him back in June of this year. I needed an anti reverse bearing for a Quantum spinning reel, and I needed it a.s.a.p. A quick phone call, my credit card # and 2 days later it was in my mail box. I was happy.