Spiel

Whether or not the atlantic salmon fishery takes off or fails is a moot point. What matters Mike is that you got out and helped.

Sad indeed. What's really scary (for me) is my 17 year old daughter was in that park this past weekend. She arrived safely home on Tuesday.

Dang! I don't have a sled but the one I want is parked at TJ's.

BINGO! Fresh steelhead are not terribly difficult to hook if your presenting your bait in the right place in the right manner.

Conservation plan wipes out goldfish Oct 28, 2009 Eric McGuinness / The Hamilton Spectator Goodbye, goldfish. The Hamilton Conservation Authority believes it has eradicated most, if not all, goldfish from McCormack and Merrick ponds in the Dundas Valley, where they threatened endangered Jefferson salamanders and other native amphibians. Ecologist Shari Faulkenham says an Owen Sound company applied the plant-based pesticide rotenone last week with almost-immediate results. Enough goldfish to fill three 150-litre containers were removed from McCormack Pond. Faulkenham says that confirms earlier estimates of 40,000 in the pond, because many of those killed likely settled to the bottom. About a dozen large adults and several dozen yearlings were removed from Merrick Pond. "So I would like to claim success," she said, "but it is difficult to say if it is 100 per cent success at this time." Faulkenham said experts are confident any remaining goldfish will die before the chemical breaks down completely. Checks for live fish will be made next month. People have been seen leaving one of the ponds with nets and pails at night, officials say, leading them to believe the goldfish were planted illegally with the intention of letting them breed, then harvesting them for sale as aquarium feeder fish.

Government pours money into river recovery October 26th, 2009 John Law / Niagara Falls Review Niagara’s portion of the Great Lakes got just a bit greater Saturday. The federal government gave a $326,000 financial boost for seven “areas of concern” in Niagara as part of Environment Canada’s Great Lakes Sustainability Fund. The money will go towards habitat improvement, cleaner water, and other issues identified by biologists, technicians and trained volunteers. “We can’t forget the Great Lakes,” said Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson during the announcement at Table Rock. “They are a crucial ecosystem that contains 20% of the world’s fresh water supply.” The government has pledged more than $2 million this year towards 39 trouble spots along the Great Lakes. The seven spots in Niagara include the region’s Niagara Falls Central Pump Station, the wetland habitat along the Niagara River and the Niagara Parks Commission’s Niagara River Bank Stabilization Project at the northern point of Navy Island. Debbie Whitehouse, executive director of the commission’s parks department, said bioengineering will be used to tackle erosion control. “Other than a hard and fast engineering approach, this is a much more environmentally sustainable approach.” The Niagara River has been cited as one of five binational areas of concern by the Great Lakes Sustainability Fund. There are 14 areas in total. The fund provides help for initiatives aimed at reducing pollution, restoring habitat and cleaning up contaminated sediment. It also supports projects to clean up contaminated beaches. The Niagara River portion of the Great Lakes runs 58 kilo-metres, from lakes Erie to Ontario. Its problems include excessive nutrient loads (such as phosphorous), inputting to the watershed, and wetland and habitat loss. For more information on the fund, visit sustainabilityfund. gc.ca

Asian Carp Invasion would be a Freshwater Disaster for Canada As the invasive fish pound on the door to Lake Michigan and the rest of the Great Lakes, emergency action must be taken to stop the threat www.ofah.org October 14, 2009 (Ottawa, Toronto)- Invasive Asian carp have reached the Great Lake's last line of defense outside of Chicago, Illinois, and one heavy rainfall can see them breach the electric barrier protecting the world's largest source of surface freshwater from these voracious fish. Environmental and conservation groups are urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take emergency action, while the Canadian government is urged to support the effort in any way possible. Currently, an electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC) is all that prevents the fish from spreading into the Great Lakes. Recently discovered just a mile from the barrier, the carp have also been found in waterways less than 100 feet from the canal, and could bypass the barrier completely if a heavy rain causes the Des Plaines River to flood. "This is an emergency and we are down to sandbags and mortar," says Jennifer Nalbone, from Great Lakes United. "Barriers must be built between these nearby waterways and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to ensure that during a fall flood live carp cannot be carried into the CSSC past the electrical barrier." Asian carp present a significant risk to Canadian freshwaters. The Canadian department of Fisheries and Oceans has warned via risk assessments that Asian carp species would not only survive, but, due to similar temperatures found in its native range in China, likely thrive in the Great Lakes and across most of the provinces. "There is an urgent threat of the carp entering Lake Michigan if the nearby waterways flood into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal," says Mary Muter Georgian Baykeeper from Georgian Bay Forever. "One heavy rain event could spell disaster for the Great Lakes and inland waters across Canada." In addition to the Des Plaines River, which in some places is only yards away from the CSSC, the carp are poised to also enter another adjacent canal, the Illinois & Michigan (I&M), which is connected to the CSSC by small culverts that the carp can swim through during heavy rains. The Asian carp are invasive fish that are harming the environment and economies of the Mississippi and threaten to do the same to the Great Lakes. The term captures four different species of fish: the bighead, grass, silver and black carp, of which the first three have invaded the Mississippi River watershed. The fish are voracious feeders that can grow to maximum weights of 40-50 kg based on species, quickly dominating a waterbody due to their size. They would cause irreversible harm to the Great Lakes by consuming large quantities of food, muscling out native fish populations, and altering native habitat. Meanwhile, the silver carps' tendency to jump out of the water when startled makes them a hazard to boaters. The CSSC is a man-made waterway that connects Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River basin. Originally intended as a means for the city of Chicago to overcome sewage problems in the early 20th century, it created an artificial connection through which aquatic invasive species can pass in both directions. This is the only waterway connecting the two basins. The electric barrier is located near Romeoville, Illinois on the CSSC. A new DNA monitoring technique being used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in conjunction with the University of Notre Dame, found that invasive Asian carp are a mere mile from the electric barrier in the CSSC. In response the Corps increased the voltage at the barrier from 1 to 2 volts. Allies in the United States are circulating an action alert that calls on citizens to contact their member of congress, senators, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and urge them to take action this fall and ensure that: An emergency physical barrier (like sandbags) be built between the Des Plaines and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to ensure the Des Plaines River and live carp cannot flood into the CSSC past the electrical barrier. An additional barrier (such as a bubble/acoustic barrier) is installed to stop the carp from migrating upstream into the Des Plaines River. Critical sections of the I&M Canal be filled in, so that carp cannot swim into the CSSC during floods. Canadian citizens are also being asked to contact the Minister of the Environment, Jim Prentice and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea, and urge that they offer Canada's help in any effort to stop the invasive fish. "If the Asian carp make it to Lake Michigan, they won't stop at the border," says Dr. Terry Quinney from the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters "They will invade all of the Great Lakes, and have the opportunity to spread within inland waterways across the province; affecting the $7 billion dollar recreational and commercial fishery, as well as degrading the biodiversity of our waters." For more information: contact: Jennifer Nalbone, Campaign Director, Invasive Species and Navigation, Great Lakes United: phone: (716) 213-0408 email: [email protected] Mary Muter, Georgian Baykeeper from Georgian Bay Forever: phone (416) 489-8101 email: [email protected] Dr. Terry Quinney, Provincial Manager of Fish and Wildlife Services, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, 705-748-6324, ext. 242 email: [email protected]

Great post Mike. I'll have to hook up with you for some action on this river with you.... It looks like a great place to break in my new baitcast outfit. Unfortunately it'll have to be next fall.

That's a fine bunch of folks you're hanging out with there Joey. I'm glad to see you were able to make it pay off for yous on Sunday. Oh and nice hat Paul.

Cursed? I think not, perhaps you had a monkey on your back, or the proverbial "white stripe" but cursed, no, definitely not. Congrats Wayne, it's a nice wittle musky.....

Outstanding!

JP pinched me in a Brantford bar one night, or maybe it was TJ? I don't know, like I said it was in a bar and the memories are a little fuzzy.

I'm in. I'm in!!!! I'M IN !!!!!!!

I read the same article yesterday Cudz and wondered the same thing. According to the regs as far as I can see FMZ 10 has a minimum of 36 inches. Thus the angler has done nothing illegal. Not knowing how long it was in the livewell and/or if he had travelled any distance with it I offer no further opinion.

Not everyone in Hamilton wants an NHL team.

I watched that show last night (second time) as well Lew. I found it interesting and yet sad at the same time. I felt for the crew of the H.M.C.S. Algonquin noting that they sunk her sister ship the decomishioned H.M.C.S. Huron with her own retrofitted gun. But I'm not convinced it's the best use of (what sadly became) scrap steel. On the upside it was sunk by the Canadians. I do know that once these ships settle on the bottom they do in time become part of the marine enviroment, providing habitat and shelter to a wide variety of marine life unlike smaller discarded trash which is at the mercy of the ocean currents, thus never become a stable part of the marine enviroment. Huron sinks after barrage from HMCS Algonquin

Spiel don't do Quinte.

Soil cleanup allows for development of former shipyard in Collingwood, Ontario PAT BRENNAN / dcnonl.com COLLINGWOOD, Ont. It was one of Ontario’s most spectacular shows. Thousands of spectators would flock to the Collingwood harbour to watch a 10,000-ton lake freighter slide off a concrete dock, plunge into the water and send a two-storey-high tsunami racing across the bay. It happened many times at this Georgian Bay port during the 103 years it was one of Canada’s busiest shipbuilding centres. Collingwood had one of the few shipyards in North America to employ the dramatic side-launch procedure to launch its ships. The shipyard closed down in 1986, but hundreds of spectators will again gather at the The Shipyards to watch spectacular shows. Much of the industrial land of the original shipyards has been bulldozed and sifted and piled and groomed to create a large amphitheatre. It’s one of several of Collingwood’s new waterfront recreation and entertainment features where the shipyards once sat as it evolves into The Shipyards, an exiting new waterfront village. Converting the 40-acre industrial site into an up-scale new home community is being touted as one of the most successful rehabilitation projects on the Great Lakes. The Shipyards sits at the northern terminus of Highway 10 where it meets the waters of Georgian Bay. Its creation is spearheaded by Frank Giannone, president of Fram Building Group. Giannone says in many ways The Shipyards is a twin to Port Credit Village, the award-winning new community with 700 homes that Fram and its partner Slokker Canada, created 139 kilometres down Highway 10, where it starts on the shores of Lake Ontario. That’s why the highway is also known as Hurontario Street. In Port Credit the developers rehabilitated the 26-acre brownfield site of the St. Lawrence Starch Company into a waterfront village and won design and urban renewal awards from the Washington-based Urban Land Institute. Giannone says the cleanup success of the Port Credit site was a major factor in persuading Collingwood the same thing could be done with their shipyards. He hopes to win similar awards with the Collingwood project, which he says was an even bigger ecological challenge. Slokker is a large development and construction company headquartered in Amsterdam, Holland with extensive North American land holdings and construction projects. It is a partner with Fram on both the Collingwood and Port Credit sites. The ship-building facility was owned by former Prime Minister Paul Martin and his Canada Steamships Lines. As well as large lake freighters, the Collingwood yard built 27 corvettes and minesweepers for the Canadian Navy during the Second World War. The last large vessel built in Collingwood was the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Sir Wilfred Laurier, now based in Victoria B.C. When the shipyards closed in 1986 nearly 1,200 jobs were lost. It was the principal employer in town. CSL shifted its shipbuilding and repair operations to the Port Weller fry docks on the Welland Canal in St. Catharines, Ont. in a joint venture with Upper Lakes Shipping. The buildings on the Collingwood shipyards were knocked down and for 20 years the site sat like an ugly moonscape separating the town from its downtown waterfront. The cleanup of the former shipyard was a joint venture with CSL, Fram and Slokker and directed by Terraprobe Ltd., a Brampton-based environmental engineering firm. “We had to move nearly 14,000 truck loads of contaminated soil, but with the design of the project we were able to keep most of it on site. If we had to truck that soil off site somewhere we could never afford to develop the site,” said Giannone. It took more than four years to clean up the site before home construction could start. Fred Serrafero, VP of development at Fram, said 130,000 metric tones of contaminated soil were groomed into a seven-acre berm standing 12 metres high on the west side of the property. The berm was then covered with more than a metre of clean fill. It will serve as a toboggan hill in winter and a perch year round for views out over Georgian Bay. Twenty test wells were drilled in and around the new park to measure water quality. No toxic leakage was detected, so development proceeded. The site had been created in the 1800s by dumping coal ash and cinders into Georgian Bay, plus dredging sand up from the bottom of the bay. Serrafero said much of that material was approved by Ontario Ministry of Environment to be retained, treated and covered on site. He said test wells will be monitored twice a year for five years. More than 18,000 cubic metres of wood and 4,000 cubic metres of steel were processed locally, but off the site. Another 50,000 tons of crushed concrete and stone was recycled on site and used to create small islands just off the edge of the park. A fish biologist is creating a fish habitat around the islands. Georgian Aggregates and Construction, a division of Walker Industries Company, did the site clearing, recycling and excavations. Fram and Slokker plan to build 720 low- and mid-rise condominium residences at the site, many of them above retail shops, service boutiques and restaurants. Residents have moved into the first phase. Ralph Giannone, Frank Giannone’s brother is the principal architect for the home designs at The Shipyards. Fram is an acronym using the first letter in the names of John Giannone’s four children — Frank, Ralph, Antionetta and Mariana. John Giannone immigrated to Canada from southern Italy in 1958, started one of Toronto’s largest masonry companies and created Fram in 1981.

Black Creek Spawning Survey www.creditvalleycons.com Help conduct a survey of trout spawning areas. Beginners will be matched with experts to identify Brown trout redds (nests) as part of a long term monitoring program. Location: Meet at Acton Community Centre on Highway 7 Time: October 24, 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. Cost: Free Contact: Sherwin Watson-Leung of Credit Valley Conservation at (905) 670-1615 ext. 447

Warning buoys and booms to be removed from GRCA dams www.grandriver.ca Warning buoys and booms upstream of GRCA dams will be removed the week of Oct. 19 to prepare for winter. They will be put back in place in May 2010 after the spring runoff. -Monday, Oct. 19. - New Dundee Dam, Wellesley Dam and Breslau Dam -Wednesday, Oct. 21 - Drimmie Dam (Elora), Bissell Dam (Elora), Everton Dam and Rockwood Dam -Thursday, Oct. 22 - Dunnville Dam and Dunnville Weirs 2, 3 and 4 -Friday, Oct. 23 - Caledonia Dam and Wilkes Dam (Brantford) -Monday, Oct 26. - Parkhill Dam (Cambridge) and New Hamburg Dam -Tuesday, Oct. 27. - Conestogo Dam and Woolwich Dam -Wednesday, Oct. 28 - Shand Dam -Thursday, Oct. 29 - Guelph Dam The schedule is subject to change depending on weather conditions. The buoys and booms are installed each May to provide warning to boaters about the danger of approaching these dams. Boaters should exercise extra caution around the dams after the buoys and booms are removed.

They sure are purdy!

Cobourg Creek restoration a cooperative success story Stage set for return of Atlantic salmon to local creek Oct 09, 2009 PEG MCCARTHY / NORTHUMBERLAND NEWS COBOURG -- Thanks, in part, to local efforts to clean up and enhance the quality of water in Cobourg Creek, Atlantic salmon may soon return to spawn in the creek and its tributaries. Terry Quinney, fish and wildlife services provincial manager with the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH), provided Cobourg councillors with an update on the Lake Ontario Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program, at the Oct. 5 committee of the whole meeting. The program, with over 30 public and private partners, targets three water courses; the Cobourg Creek, Duffins Creek (Durham Region), the Credit River (Toronto). Mr. Quinney told council that the town, along with the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority and with help from community volunteers, has done a wonderful job at enhancing the water quality in the creek. “Atlantic salmon are finicky creatures,” he said. “Hopefully we will soon see the return of the salmon to spawn in Cobourg Creek and in the longer term, the return of recreational and commercial fishing for Atlantic salmon in the area.” Atlantic salmon have a 12,000 year history in Ontario, he explained. Lake Ontario was once home to the Atlantic salmon, however, by 1896, the species was wiped out due to dam building, farming and development on its spawning streams, and over-fishing in both the streams and the lake. Atlantic salmon was one of the first species in Canada to be eliminated through human activities. The program features a four-pronged restoration strategy over a 15-to 20-year time frame: fish production and stocking; habitat restoration and water quality enhancement; research and monitoring; and education and outreach, said Mr. Quinney. Now entering the five-year mark, the program has stocked 1.6 million fish within the three targeted tributaries. On the local front, students at Cobourg District Collegiate Institutes East and West, and other area classrooms, have worked hand-in-hand with the initiative, hosting hatching aquariums and successfully raising eggs to the fry stage before releasing them into the local creek. The goal of the program is to get the hatchlings to return to the creek to spawn. This year, the program saw 10 local habitat restorations (planting trees along the stream), a stream clean-up day, one fencing/crossing project, plus 17,000 yearling salmon stocked in April, 112,000 fry stocked in May, and with a planned stocking of 60,000 fall fingerlings over the next three weeks, he said. Chris Robinson, Lake Ontario Atlantic aalmon restoration program coordinator, said there is someone from OFAH in the Cobourg stream eight months of the year, whether it be staff members, graduate students, summer students or technicians. Currently, a crew of three from the Cobourg Creek Adult Assessment Team spends its days at the Cobourg Creek Golf Course, at Ontario and Elgin streets, in the pond just below the old dam at the ninth hole, said Mr. Robinson. The crew on the lookout for Atlantic salmon and when they spot one, they will gently give the fish a lift over the dam. Hopefully, the fish will spawn and continue the life cycle necessary to ensure the former locally extinct fish will once again populate Lake Ontario and its tributaries. “This dam has probably been here over 200 years and it’s too high for Atlantic salmon to get over,” he said. “In the longer term, it’s hoped to build a way around the dam that the fish can navigate but for now, they need a lift.” According to the OFAH, Atlantic salmon live in oceans or freshwater lakes and migrate up river in fall to spawn. The egg incubate in gravel nests over winter and hatch in early spring, The young salmon stay in the streams one to three years, before migrating to open water, where they spend at least a year maturing into adults. Some type of internal homing device gives the adult salmon the ability to return to its hatching ground year after year to spawn the next generation. For more information about the program, visit www.bringbackthesalmon.ca. Sidebar: Atlantic salmon - Records indicate Atlantic salmon as heavy as 45 pounds were once caught in Lake Ontario. - Historically, 40 Lake Ontario tributaries supported strong Atlantic salmon runs. - Atlantic salmon were once so abundant, early settlers would harvest them by the barrel. - In the 1860s, Samuel Wilmot built the first government-sponsored fish hatchery on Wilmot Creek (in neigbouring Newcastle) as an attempt in reverse the decline of the Atlantic salmon population. - Freshwater Atlantic salmon exist in Quebec, Newfoundland, Michigan, Vermont and Maine.

Bighead carp a big-time threat to Great Lakes ecosystem Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 JOSH WINGROVE / Globe and Mail Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources officers monitor the trade in bigheads, which may not be kept and sold alive On a bed of ice cubes, only a few scraps remain. Half a dozen tails ($2.79 a pound) and two huge heads ($1.99 a pound), under a sign written in English and Chinese: bighead, a type of carp. Here at Hua Sheng Supermarket, and at others along Spadina Avenue, the fish are a moderately popular choice among shoppers, most of them Chinese. "I'd say it's good," shrugs Hu Wen Jie, one of the salesmen, saying they sell about 100 pounds of the carp each week. They used to sell more. "Before, we'd sell it swimming." He means the carp were sold alive, a practice now illegal in Ontario. The province is going after the fish, widely considered the worst nightmare of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Bighead carp grow, multiply, and move quickly, beating other fish to food. They can grow to be a metre long and 45 kilograms in weight - the heads in Hua Sheng are the size of a road yield sign. U.S. Fisheries and Wildlife Services/AP A U.S. Fisheries and Wildlife Services officer holds a bighead carp captured in the Illinois River. Since the U.S. imported the fish from Asia to clear algae out of ponds, bighead have expanded out of control. They've moved through the Mississippi River system, overtaking it and other waterways and leaving little in their wake. U.S. officials are trying electric fences and poison to keep them from spreading to the Great Lakes. (There's even a U.S. national action plan; It's 265 pages long.) Ontario, too, is on the offensive against the fish, also called Asian carp. In 2004, the province banned the sale of live bighead, punishable by fines for any store owner found guilty. Dead ones may still be sold. The fines for selling the live fish range from $3,500 to $6,500 for retailers found with a few fish, and upwards of $10,000 for a convicted wholesaler, precedent suggests. Eight people have been convicted so far. The most recent came last week, when Fu Yao Supermarket, located on Gerrard Street East was fined $4,500 after Ministry of Natural Resources investigators found a pair of live bighead in the store late last year. "The harm associated with the existence of these fish alive in the Great Lakes region is extraordinary," Crown prosecutor Tania Monteiro told the court. With that, the judge started nodding. He explained he was a sportsman and had seen tapes of the fish in United States rivers. Stirred by the sound of passing engines, the bighead jump. They've been known to break the nose of a passing boater. "You're talking to the converted here," the judge said. Roger Gosbee, Fu Yao Supermarket's lawyer, said it was an honest mistake - the manager had gone on lunch when the MNR investigators showed up. Staff started unpacking 98 pounds of dead bighead, but found two live ones in the shipment. They simply tossed them in the aquarium, the lawyer later explained in an interview. It was that mistake that cost the store $4,500. "My client takes this matter seriously. It was a mistake by an employee," Mr. Gosbee told the court. The ministry says the province's eight convictions have resulted in $112,000 in fines. Officers go door to door at retailers and wholesalers across the province looking for violations. The problem is unique in Toronto, where demand for the product, dead or alive, clashes with efforts to keep it out of the waterways. It has made ministry enforcement officers semi-regular guests in Chinatowns. "The demand for a fresh product is what creates non-compliance 'hot-spots,' " ministry spokesman Matthew Orok said in an e-mail. "If a market can demonstrate that their product is fresher than the competition then they can move more of this product. The easiest way to demonstrate 'freshness' with regards to fish is to have them alive in the store." The challenge is getting the word out, particularly in the Chinese community. Along Spadina, there are whispers of where live bighead may still be available. Scarborough, one person says, while another says to try the United States. "For a few years now, no one has been allowed to sell it," says Chen Shi Young, Mr. Hu's boss and the Hua Sheng manager on duty one recent night. Told of the fine handed to Fu Yao, his competitor, he is surprised - though his own employee had earlier confided that Hua Sheng had, too, been fined under the law years earlier. "They [Fu Yao] were not careful ... When the fish comes, it has to be dead," said Mr. Chen, "As long as they're not swimming in an aquarium, you're okay." BIGHEAD CARP 101 The fish: Bighead carp The cost: $1.99 to $3.49 per pound The source: Legally sold bighead is imported from the southern United States. It's illegal to have a live bighead carp in Ontario. The guilty: There have been eight convictions since a 2004 law banned the possession and sale of the fish. The fines total $112,000. The enforcement: Ministry of Natural Resources officers patrol markets and wholesalers across the province. They're looking for bighead; grass, another carp; snakeheads; round and tubenose gobies; ruffe; silver carp and black carp. All are invasive species. The targets: "Supermarkets, wholesale facilities, restaurants and even the pet trade (aquarium stores)," spokesman Matthew Orok said in an e-mail. The threat: If introduced to Ontario waterways, the result could be catastrophic. The fish overtake most ecosystems they live in, beating other fish to food and reproducing quickly. "The reason for this ban is due to the ecological damage these species are capable of with regards to displacement of native species, and to stop the spread of these invasive species into our aquatic environments," Mr. Orok said.

And here I thought with a name like Slowpoke the fish would have been belly up by the time it was boatside.

Good morning Mike (and everyone else). I've been up since 3am, couldn't sleep knowing my buddy is off to the Saugeen without me.....