Spiel

That's an interesting assortment of fish Cliff, perhaps the next time you'll get those Kingfish, they do fight hard! I'm certain that you not ever going to see a report from me on the fishing in Beirut.

Jigging for walleye, is there any other way?

PEARLS UNSTRUNG For a while, the Great Lakes weren’t connected by rivers and Niagara Falls was just a trickle August 29th, 2009 Sid Perkins / Science News The thundering roar at the base of Niagara Falls is awesome indeed. On an average summer day, about 40 million gallons of water spill over the half-mile–wide Canadian portion of the cataract each minute. After falling over a cliff taller than a 16-story building, water pummels the rocks below, incessantly eroding the base of the cliff and triggering rockfalls. Before the 20th century, when engineers weakened the Niagara River by diverting some of its flow to produce hydroelectric power, the falls marched upstream an average of more than a meter per year. Niagara Falls is one of the last links in an impressive chain: Water flows from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, onward to Lake Erie, then down the Niagara River and over the falls to Lake Ontario and thence to the sea. Today the falls seem unstoppable, but scientists have learned that there was a time after the most recent ice age when Niagara Falls was a mere trickle and the Great Lakes were a little less great. During the ice age, which began about 100,000 years ago, a kilometers-thick ice sheet smothered the region. And Niagara Falls — or the ice-covered cliff that would become the falls —was located several kilometers downstream of its current site. Sometime around 13,000 years ago, the ice retreated northward, leaving meltwater to accumulate in gouges that were left behind. With the first flush of meltwater, lake levels rose and the falls raged. Studies show that as ice retreated and climate dried, however, the falls slowed to a trickle for several millennia, starting about 10,000 years ago. Scientists once thought that the falls slowed because the overflow from Lake Erie was rerouted to a different spillway when the landscape tilted and shifted as it was relieved of its icy burden. But now they are learning that some of the rivers connecting one lake to another simply disappeared during a long dry spell that started about 12,500 years ago. In the last decade or so, scientists have uncovered clues that the water level in Lake Erie — and indeed, the levels in at least some of the other Great Lakes — fell well below all natural outlets, rendering those lakes isolated bodies of water. New studies, including archaeological surveys and genetic analyses of fish, bolster the notion that today’s submarine ridges and nearshore shallows were once land bridges and lakeside beaches. Ups and downs Today, even small fluctuations in lake levels can have a big effect on the region. In a good year, vessels from the United States, Canada and other nations transport more than 200 million tons of iron ore, coal and other cargo on the lakes, says Glen Nekvasil, vice president of the Lake Carriers’ Association, based in Rocky River, Ohio. For every inch (2.5 centimeters) that lake levels drop, he says, the 65 vessels represented by the trade group must forgo carrying about 8,200 tons of cargo. Instruments have tracked Lake Erie’s water level only since the mid-1800s, but in that time the level has, according to modern standards, fluctuated substantially. From 1900 to today, the lake’s surface altitude has varied by about 1.5 meters, says Gregory C. Wiles, a paleoclimatologist at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Although many people have suspected that human activity —dredging, engineering projects and the like — caused those variations, a study reported by Wiles and his colleagues in the March 6 Geophysical Research Letters hints that natural climate cycles are largely to blame. Today, average precipitation over Lake Erie is about 99 centimeters per year, the researchers note. But evaporation steals about 90 centimeters of that water annually; the surplus water joins the incoming flow from the upper Great Lakes and exits Lake Erie via the Niagara River, says Wiles. Water level in the lake depends on the balance between income and outgo: In spring, when snowmelt is prodigious and temperatures — and therefore evaporation — are relatively low, the lake’s level is typically at its high point for the year. In late summer and autumn, when air temperatures and evaporation are relatively high, the level sinks. Similarly, extended dry spells across the Upper Midwest cause lake levels to fall, says Wiles. The lowest recorded water level in Lake Erie came during the mid-1930s, near the end of the driest stretch of the Dust Bowl years. High lake levels from the 1970s through the 1990s may have resulted from weather patterns that brought higher-than-normal amounts of moisture north from the Gulf of Mexico. Data locked in tree rings offer a way to extend the precipitation record of the Midwest back in time. For example, tree ring data from forests along the Gulf of Alaska indicate that when winter sea-surface temperatures in the North Pacific were warmer than normal, the Upper Midwest received less precipitation. That, in turn, caused water levels in the Great Lakes to drop. This link alone can explain half the modern variations in Lake Erie’s level, Wiles and his colleagues report. Other climate cycles — including El Niño, the warming of sea-surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific —influence rainfall in the Great Lakes basin as well, the researchers’ analyses concluded. “The Great Lakes are a great dipstick of the region’s climate,” says Wiles. And climate will help determine the lakes’ future as well. A recent report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program states that, under a business-as-usual scenario for carbon dioxide emissions, Great Lakes levels will drop substantially toward the end of this century. Between 2020 and 2100, the water level in Lake Superior will decline about 15 centimeters, the researchers estimate. Over the same time period, water levels in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan will decline almost 50 centimeters, a change that could render parts of some harbors largely inaccessible. Wide swings Compared with today, water levels in the Great Lakes seesawed wildly after the last ice age, including occasional big rises. And evidence also suggests that some lakes were overflowing while others were evaporating away. In 2008, scientists reported that small spruce saplings buried high in an embankment along the northwestern shore of Lake Superior indicate that the lake’s surface rose at least several meters — drowning the region for several centuries beginning about 8,900 years ago — before levels sank again (SN Online: 10/9/08). But most known excursions in Great Lakes water levels, including those in the eastern lakes at the same time, have taken lake surfaces lower than modern averages, says Mike Lewis, a marine geologist emeritus with the Geological Survey of Canada in Dartmouth. Sonar scans of Lake Superior’s floor show kilometers-long troughs that were scoured by icebergs at the end of the last ice age (SN: 1/6/07, p. 14). Those features, as well as long-submerged beaches revealed by other sonar studies, reveal that water levels in the lake fell at least 70 meters below the modern-day average some time in the past 10,000 years or so, Lewis notes. What are now nearshore shallows would have been exposed during that era and could have been home to villages and broad hunting grounds for Native Americans. Sonar scans taken off the northeastern shore of Lake Erie also show relict, now-flooded beaches. And analyses of sediments extracted from one of those ancient shorelines, as well as cores drilled elsewhere in the lake, reveal new details of the lakes’ configuration after the last ice age, Lewis and his colleagues reported in Toronto in May at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Not only were the Great Lakes’ levels at the end of the last ice age lower than they are today, the researchers note, but also the lakes covered much less area. The relatively shallow western regions of Lake Erie, for example, were covered by marsh plants between 14,600 and 12,900 years ago — a sure sign that this area was mostly exposed as the last ice age drew to a close and that lake levels during this interval were far lower than they are today. Sediment cores drilled from the center of the lake reveal that the accumulation of mud there decreased substantially between 12,500 and 8,300 years ago. Finally, Lewis notes, a sediment core drilled from a now-flooded beach about 30 meters below the lake’s surface indicates that mud began to pile up on that wave-eroded surface only after 8,400 years ago. Specifically, water levels in Lake Erie were falling at the same time that overflow from Lake Huron, the nearest neighbor upstream, flowed to the sea via other routes. Today, between 85 and 90 percent of the water that flows out of Lake Erie has flowed in from the Great Lakes upstream. Dry up that source of water, Lewis says, and evaporation quickly begins to outpace the lake’s accumulation of precipitation. About 7,600 years ago, lake sediments also began to include hemlock pollen — a sign, says Lewis, that climate became wetter and stayed that way. Accordingly, lake levels gradually rose about seven meters in the centuries that followed. Finally, about 6,300 years ago, the overflow from Lake Huron again switched southward and spilled into Lake Erie, filling it to the brim and once again cranking up the faucets at Niagara Falls. Life in the old Great Lakes Not all the evidence regarding water levels in the Great Lakes has come from rocks and sediments. Archaeological and genetic evidence left behind in and around the lakes supports the idea that their surfaces were once dramatically lower than they are today. This landscape would have been vastly different for animals and early people of the Great Lakes. Earlier this summer, researchers reported that sonar and video surveys of a submarine ridge in Lake Huron revealed structures similar to those used to guide caribou by modern-day hunters in the high Arctic (SN: 7/4/09, p. 14). Between 8,300 and 11,300 years ago, the now-flooded ridge would have been a 16-kilometer–wide land bridge connecting the state of Michigan and Ontario, Canada. The find hints that other structures, possibly even the remnants of small villages, may be preserved on what was once prime lakeside real estate. The legacy of the disconnected lakes is seen in today’s fish populations as well. Despite an apparent lack of geographical barriers between those five lakes today, fish that inhabit Lake Erie have minor mutations in their genetic code that make them genetically distinct from their kin in the other lakes. Take, for instance, the smallmouth bass, Micropterus dolomieu. After the ice sheet covering the Great Lakes retreated, bass that lived in unfrozen rivers and other refuges — including the Mississippi, St. Lawrence, Ohio and Hudson rivers — recolonized the lakes, says Carol A. Stepien, a fish geneticist at the University of Toledo in Ohio. Those diverse origins are preserved in today’s bass, she and her colleagues reported in Molecular Ecology in 2007. The fish in western Lake Erie are most genetically similar to those in Lake St. Clair, a small lake just upstream from there, the researchers discovered. And the fish in eastern Lake Erie are most genetically similar to those in Lake Ontario, which lies just downstream. In the eastern part of Lake Erie, smallmouth bass are also more genetically diverse than their western companions, and fish from areas in between have intermediate levels of diversity. These trends suggest that eastern and central subpopulations of bass were geographically isolated from one another at some time in the past — a scenario also supported by sonar surveys. The data suggest that when Lake Erie was at its lowest level, around 8,800 years ago, what is today a large body of water would have been divided into two largely separate basins connected by a small waterway. Smallmouth bass living in close proximity to each other might be expected to be genetically similar, says Stepien, because they typically don’t migrate and often spawn in the same nesting sites each year. But more surprisingly, genetic analyses of walleye —a fish that remains generally faithful to its nesting sites yet spends much of its life in open waters, mixing with walleye from elsewhere in the lake — show similar trends in diversity. So now findings from the disparate fields of genetics and geology, with a little archaeology thrown in for good measure, seem to be telling the same story: Once upon a time the Great Lakes, today one huge system linked by rivers and straits, were disconnected pools. “I’ve been studying the Great Lakes for a long time, and there have been many puzzles,” says Lewis, “but only now are things coming together and starting to make sense.”

Fish diversion net installed outside Pickering nuke plant September 16th, 2009 / Newsdurhamregion.com Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is installing a fish diversion net in Lake Ontario just outside the Pickering power plant. The goal is to reduce the number of fish dying after swimming into the plant’s water intake pipe. It will be a 610-metre long mesh net with half-inch openings. Residents may have seen divers working on the project outside the plant in recent weeks. “Work began on that in mid-July and it’s almost completed now,” said Pickering A senior vice-president Mark Elliott. The netting itself will be added in October once the other parts are in place. Boaters will be warned by 19 lighted buoys about the netting, which is located 77 metres out from the intake. “They’re asked to say stay well clear of that,” said Mr. Elliott. OPG plans to issue reminders about the net each spring when boating season kicks off.

Good stuff Doug. I'm glad this trip worked out for you and your dad, a memory you'll always cherish. It must have been pretty exciting for you watching your dad land all of those PB's day after day.

New Quantum Fishing Website Goes Live Sept. 14, 2009 / www.great-lakes.org TULSA, Oklahoma - The totally redesigned Quantum web site - www.QuantumFishing.com - went live last week with a new look and many expanded features and functions for the ultimate interactive experience relating to Quantum products, customer service, technical support and a wide range of fishing topics and know-how. The new site incorporates the latest in new media technology advances and puts them in an easy-to-navigate-and-search format that makes QuantumFishing.com extremely user-friendly, regardless of a visitor's level of Internet experience. In addition to general information such as FAQs, dealer locator, trophy board and media room, the site also contains a greatly expanded library of product schematics covering a wide range of years, as well as the most intricate details about PT products, including gear ratios, inches per turn, weight, drag strength, etc. Visitors can also get a behind-the-scenes look at engineering and quality testing that goes into every Quantum rod and reel by choosing one of the many video options. There are also numerous fishing tips videos by Quantum's elite pro staffers, including Kevin VanDam, Shaw Grigsby, Dean Rojas, Greg Hackney and several others, covering fresh and saltwater. The "On Tour" department follows the pros through their respective tournament participations. For customers wanting to communicate directly with the company's engineers and product managers, there's the Quantum Blog. The monitored blog will provide useful communication on most any fishing topic, and expect to find frequent postings by Quantum's pro staffers adding to the exchanges. Certain items, such as Quantum Signature Series PT rods and a variety of promotional clothing, can be purchased through the site's "buy online" areas. The Custom Shop houses all of the information about the rods.

Some beauties there Dan. I hope you'll be guiding me again next year when all is right again! Maybe I'll bring Fish Farmer if'n the ole boy can stay above the sod for another year....

LMAO....I forgot about the skunk trying to get in your boat, too funny. Obviously you were able to keep the skunk at bay (literally).

Yep, that's exactly what I mean. There will be others and I intend to make it one day.

Amazing, incredible, and yet so difficult to read. Great job guys, truly amazing fishing and beautifully reported Mike. Thanks.

Sunday afternoon I took a drive down to the Skyway Salmon Challenge to watch the weigh-ins. I knew there would be a few OFC'ers there so I figured what better way to spend a few hours. Right away I stumble upon Fish Farmer and fishfarmer2 coming in empty handed. Shortly afterwards I see Sonny who also came in empty handed! He did however win the Fishmaster Walleye derby the day before, congrats Sonny. Now this is where it gets interesting. Out of a field of nearly 100 anglers only three fish are brought to the scales and they're all under 11lbs. The previous days of east wind really seemed to have scattered the fish. Anyhow the third place winner who had been out fishing all by himself was also the recent week 7 Salmon Derby winner, that's right......Tonyb. Congratulations Tony, was a pleasure meeting you. Oh and I hope your wife left you a little change for yourself.

I think you mean manely....

What, you couldn't come up with an example yourself? (Flame.... )

Manitoulin lake positive for toxins Sept. 11, 2009 STAR STAFF / www.thesudburystar.com Ice Lake on Manitoulin Island has tested positive for blue-green algae, the Sudbury and District Health Unit announced Thursday. Samples taken by the Ministry of the Environment from the north end of Ice Lake contained a number of species of cyanobacteria -- blue-green algae -- which can produce toxins. Further testing is underway. Ice Lake has had blue-green algae blooms in the past, the most recent being 2007, the health unit said in a release. "Visible algal blooms may produce toxins; therefore, using or drinking the water should be avoided," said Dan Burns, a public health inspector with the health unit. The highest concentrations of toxins are usually found in blooms and scum on the shoreline. These dense accumulations pose the greatest potential risks to people and pets. "People do not usually drink water contaminated with bluegreen algal blooms because of its unsightly pea soup appearance and foul smell," said Burns. Toxins can irritate the skin and, if ingested, can cause diarrhea and vomiting. At high enough levels, toxins may cause liver and nervous system damage. The health unit advises people using lakes and rivers to be on the lookout for algal blooms. If blooms are visible: * Avoid using the water for drinking, bathing, or showering and do not allow children, pets, or livestock to drink or swim in the water. * Lakeshore residents with shallow drinking water intake pipes that might pump in bluegreen algae should be cautious. * Residents should not boil the water because boiling the water may release more toxins into the water. * Residents should avoid cooking with the water because food may absorb toxins from the water during cooking. * Residents should exercise caution with respect to eating fish caught in water where blue-green algal blooms occur. Residents should not eat the liver, kidneys and other organs of fish caught in the water. * Do not treat the water with a disinfectant like bleach. This may break open algae cells and release toxins into the water. * Residents should not rely on water jug filtration systems as they do not protect against the toxins.

Algae bloom brings on feeding binges for local walleye and bass Sept. 11, 2009 TERRY CURTIS / www.northumberlandtoday.com It's that time of year. It happens every fall and, while I can't say I honestly like the start of it, I sure do like the results it produces. I mentioned last week the fact I love this time of year because as the lake gets greener and greener (due to the annual autumn turnover where all the oxygen on top of the water sinks to the bottom and causes the algae to rise to the top) I have Rice Lake pretty much to myself most days. A lot of people look at the green slime on the lake and, wondering what is taking place, shake their heads and drive away. If only they knew what they are missing! All bodies of water go through this annual event, but it's more evident on southern Kawartha lakes because we get the low temperatures at night, then nice warm days and the change in water colour is more pronounced than it is in bigger lakes like Ontario, Simcoe and even the Bay of Quinte. The beginning week or two of the turnover really slows the fishing down. It takes a while for the fish to adapt to the changing temperatures and water clarity, but then they get the natural urge to start feeding heavily to store up energy for the winter ahead. And do they eat! Smart fishers will be out on the lakes now, searching out bright green coontail beds and marking them on maps or global positioning units, then rechecking them every few days to see which remain into the final few days of the fishing season. They die off quickly at this time of year but those that stay will hold the fish as that's where the oxygen is. Walleye and bass especially relate to this fall turnover and almost lose their brains at times as they concentrate on short feeding binges. With that heavy blanket of green over their heads, expect even walleye to move into very shallow water where you would never find them in the spring or summer seasons. They, like the minnows, crayfish and frogs they feed on at this time of year, feel perfectly safe cruising right up on shore -- and I mean right on shore, even in two or less feet of water especially in the evening or on windy days. A couple of things to keep in mind here for whacking lots of walleye and bass while the algae bloom is on. First: for walleye and largemouth bass, finding these weedbeds is crucial. That's where they will live, although they will definitely hit the shallow water I mentioned for evening and windy conditions. For smallies, hit rocky points, sandy beaches and especially pea gravel bars or humps in shallow water. Mostly though, concentrate on colour for all three species once you find these remaining weedbeds, clumps and shoreline feeding areas. The majority of the fish in the Kawarthas feed on perch or bluegill. That's a given. So think lures and baits in the colours those panfish have on their bodies: black or dark green backs; yellow, or even better, orange bellies and sides mixed in with chartreuse sides and cheeks. Think that's why my number one go-to bait is a Rapala Hot Steel X-SHAD crankbait for buckets and walleye at this time of year? Or a black/chartreuse bucktail jig for the smallies?

Big fish, big fun with McKellar tournament Sept. 9, 2009 Al and Lesley Last / www.parrysound.com Big Fish Classic 2009 Attention anglers, once again put September 25 to 27 aside to participate in the McKellar Conservation Association’s (MCA) Lake Manitouwabing Big Fish Classic tournament. This is the MCA’s greatest annual money-raising event, with the profits funding many MCA conservation efforts in and around McKellar Township. The Big Fish Classic (BFC) includes several events which are included in the registration fees. The fee for adults is $60; the fee for children under 16 is $50. Note that these fees apply for entries up to September 11. Fees after this date are $70 for adults and $60 for children under 16. These entry fees include a roast beef dinner (Saturday, Sept.26, from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) at the McKellar Community Centre prior to the prize ceremony and the Sunday Big Fish Shootout for an additional prize. The main prizes consist of $1,000 for each of the heaviest bass, pike or walleye. In addition to this there will be prizes awarded for your heaviest catch registered at either of the MCA’s two weigh-in stations. To enrol in this increasingly popular event, go to www.bigfishclassic.com and click on “information” which is in red on the second paragraph of the home page and follow instructions, or send a cheque payable to ‘McKellar Conservation Association’ to Judy Savage, 11 Lizzie’s Lane, RR#1, Site 12, Comp.15, Parry Sound, ON., P2A 2W7. Please include the name, address and e-mail address of each person registering, the total number of anglers in the party and number of boats in the party. To register in person, see Steve Bradley at Manitouwabing Taxidermy, 6 Catherine St. in McKellar, 705-389-2666.

Michigan pipeline, S. Ontario sprawl cited as threats to Lake Huron water Sept. 9, 2009 Jim Moodie / www.manitoulin.ca LAKE HURON - Between a recently approved pipeline to Flint, Michigan and the spectre of southern Ontario growth zones tapping into a Collingwood-Alliston line that draws from Georgian Bay, stewards of Lake Huron have plenty to be concerned about these days. On August 31, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality approved a plan to flow 322 million litres of water per day to Genesee County, which includes the city of Flint, via a new pipeline that will be built between Lake Huron and this landlocked corner of the Wolverine State. Meanwhile, the extension of a sewage pipe north of Toronto through the York Region, along with development plans for the Simcoe area, are causing alarm that urban sprawl will edge closer to Georgian Bay and result in a cross-watershed take of H20. Mary Muter, Georgian Baykeeper through the Waterkeeper Alliance and a member of the cottager-based charity Georgian Bay Forever (GBF), has both developments on her radar, and neither one strikes her as boding well for the continent's second-largest lake. In July, she communicated her concerns regarding the Michigan pipeline to state authorities, arguing that Genesee County's proposal for a new withdrawal from Huron "demonstrates a clear lack of respect for the mainly finite resource that is available in our Great Lakes." Genesee County is already getting water from Lake Huron through an infamously leaky line maintained by Detroit, she noted, and that porous infrastructure-estimated to lose 20 percent of the water it pumps-should be patched up before any new pipeline is given a green light. Furthermore, the proposal "fails to respect the spirit of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement signed in December 2005 by the eight Great Lakes states and Ontario and Quebec," she contended. This agreement, referred to more commonly as the Great Lakes Compact, is legally binding among the US states and places a cap on most diversions, as well as sets new standards for water conservation and environmental protection. "We submitted our comments," she told the Expositor, "and basically got a response saying: 'Sorry, we're going ahead.'" Genesee officials, who hope to begin construction of the $600-million pipeline this coming year, argue there will be no net loss to Lake Huron since the county was already drawing from this source via Detroit. Moreover, the withdrawal won't move water out of the Great Lakes basin; anything used will eventually flow back into the same system, they say. Critics like Ms. Muter are far from reassured by such points, particularly since there is no guarantee that Detroit would cut back its usage in proportion to the amount of water Genesee will be getting through its alternative conduit. "If Michigan was sincere about adhering to the intent of the compact, they should be asking Detroit to reduce its withdrawal equal to the amount that Genesee is proposing to take," she said. As well, she's alarmed that the Genesee plan overlooks the conservation measures stipulated in the Great Lakes agreement, which calls on jurisdictions to reduce water consumption by 10 percent. "Their permit is for double what the population and projected needs are," she said. "They're going in the opposite direction." Great Lakes United, an environmental group spanning both sides of the Canada-US border, has also opposed the development, as has Sarnia mayor Mike Bradley, who told Sun Media that the controversial plan highlights the need for greater cross-border communication on water withdrawals. "This has clearly flagged the issue and it's been raised on an international level," he said. Closer to home, Ms. Muter and other environmentalists are warily eyeing the northward extension of a York Region sewage pipe which empties into Lake Ontario, along with development strategies for Simcoe County, whose main waterbodies-including Lake Simcoe-drain into Georgian Bay via the Severn River. If water and waste move between southern Ontario and the Simcoe region, "they are crossing the hydrological divide," noted Ms. Muter. The Georgian Baykeeper worries that urbanization of this swath of land between the GTA and cottage country is "a slippery slope," and the spread of development could easily result in demands for water from Lake Huron. "Georgian Bay is seen as a clean, unlimited resource," she said. "If the sewage pipe is moving that far north I can also see it going west, and water being moved directly from Georgian Bay to southern Ontario." There's an existing water pipe running from Collingwood to Alliston that is about two feet in diameter and has plenty of capacity remaining, according to the baykeeper. "There are a dozen Ts built into the Collingwood pipeline that aren't being used," said Ms. Muter. "I fear this will be used to start servicing more areas." Intrabasin transfers-crossing the watershed of one Great Lake to another-are forbidden except in a few, strictly regulated exceptions, according to the terms of the Great Lakes Compact, Ms. Muter noted. She's alarmed by the Michigan scheme to siphon water from Huron through a new pipeline, but is equally, if not more, concerned about Ontario's growth plans. "I don't think we should be pointing our fingers at the Americans if we ourselves aren't clean," she said.

Alarming invasion of Round Goby into Great Lakes tributaries: impact On endangered fishes ’serious’ September 7th, 2009 Kim Luke / Sciencedaily.com A team of scientists from the University of Toronto, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the University of Guelph has identified a drastic invasion of round goby into many Great Lakes tributaries, including several areas of the Thames, Sydenham, Ausable and Grand Rivers. A number of the affected areas are known as “species-at-risk” hot spots. “This invasion poses many potential threats for native species of fish and mussels,” says Mark Poos, a PhD Candidate in U of T’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Poos is lead author of the study published recently in the international journal Biological Invasions. Up to 89 per cent of fish species and 17 per cent of mussel species are either known or suspected to be affected by the goby invasion. Of particular concern is the impact on species that have a conservation designation, including such endangered species as the small eastern sand darter fish and mussels such as the wavy rayed lampmussel. The Great Lakes and its tributaries are Canada’s most diverse aquatic ecosystems, but are also the most fragile, notes Poos. Several of these rivers hold species found nowhere else in Canada, including 11 endangered species and two threatened species. Furthermore, the round goby, an aggressive ground-feeder, is a threat to three globally rare species: the rayed bean, northern riffleshell and snuffbox mussels. Round gobies entered the St. Clair River in 1990 likely through ballast water from ocean-going ships. Despite over 15 years of potential invasion through natural dispersal from the Great Lakes into tributaries, the round goby threat did not manifest itself until now. “It was previously thought that these high-diversity areas were immune to invasion. This study shows that this is likely not the case,” says Poos. He advises anglers to be watchful for round goby and if they catch one: do not release it back into the water. Other tips to prevent the spread of round goby include not releasing live bait into the water, draining your boat before leaving any water access and never transferring fish from one location to another. If people do catch round goby they should report the capture to http://www.invadingspecies.com.

Toxin-producing green goo returns to plague Lake Erie September 8, 2009 Craig Pearson / Canwest News Service A mysterious green gunk found in Lake Erie recently may indicate that an explosion of toxic algae is again threatening to suffocate the lake. University of Windsor professor of biological sciences Jan Ciborowski believes the goo is cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, which feed on phosphorus and produce toxins. "These toxins can kill animals and make people sick," said Ciborowski. "You don't want to drink it. And I wouldn't want to swim in it, either." Ciborowski figures the cyanobacteria has bloomed en masse the last couple of weeks because of warm temperatures and low winds, as well as more nutrients in the water. "It was one of the signs of the lake not being in good shape," Ciborowski said, referring to the '60s and '70s. "In the 1960s, the Great Lakes were declared dead because there was so much phosphorus going into the lakes that we were getting these huge blooms of algae," Ciborowski said. "The algae would eventually die, drop to the bottom, decompose, and use up all the oxygen in the lake." So in 1972, the Canadian and American governments formed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, designed to limit phosphorus by banning it from detergent and mandating better sewage treatment. It worked. By the early 1990s, the Great Lakes seemed comparatively clean. "That was the great success story of the Great Lakes," Ciborowski said. "Everybody thought that we had solved the problem. But since the late 1990s, even though we're not adding phosphate to detergent anymore, we're starting to see that there's more and more phosphorus getting back into the lake somehow. One of the big research questions now is where is that phosphorus coming from?" Though phosphorus is found naturally in the environment, it is considered a pollutant when overly abundant. Its most common commercial use is in fertilizers and pesticides. Scientists have been so confounded about 100 of them gathered in July in Windsor for the two-day Great Lakes Phosphorus Forum. Cyanobacteria is the same sort of algae linked to as many as 75 deaths in Brazil, though no such deaths have been reported in North America. Bruce Fox, owner of a marina tackle shop in the lakeside town of Colchester, says he has never seen such an algae bloom. "It looks like pea soup . . . You would almost think you could walk on it, it's so thick."

Canadian Coast Guard Commissions New Science Research Vessel in Burlington, Ontario Source: Government of Canada 9th September 2009 Terence Young, Member of Parliament for Oakville announced today, on behalf of the Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, the naming and dedication to service of the Canadian Coast Guard’s newest science research vessel CCGS Kelso. The ceremony was held at the Canadian Centre of Inland Waters, where it will be based to support researchers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment Canada gathering information about the biological, chemical and physical properties of Canada’s Great Lakes. “As stewards of some of the greatest freshwater resources in the world, we are committed to understanding and protecting the Great Lakes.” said Minister Shea. “Having this state-of-the-art research vessel dedicated to our Great Lakes will greatly enhance our scientific understanding of issues affecting Canada’s inland waters.” “The Coast Guard has a longstanding history in Burlington, and throughout the region,” said MP Young. “Our Government is proud to have the Kelso serve in making a new contribution to the community and to Canadian science. We are confident the vessel will help our Coast Guard continue to perform at the high level of service that all have come to expect.” The vessel, classified as a Near Shore Fisheries Research Vessel, has been in service since June 2009, and will assume the duties of the soon-to-be-retired CCGS Shark. CCGS Kelso is named after the late Dr. John Kelso, a Canadian scientist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, who dedicated his life to advancing freshwater science. Also attending was the Deputy Commissioner, Capt. René Grenier of the Canadian Coast Guard. The vessel was dedicated by Dr. Kelso’s widow, Mrs. Donna Kelso.

Alewives: The trouble they cause and the salmon that love them Sept. 3, 2009 Jeff Gillies / Great Lakes Echo Editors note: This is the second of three stories in a series about the challenges of managing non-native fish in the Great Lakes. Pacific salmon, the big money species in the multi-billion dollar Great Lakes fishery, need a feast of alewives to thrive. But alewives are an invasive species that harm lake trout, a native fish that biologists have been trying and failing to re-establish for decades. Alewives keep lake trout down in two ways, said Mark Ebener, fish assessment biologist with the Chippewa Ottawa Resources Authority. The first is simple: Alewives eat baby lake trout. Lake trout are slow growers and make fine fish food for alewives for a month or two after they hatch, said Charles Madenjian, a fishery biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Great Lakes Science Center. Size isn’t the only problem. Because they evolved before the alewives invaded the Great Lakes, lake trout don’t know how to dodge an attacking alewife. “When it comes to avoiding alewife predation, they’re not that bright either,” Madenjian said. Lake trout also lay eggs in the middle of the lakes where alewives can easily scarf them down. That’s unlike salmon that lay their eggs in streams and rivers to protect their young. The other way alewives knock down lake trout is that they create a vitamin deficiency that kills newly hatched fish. Alewife tissues contain a chemical that breaks down thiamine, an important vitamin for the development of young fish and eggs. The chemical can also break down thiamine in fish that eat alewives, like lake trout. When lake trout eat too many alewives, their eggs hatch, but the larvae die. “There definitely appears to be this strong linkage that everybody’s pretty much in agreement with,” said Jim Dexter, Lake Michigan basin coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “When the thiamine levels get too low because lake trout are eating alewife, that inhibits the reproductive capacity for lake trout.” Though the reason isn’t clear, the thiamine-busting effect hits some species harder than others. It doesn’t seem to hurt the Great Lakes’ Pacific salmon much at all, Madenjian said. And while the lake trout aren’t the hardest hit species, they’re hit hard enough, especially when the effect is combined with alewives preying on young lake trout, Ebener said. “So the alewives, besides eating the larvae of native species, also disrupt the biochemical processes of native lake trout so that lake trout reproduction doesn’t happen,” he said. And if lake trout aren’t reproducing, then the Great Lakes will remain without their historical top predator. And that isn’t a stable ecosystem, said Jason Stockwell, a fishery biologist formerly with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Lake Superior Biological Station. Lake trout and other native species evolved in the Great Lakes and are built to take advantage of them, he said. Lake trout find food in the deep water in the middle of the lakes and the shallow water near shore. That makes them more versatile than salmon, which stick to shallow water. A rehabilitated lake trout population would be less prone to collapse than salmon because the native trout don’t depend on one source of food. “Native fish rehabilitation would get the system back into its most efficient and stable state,” Stockwell said. “Otherwise, there’s a continual need to keep stocking salmon.” For many recreational fisherman and state departments whose budgets depend partly on fishing licenses, an unending salmon stocking program wouldn’t be a bad thing. Great Lakes recreational fishing generates between $4 billion and $8 billion every year, said Dan Thomas, president of the Great Lakes Sports Fishing Council. Most of that comes from salmon fishing. “Just by the numbers of caught fish that are reported, it could easily be 70, 80 percent,” he said. Salmon are a more exciting target than lake trout, he said. They swim fast and jump high; a deep-water lake trout sit at the bottom and tugs on the line. “It’s like drag racing with a Corvette versus a Model T,” Thomas said. But some anglers still enjoy fishing for lake trout, including Thomas. But if the state agencies abandon salmon stocking to focus on lake trout restoration, revenues from licenses will drop and the states will start shedding employees. “When your budget is in decline, something has to give,” he said. “It’s all simple economics.”

Great Lakes Fish plan debated Sides disagree on need of invasive species. Sept. 2, 2009 JEFF GILLIES / Great Lakes Echo Fishery managers have made little progress in restoring lake trout, the Great Lakes' dominant predator until the species collapsed in the 1940s and 1950s. Most of them agree that alewives, a non-native fish, are a big part of the problem. They invaded the lakes from the Atlantic Ocean after the Welland Canal opened in 1932. Alewives eat young lake trout and disrupt chemical processes important to their reproduction. No eradication But biologists don't plan on getting rid of them now that they're here. Instead, Lake Michigan managers recently launched fish stocking strategies that protect alewives. What's going on? Invasive species are usually the target of disdain and eradication programs. But alewives get a pass because they're the main food source for two other non-native species – the chinook and coho salmon. And those salmon are cornerstones of a multi-billion dollar Great Lakes fishery. Though states imported salmon to control alewives, management plans now serve to keep enough alewives around to keep salmon healthy and abundant. And as long as state agencies aim to keep available lots of alewives for salmon to eat, lake trout rehabilitation is impossible, said Mark Ebener, an assessment biologist with the Chippewa Ottawa Resources Authority, a regulatory agency representing five Michigan Indian tribes. Salmon profits Other experts disagree. Great Lakes fisheries managers have no plans to abandon the profitable salmon fishery, said Marc Gaden, spokesperson for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. "There's no inherent contradiction between managing for the native fishery, and also stocking fish for recreational purposes," he said. "There is definitely a balance that needs to occur." Until the mid 1900s, lake trout were the top predators in every Great Lake but Erie. They supported tribal and commercial fisheries. But a slew of factors drove them nearly extinct in all of the lakes but Superior. Between overfishing and the invasion of the parasitic sea lamprey that feasted on the fish, the Great Lakes' annual lake trout harvest plummeted from 15 million pounds to 300,000 pounds by the 1960s. Great Lakes fishery managers have tried to restore lake trout through sea lamprey control and planting young fish. That's only worked in Lake Superior where a small lake trout population remained after the species' basin-wide collapse. Some researchers think lake trout restoration hasn't worked because fisheries managers have stocked the wrong age fish in the wrong places at the wrong times. Others, like Ebener, say the biggest problem is the 6-inch alewife. They exploded by the 1950s and 1960s because there weren't enough lake trout left to control them. They crowded out native species like white fish and perch, and were prone to huge die-offs that would cover beaches with rotting fish. A plan In the 1960s, Michigan managers hatched a plan to control alewives by stocking the Great Lakes with chinook and coho salmon, both native to the Pacific Ocean. The salmon would sit in for lake trout at the top of the food chain and draw recreational anglers looking for a fish that fights. The plan worked, driving down alewives and creating a world-class salmon fishery better than it was in the Pacific where those fish were from, Ebener said. That built new interest in fishing for other species. Recreational fishing on the Great Lakes was minuscule before the 1960s, Dexter said. There was no Clean Water Act to keep people and industries from freely polluting the lakes, and anglers were happy to stay inland. But Great Lakes sport fishing grew, bringing a financial boom to sleepy towns that built local economies catering to recreational anglers. Some sports fishermen are worried that state agencies have a bias for native species and will pull the plug on salmon, said Dan Thomas, president of the Great Lakes Sports Fishing Council.

Tribes retrieve lost nets from Lake Superior Sept. 7, 2009 / www.great-lakes.org Houghton, MI – Tribal wardens Dan North and Jim Stone successfully retrieved about 3,000' of gill net aboard the enforcement vessel Mizhakwad in June. They were removed from Lake Superior in the Houghton area. The nets, of unknown origin, appeared to have been in the lake for a period of years, according to GLIFWC Enforcement Chief Fred Maulson. Most nets were "extremely deteriorated," the contents rotten, and no identification tags were found. An angler reported the nets and provided GPS coordinates for their locations. Once at the GPS location, wardens deployed a large metal drag with multiple hooks, pulling the drag across the lake bottom in grids around their marker. Once a net was hooked, the net-lifter was used to pull up the drag and the net. Following up on another complaint about possible "ghost" nets, GLIFWC wardens along with staff from the Michigan DNR, searched for nets in the Marquette area this summer as well. The complaint had also included GPS coordinates. Searchers completed a grid check and patrolled the area, but no nets were found.

Lake Trout intelligence and its relatives Sept. 7, 2009 / www.great-lakes.org Lake Trout are a favorite once native species for fisheries managers who opine for the restoration of the Great Lakes to their original once glorious status – whatever that may be. Well known fisheries managers, supervisors and biologists like Ebner, Eshenroder, Gorenflo, Hansen, etc. make no bones about their desire to re-establish lake trout to its original status as the top predator of the Great Lakes. And get rid of the enormously successful Pacific Salmon program because of alleged biological conflicts. Others, like Krueger, McLeish, Newman, Smith, Johnson, Goddard and other equally well known scientists who feel it would make their jobs of managing Great Lakes fisheries programs so much easier, less costly and reduce manpower secretly would like to also see lake trout re-established and crash the alewife population. It’s not clear whether these folks have really thought this scenario thru and understand the economic ramifications of their secret desires. Most anglers - and that is in the high 90 percentile, like things the way they are – a nice five species mix of Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, Steelhead, Brown Trout and Lake Trout - all top predators they can target at different times of the day or year, in deep or shallow water, in the open lake or related streams. Versatility and diversity is what drives this multi-billion dollar economic machine, eight billion dollars by some accounts, and the lowly alewife plays a key role in the whole scheme of things. This is what sells fishing licenses and salmon stamps. This is what generates excise taxes on fishing tackle for the Sportfish Restoration Act. This is the hard currency that goes right back to state fishery agencies, for management programs and salaries. One of the biggest problems with today’s fisheries managers – and the college programs they signed up for to secure their degree, is their lack of any education in economics, what really runs the money energy machine in the Great Lakes region. They never took Economics 101. It is a simple course that should be a requirement in their quest for their degree at Michigan State, or Wisconsin or the other state supported universities that carry prestigious Natural Resource curricula, but it isn’t. Guys like Bill Taylor (Dr William…) just don’t get it; and Taylor is a commissioner of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and chair of Michigan State’s Natural Resource program. Now these fish aren’t all that smart either. Lake Trout are known to eat their young, spawn in the open lake so passersby can feed on those tasty hi-protein morsels, and pass up a dinner of native herring for a non-native Alewife - a fatty diet of thiaminase and high protein. Admittedly, it is a diet that doesn’t do much for the Lake Trout reproductive process, but then remember they aren’t very smart. A favorite angling lure with a high success ratio is a shiny silver spoon emulating an alewife. As I said, not too smart, huh? Interestingly, the thiamine thing doesn’t inhibit Pacific salmon from having a good time and reproducing in our once polluted lakes. Steelhead will often hit a piece of pink yarn, simple fluff we once stole from our grandmas knitting basket. Chinooks and Cohos will hit most anything you tie on to the end of line, so long as you run it in front of their nose and make them angry. Open lake Brown trout think they’re being cagy by feeding at night in the shallows where boating anglers can’t get at them. Sure. Angling is really more sophisticated than that, we spend a lot of money and time pursuing a great recreational sport and aren’t always 100% successful, but you get the idea, huh? Resource managers are looking for a stable ecosystem, elusive for over 70 years, and we can’t fault them for that. It would make their lives and jobs much easier but that doesn’t come without consequences. By some accounts it’s like walking a tightrope. Just for starters they have millions of anglers and charter captains to contend with. Then they also have the economy created by this vast fishery. Some say they created this problem, thru ignorance, indifference and bad management. Others call it a stroke of luck. Maybe we aren’t so dumb after all.

Rockford angler Tom Healy hooks 41-pound brown trout that shatters state record Thursday September 10, 2009 Aaron Ogg / The Grand Rapids Press Tom Healy holds the 41-pound, 7-ounce, 43.75-inch-long brown trout he caught while fishing for salmon on the Manistee River on Wednesday. It awaits verification by world record keepers as the largest ever caught. ROCKFORD -- Tom Healy floated along the Manistee River in Manistee County on Wednesday morning hoping to hook a few salmon, but the longtime fisherman's fate was much weightier. The 66-year-old Rockford man wrangled with a 41-pound, 7-ounce, 43.75-inch-long brown trout for 15 minutes before hauling it into his boat. The fish breaks the species' state record and awaits verification by world record keepers as the largest ever caught. "When we hooked it, we knew it was a big fish," Healy said. "How big, we didn't realize." Officials with the state Department of Natural Resources' fisheries division Wednesday checked out the monstrous grab and said it meets all guidelines as Michigan's new champion. "This is one of the most amazing fish I've seen in my life," said Todd Kalish, fisheries supervisor for the Central Lake Michigan unit, "a real testament of the world class fishery Michigan provides. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing for someone like that." Healy, 15-year fishing buddy and East Grand Rapids resident Bob Woodhouse and guide Tim Roller of Cadillac-based Ultimate Outfitters caught some salmon before hooking the big one near the Bear Creek access point. Healy said the fish tried to jump a couple times, but he was able to wrestle it in open water with his Rapala Shad Rap lure and Cabela's rod and reel. "The reality of it is, I was pretty doggone lucky," Healy said. "It's just one of those things." The previous brown trout state record of 36 pounds, 13 ounces was set in 2007 by Casey Richey near Frankfort Harbor. The current world record is held by Howard Collins, who caught a 40-pound, 4-ounce brown trout in the Little Red River in Arkansas in 1992, according to the Florida-based International Game Fish Association and the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum in Hayward, Wis. Healy said he plans to contact the IGFA to try to claim the record. "I'm a guy who generally practices catch and release," he said. Since Healy retired as president of Grand Rapids-based construction firm Owen-Ames-Kimball Co. nearly five years ago, he's been able to devote more time to his love. His trips include perusing the Bahamas for bonefish and hitting the Florida Keys for tarpon. He generally travels to the same spot on the Manistee River to pursue steelhead in October and November. Photographs, mounted pieces and replicas of trophy fish line his basement and office areas. "I'm a fisherman at heart," he said. His latest catch sits in a Manistee taxidermist's shop awaiting work. It likely will end up on his living room wall because there's not enough room in his office, he said. "I'm a guy who believes if you put your line in the water, you've got a five-times better chance than if you keep it in the boat" Healy said.