Trout research begins in February

[Spiel]

Trout research begins in February

 

By LINDSAY LAFRAUGH

Chronicle Journal Thunder Bay

Saturday, December 29, 2007

 

Blair Wasylenko is the perfect fit for Trout Lake Learning center's newest research project, said JP Fraser, spokesman for the center.

 

Starting in February, Wasylenko, a local man, will begin his one-year stint as the center's study director for the McIntyre Superior Rainbow Study.

 

"He was the most qualified of all of the people who applied," said Fraser. "It is exciting when you have somebody who wants to come home and is really interested in what we are doing." Wasylenko said his degree in ecology with an emphasis in landscape ecology from the University of Guelph landed him the internship, along with his experience from a former summer student position at the Ministry of Natural Resources in Thunder Bay.

 

During the Trout Lake Learning center internship, which is being funded by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, Wasylenko will try to uncover the mystery of why rainbow trout (steelhead) no longer run from Lake Superior to Trout Lake, the source waters of the McIntyre River.

With no theories on the reasoning quite yet, Wasylenko said he has started to think about what his research might entail.

 

"I am not entirely sure yet, but definitely we want to look at the habitat that the river can provide, get a population estimate and look at ways to improve it," he said.

Wasylenko said there have been a number of studies conducted on the population of the steelhead in the McIntyre River, but that there has been little focus on the area of the river near Trout Lake something he plans to look into.

 

"I think (the research) is important . . . because it is within the city. The pressures on (the river) are different than if it was just a creek that didn't have any industry on it or people around it," he said.

 

Rainbow trout were first introduced to Lake Superior from the West Coast in 1883. They are resilient fish that are anadromous, meaning they are born in a river, eventually progress to a lake, but then return to the river where they were born to spawn each year. Wasylenko will begin the field work of his research during the steelhead's spring spawn in April.