Bait operators complain MNR rule has them on hook

[Spiel]

Bait operators complain MNR rule has them on hook

 

April 9, 2008

http://www.saultstar.com

 

A fatal infectious disease in fish is the biggest challenge ever faced by a group that represents provincial bait operators.

 

Sixty-five harvesters, each employing two to six workers, in an area that stretches from Windsor to Parry Sound, have taken a serious economic hit following Ontario government efforts to limit the spread of viral hemorrhagic septicemia. VHS causes fish to bleed to death.

 

"It's put people on the welfare line," said Michael Bennett, president of the Bait Association of Ontario. "It's disastrous."

 

The Ministry of Natural Resources stopped allowing bait fish to be commercially harvested from the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River in January 2007. The move also stopped live fish from being shipped to waters north of Highway 401.

 

Bennett, speaking following a meeting with Minister of Natural Resources Donna Cansfield at the Holiday Inn in Sault Ste. Marie Saturday, suggests his members are the scapegoats for an illness he's not convinced exists.

 

"There's no science on it as far as I know," he said.

 

"Nobody's even looking into trying to find out what it's all about. I haven't seen one case yet where they can show me a bait fish that's got VHS. Not one.

 

"(My members) can only move bait to a certain area, yet anglers can go out and put a minnow net anywhere they want and pick up minnows and take them. We've got our hands tied."

 

Still, he's optimistic "we're going to sit down and work it out" with the government.

 

Cansfield said her ministry is working with Bennett's group on VHS. Both groups are waiting for reports about the disease. The first study is expected back by early May.

 

"They're as concerned about this virus as we are," she said.

 

"We're not going to make any precipitous decisions without good information. That information has to come to both of us and then we'll work together (and) make some decisions."

 

It's too soon to consider compensation for affected bait operators, she added.

 

VHS has been found in the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, Niagara River, Lake Erie, Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

 

Fish affected include walleye, yellow perch, smallmouth bass and white bass.