Lake Wolsey perch live a relative cormorant-free life

[Spiel]

Lake Wolsey perch live a relative cormorant-free life

 

May 7, 2008

Expositor Staff / manitoulin.ca

 

SKY PATROL: A pair of Gore Bay and District Fish and Game Club volunteers take legal aim at cormorants threatening the rainbow trout at Meeker's Aquaculture operations on Lake Wolsey. Local perch reap collateral benefits. / photo by Tom Sasvari

 

LAKE WOLSEY-People in the know from all over Manitoulin - and beyond - go to Lake Wolsey, 15 miles west of Gore Bay, to fish perch. That's summer and winter, and that's because, if one is in a mood for a feed of perch, Lake Wolsey is the only place where there is a fair certainty that a fisherman will be successful.

 

That's not to say there aren't perch in other Island lakes and in the North Channel. There are. But these tend to be caught by talented anglers who know exactly where and when to fish.

 

Lake Wolsey is much more forgiving to ordinary anglers and regularly gives up the limit of this tasty species to patient people who are prepared to move around the lake and bait their hooks with standard perch fare.

 

Like the perch who school there, Mike Meeker, proprietor of Meeker's Aquaculture, is a denizen of Lake Wolsey where he moved 25 years ago to establish Manitoulin's first aquaculture operation.

 

Mr. Meeker says that because of this willingness and encouragement to have Meeker Aquaculture included in a variety of scientific studies, "Lake Wolsey is one of the most studied lakes in Northern Ontario."

 

He knows his lake is a productive habitat for perch, and for other species too. And he knows why: it's a symbiotic relationship between his fish cages (where he rears rainbow trout for the commercial market) and the wild fish species, like the yellow perch native to virtually all of the lakes on Manitoulin but now found in abundance only in Lake Wolsey.

 

This information about Meeker Aquaculture's relationship with a particular wild species of fish is imparted to the newspaper last Sunday afternoon at the fish farm.

 

The hour-long conversation is punctuated with the regular sound of shotgun blasts coming from near Meeker Aquaculture's cages on the lake below Mr. Meeker's storage buildings and home.

 

Mr. Meeker, a man of calm demeanor who has about him the same air of any farmer who knows his territory and livestock intimately, says with authority that: "Lake Wolsey has the only sustainable levels of yellow perch on Manitoulin in all year classes."

 

"And that," he continues, "is because our cages are there (the perch have lately come to take refuge from the predator cormorants in the 50-60 foot depths of water beneath the Meeker Aquaculture fish cages) and because those guys (he gestures in the direction where the shotgun blasts are coming from) are here protecting them."

 

The perch population is viable in Lake Wolsey, Mr. Meeker knows, simply because as a licensed aquaculture operator, Meeker Aquaculture has been issued a permit that allows him (or his designates) to shoot the nuisance cormorants that would otherwise attack the rainbow trout being reared in the large net cages that comprise Mr. Meeker's "farm" in Lake Wolsey.

 

This shooting of nuisance cormorants became a necessity for Meeker Aquaculture about five years ago when the fish farm suffered a significant financial loss of about 6,000 rainbow trout... to cormorants.

 

"What they (cormorants) do - and I've watched them doing it when I've been on an underwater dive, the cormorants strike through the cages' webbing, striking the fish inside the cages just behind their gills (at their heart and liver, where the fish is most vulnerable) and then slash the fish downwards to finish the kill. Then they try to pull the fish through the netting to eat it."

 

Shooting the birds isn't usually an issue until after ice break-up, when the open tops of the giant cages give easy access to cormorant predation.

 

"But this year, when our cages were still submerged (during ice movement) I had double top nets on the cages. And we had to repair a lot of large holes in these top nets that definitely weren't there when the nets went on."

 

And, because the fish cages and Mr. Meeker's crop of rainbow trout are being protected by the shotgun blasts that keep the birds away from the area (and kill some of them as well) that provides a place of refuge for the perch, under the cages.

 

"The huge number of perch around our cages are there because of our protection of the cages," Mr. Meeker stated with authority, "but also because there's food at the cages: bugs and algae the perch pick off the side of the rainbow trout cages...and there's not much food left (for the perch to feed on) elsewhere in Lake Wolsey. It's a kind of 'artificial reef' situation that's been created here that the perch are taking advantage of."

 

Mr. Meeker has lived and worked on Lake Wolsey for a quarter century and, like any farmer, he's watchful of the natural elements like weather and pests that may come to plague his crop.

 

And for half of the that time that he's had an aquaculture business on the lake, he's observed that the cormorants have become a risk to the fish he harvests and, by extension, to virtually all other species in Lake Wolsey.

 

By necessity of protecting his own fish farm, Mr. Meeker believes he's inadvertently given refuge (and food) to enough perch to maintain a stable population of that once-popular game species, across all year classes, in Lake Wolsey.

 

But in the course of seeking shelter in the deep water beneath the Meeker Aquaculture cages, Lake Wolsey's yellow perch population is also radically altering hard-wired patterns in an effort to survive the onslaught of the cormorants, Mr. Meeker has observed.

 

Perch habitually spawn in shallow, near-shore environments, Mr. Meeker says. The spawn clings to shallow water plants. That's what has worked for the species for, probably, thousands of years.

 

But not now.

 

The fish are spawning in 50 or 60 foot depths of water (beneath the fish cages which are legally protected from cormorants by those shotgun blasts), "and the ministry (MNR) people agree that the perch are drastically changing their spawning behaviour throughout the Great Lakes in recent years in response to cormorant pressure," Mr. Meeker says.

 

But in spite of all the efforts by Meeker Aquaculture to protect their crop of rainbow trout (and coincidentally keeping the perch population at sustainable numbers) the cormorants keep coming.

 

"The numbers of cormorants I've seen this year are the most I've seen in four years," the veteran fish farmer says. "The cormorants are back... in big numbers."

 

This observation appears to be supported by a recent devastating onslaught of cormorants directed precisely at the perch population swimming and getting ready to spawn beneath the Meeker Aquaculture fish cages.

 

That was early last week. Monday, April 28 to be precise.

 

Cormorant communities organize to find food and that afternoon, Stuart Burns of Gordon, a volunteer helper at Meeker Aquaculture, said a flight of birds he estimates numbered 2,000, "came on to the cage area in a big V formation," striking at the perch beneath the rainbow trout cages. "The ones in the front ate first, then moved to the back and the others moved up."

 

Mr. Meeker says the cormorants formed what he terms a "skirmish line," spreading out and driving the perch out from beneath the cages by frightening them into moving out to where other members of the flock are waiting to eat them.

 

Cormorants are versatile divers and swimmers in their hunting mode. "I've watched these birds, in their skirmish line formation, lunge at our cages from one side and the fish move to the other side of the enclosure. Then other birds do the same thing from the other side and the fish quickly move back across the cage."

 

"That's the same process these birds use with fish like the perch, that are unprotected by cages. They simply push them towards the shore," Mr. Meeker says.

 

Last week's attack by the birds on the perch stock ended with many dead fish floating on the surface of Lake Wolsey.

 

"When the fish go deeper to spawn and they're herded by the cormorants (who are deep divers by nature) the water literally looks like it's boiling as the fish swim upwards to try to escape the birds. The smaller ones (usually smaller males) get caught up and are pushed quickly to the surface so fast that their swim bladders don't have time to adjust to the changing pressure and they burst, killing the fish and providing an impromptu meal for the seagull population," Mr. Meeker observes.

 

Mr. Meeker feels that the yellow perch population in Lake Wolsey, that has only hung on there in spite of the best efforts of the cormorants to devastate it (as he, Mr. Burns and others observed last week) and only because he feeds and protects his own farmed fish from the birds and so has created this serendipitous perch sanctuary, that the perch population in this lake can be the basis for rehabilitating the perch fishery in the North Channel and other Manitoulin lakes.

 

But he also feels strongly that all of this will only be possible if the cormorant population is brought under control by political will and with the force and support of the government of Ontario.

 

And this is where Mr. Meeker, a law abiding pioneer in the Manitoulin aquaculture industry and the charter president of the Northern Ontario Aquaculture Association, becomes critical of what he feels are ineffective and inefficient government policies on the cormorant issue.

 

He is also critical of the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) for ignoring its own mandate. "They're supposed to protect species for future generations," he says flatly. "The cormorants are an issue that should be taken care of now because the species they're decimating (like the yellow perch) just won't be there for future generations."

 

His real criticism is with the political nature of the MNR. "They have good people in the districts and regions, like this one, who know what the problem is and what should be done about it. The problem is that the bureaucrats in Toronto and Peterborough (where the MNR's ministry office is located) don't listen to them."

 

"If the ministry listened to their own local people, the (cormorant) problem would be solved quickly," he continues.

 

"I'm afraid it's mismanagement of talent," he says flatly. "The district biologist in a given area should be able to act according to the needs in their own zones." He referred to his own case where Meeker Acquaculture, working with the MNR, has been able to be legally empowered to shoot cormorants to protect the fish farm's rainbow trout, and the wild perch thrive as a consquence.

 

"The MNR always says it wants community input. What generally happens is that you go to a meeting and the outcomes are often preset so you leave the meeting with a strong feeling that what you've suggested won't be acted on," Mr. Meeker says.

 

"But this is a perfect example of what is needed all over the province where local expertise and willingness to do what is required to help solve a problem is available and just needs to be tapped into. That's the model we're using at our farm successfully and the MNR is an important partner in that, and so are the volunteers from the Gore Bay and District Fish and Game Club, and other people too, who come to our cages and shoot the cormorants. These guys have the expertise and incentive and realize the scope of the problem. If these people were legally allowed to expand their efforts beyond our cage area, they'd get on with it and the problem would be quickly solved," Mr. Meeker stresses.

 

"I think the model would be several small projects, like this one, that would be easily managed in their own areas and designed to meet a stated objective in a stated time frame," he adds.

 

"If you have a successful little project like the one here, it should be easier to do the next one and the next one and the one after that too, in terms of funding and volunteers" Mr. Meeker says.

 

"I think a few successful micro projects, again like this one, would make it easier for a district manager or a district biologist to stickhandle through the internal bureaucracy they have to manage," he adds. "Success will breed success and the mistrust and cynicism that many people have right now for the MNR in terms of responding to local needs will begin to change. And I believe that it will change quite quickly."

 

Meanwhile, the shotguns protecting both Mr. Meeker's livelihood and the residual yellow perch population in lake Wolsey continue to legally blast away. Over 70 of the birds were shot Sunday morning, their carcasses plucked out of the water by Mr. Meeker in accordance with one of the conditions that allows him to protect his investment.