Lake shows signs of promise: experts

[kickingfrog]

Link:

 

http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDi...=By+Teviah+Moro

 

 

Cut and pasted article:

 

Lake shows signs of promise: experts

Posted By By Teviah Moro

Posted 2 hours ago

Politics is what quite often floats to the surface in the debate of how best to heal an ailing Lake Simcoe, but behind the headlines, efforts to shore up scientific knowledge about the 725-square-kilometre lake are quietly shedding light on its fragile balance.

 

That was evident during a meeting of experts at Trent University, yesterday, wrapping up a three-day conference exploring the Great Lakes.

 

Simcoe, a sixth junior partner in the mighty quintet, was the focus of 19 presentations from different agencies, universities and government ministries on the last day of the three-day 51st annual Conference on Great Lakes Research.

 

"We're all listening to each other. Everybody's pretty excited about this much interest," Stephanie Guildford, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, said.

 

"I guess what's really exciting is that there's so many people working and getting really good data," added Guildford, who co-chaired the Lake Simcoe forum.

 

Still fragile and ever-changing, the lake shows signs of promise, scientists suggested in their talks.

 

Presentations covered a number of topics, some highly technical in nature, including trends in water chemistry, phosphorous, chlorophyll, groundwater seepage, thermal dynamics, coldwater fish and invasive species.

 

The lake is home to a variety of fish including lake trout, lake herring, lake whitefish, burbot and sculpin.

 

"By 1990, basically, this coldwater community was on full life support," David Evans, a researcher with Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources, said during his presentation.

 

Because coldwater species stopped reproducing naturally, the ministry started stocking the lake with fish.

 

Simcoe's water quality has suffered from reduced levels of dissolved oxygen and rampant algae and plant growth due mainly to the loading of phosphorous, a substance that makes its way into the lake via a number of sources, including fertilizers and detergents.

 

In turn, algae decays and sucks oxygen from the water as it breaks down.

 

Oddly enough, there's evidence that the notorious invasive zebra mussel has worked to improve the clarity of the water, Evans noted. Monitoring conducted by the Lake Simcoe Fisheries Assessment Unit show that certain species that didn't reproduce before, started to do so in 2003.

 

"It's way better than it used to be," Guildford, a Canadian from Halifax, said about Lake Simcoe, which is home to more than 50 species of fish.

 

The lake suffered a particularly dark period when area pioneers started clearing land and farming right down to the shoreline, causing erosion and dumping of run-off.

 

"There weren't nearly as many people, but they were certainly farming intensively, and (there was) certainly no sewage treatment, for example," Guildford said. "And then industry built over time."

 

Guildford said government policies and community action have encouraged better farming practices and set limits on phosphorous loading.

 

The Ontario Liberals have backed introducing a bill that would create an act to protect Lake Simcoe.

 

"We might see an act introduced in the legislature yet this spring," Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop said.

 

Though hopeful for the future, Guildford said warming trends, invasive species and population growth all present threats to the lake.

 

In the next 25 years, 250,000 more people are expected to move to Simcoe County alone, fuelling more development pressure around the lake.

 

In the meantime, the brain trust will keep working.

 

"I'm reckoning that in the future, we'll be reading a Lake Simcoe case study as an example of best practices being applied in trying to improve the lake," Guildford said.

[BillM]

What's wrong with Simcoe again? There is a world class smallmouth bass fishery out there, never mind the crazy amounts of whitefish

[ehg]

Zebra mussels haven't been as detrimental as was feared.

Improved the bass and musky fishing in Kawarthas due to them being sight feeders.

Looks like they are almost crediting them with Simcoes improved fisheries.

 

The zebra mussels have put the walleyes in the weeds on Quinte, Kawarthas etc due to more light however.

 

ehg