Saving the sturgeon

[kickingfrog]

North Bay Nugget article.

 

http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1069729

 

 

CHAPMAN’S LANDING — There’s a reason why they call it “fishing” and not “catching.”

 

Nipissing First Nation fisheries department workers and Ministry of Natural Resources staff were at the Chapman’s chutes on the South River Wednesday attempting to net sturgeon for a media event.

 

The First Nation community is leading a five-year comprehensive study to determine the status of sturgeon in Lake Nipissing. Just more than $60,000 from the Aboriginal Funds for Species at Risk program has been allocated for the first year.

 

The team caught seven sturgeon Monday and four the week before, allowing them to surgically implant transmitters so they can follow the large bottom feeders after the South River spawn.

 

But despite three sets of large mesh gill net over four hours with reporters eager to photograph the ancient species, they were skunked and must return Friday to put the remaining three transmitters to use.

 

“We’re trying to get as many sizes and year classes as we can,” said Nipissing First Nation biologist Richard Rowe, adding the sturgeon netted at the chute this spring weighed between 30 and 80 pounds.

 

Rowe, formerly the Lake Nipissing biologist at the North Bay MNR office, said the data collected by the province in past years will be combined with Nipissing’s data to determine how the population is doing.

 

“A lot of what has gone on in the past was the MNR lead. What Nipissing First Nation wants to do over the next five years is put it into one definitive project and find out how we can protect and enhance this fishery.”

 

He said females they tagged in 2003 and 2005 are starting to show up at the falls again, which backs up the sturgeon profile that females only spawn every five years or so.

 

As part of the new study a receiver station will be installed at the mouth of the South River to record radio transmissions of when the tagged sturgeon enter or leave the lake.

 

Without the radio tags, Rowe said there’s no way to tell where they go between spawns unless they are accidentally caught by native commercial netters or anglers.

 

Lake Nipissing’s sturgeon fishery was shut down in 1991 after decades of large-scale commercial activity, dams and industrial pollution at Sturgeon Falls left them without prime spawning habitat and near extinction.

 

Traditional non-transmitting tags have been attached to dozens of Lake Nipissing sturgeon during the past five years by the MNR and Nipissing First Nation.

 

Newer tags will have a computer code so they can be scanned with a wand to make the record-keeping easier and more accurate. As they get caught again, Rowe said they can start to document growth rates.

 

Rowe said they can also estimate the size of the population by tagging as many fish as possible over three or four years, take a year off and then calculate the ratio of non-tagged sturgeon they find.

 

Based just on what they found in past years, he said any guess at the size of the fish population would be “sketchy,” but probably “high hundreds . . . definitely not talking about tens of thousands.”