Lake trout population gaining ground

[Spiel]

Lake trout population gaining ground

 

 

February 02, 2010

michael hayakawa / yorkregion.com

 

 

Angling for lake trout on Lake Simcoe can best be described as a put-and-take operation.

In other words, it's been a case of the Ministry of Natural Resources rearing these fish in hatcheries and stocking 100,000 yearlings in the lake each spring.

 

This year, however, the ministry will stock just 50,000 of those fish.

 

It's part of a four-year plan to create a self-sustaining sport fishery for Simcoe.

 

Recent research has provided some encouraging evidence of natural reproduction of the species in the past few years, said Jason Borwick, a biologist with the ministry's Lake Simcoe team.

 

The Lake Simcoe fisheries assessment unit conducts a trawling program that samples fish living near the bottom of the lake and has documented the presence of wild, naturally reproduced lake trout every year since 2001.

 

Wild lake trout caught in this program are smaller than stocked fish, but, prior to 2001, it has been more than 20 years since a population of naturally reproduced fish has been documented, he said.

 

The ministry identified phosphorus loading as the primary culprit for this. Excess phosphorus, which stemmed largely from farm runoff, depleted oxygen levels in Lake Simcoe's deep water.

 

But since 2001, the ministry has found a noticeable improvement in Simcoe's water quality and habitat conditions.

 

Not only did this prove favourable for lake trout, other cold water species including whitefish, herring and sculpins, have also benefitted.

 

The ministry will judge the success of its five-year plan on several factors, including:

 

- the relative abundance of the lake trout population;

 

-relative abundance of stocked and naturally reproduced lake trout in the population;

 

-angler catch, harvest and effort;

 

-lake trout age and growth and;

 

-condition and relative abundance of the herring and whitefish populations.

 

Combined with reduced stocking, the ministry remains cautiously optimistic these results will indicate increased natural reproduction and survival of wild lake trout, improved growth of lake trout given wild fish's more varied diets, unchanged angling success and a continued movement toward restoring a self-sustaining cold water fish community.

[bucktail]

" Combined with reduced stocking, the ministry remains cautiously optimistic these results will indicate increased natural reproduction "

 

I hope they dont use this aa an excuse to simply reduce stocking to save money, I smell someting "fishy" since this is the same bunch that says the lake is eutrophicating and will not be any good for cold water species.