Trout Troubles in the Tribs?

[ccmtcanada]

Here's an interesting article from the Star. Looks like bad news for trout anglers...but who really knows the impact? It doesn't mention steelies...does that mean they'll be even more hungry to chomp at bait that we throw at em? I've bolded a few sections as it relates to fishing....

URL for the story is http://www.thestar.com/News/article/194293

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Is mayfly's demise a clue for the wise?

Once abundant on Credit River, tiny fly may be victim to development

Mar 21, 2007 04:30 AM Phinjo Gombu

STAFF REPORTER

The Green Drake is a little mayfly that's only about 4.5 centimetres long, but favoured by trout, which love to gorge on it.

 

The flies spend several years in a riverbed, in a nymph stage.

 

When they emerge in late May or early June for action-filled lives lasting about a week, they do so in a gossamer blizzard, numbering in the tens of thousands.

 

Brian Balunas, 70, a long-time angler, likens this little miracle of nature to "a light snowfall coming off the river."

 

The disappearance of the Green Drake from the Credit River and other rivers in southern Ontario, first noticed by anglers about five years ago, is raising concerns about the health of the river and the possible impact of unchecked development.

 

"This mayfly represents the canary in the coal mine," said Henry Frania, an entomologist associated with the Royal Ontario Museum.

 

"That's what this is really about.

 

"What they are basically telling us is that quality of the river and other rivers in southern Ontario are declining, and what we've been doing so far to protect the rivers just isn't good enough."

 

For several years, Frania has been trying to find out what's killing the Green Drake, arguing that while it's the mayfly today, it could be human health affected tomorrow.

 

There is documentation that on some rivers where the mayflies have disappeared, brook trout disappear a few years later, Frania said.

 

The insect's sensitivity to pollutants makes it the perfect early warning system. That's why, Frania said, finding out what is killing it is a matter of urgency.

 

"The nymphs are dying," he said.

 

"There's something in the river that's killing them. There's no question about that."

 

Frania has determined from the autopsies he's done on mayflies that the gut linings of the tiny creatures are being destroyed by something unnatural, something toxic in their diet.

 

The Green Drake used to be found in abundance in the middle to upper stretches of the Credit, a regular denizen of the river as far south as the town of Terra Cotta in the 1980s.

 

Now it's "functionally extinct," with only tiny pockets remaining in the river's upper stretches.

 

Frania's theories about what's killing the nymphs range from pollutants and sewage waste to rising amounts of toxins produced by micro-organisms that are living longer because of global warming.

 

Development, especially in communities like Erin and Orangeville, is a potential contributor and the problem is spreading, Frania said.

 

Other species of mayflies such as the Quill Gordon have also practically disappeared from the Credit River watershed.

 

The Green Drake population is rapidly declining in other watersheds, including the Rocky Saugeen River.

 

Jon Clayton, a biologist with Credit Valley Conservation, called Frania's research indicative of a more widespread development problem.

 

"As you change from forested areas and wetlands to farm fields or subdivisions, parking lots, malls – that has a dramatic effect on water quality," he said.

 

Balunas, a retired TTC worker who has been fishing the Credit for more than 40 years, said he clearly remembers when the Green Drake would make its early summer emergence.

 

It was wondrous, he said, especially when the flies, carrying up to 4,000 eggs each, descended after the frenzied mating ritual and bounced off the water surface to shake their eggs into the river.

 

"When the Green Drakes came up, it was always fast and furious," said Balunas.

 

Leafing through his fishing diaries, Balunas said he noted in 2004 that he spotted only one Green Drake in an area where they were once abundant.

 

"It didn't happen overnight," said Balunas. "It gradually petered out by early 2000."

Edited March 21, 2007 by ccmtcanada

[Paulus]

It's alarming, actually, and imo much worse is to come. I've watched several small tribs in the shwa go from ailing to dead to sewers in the past 3 years, and the houses are still going up. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to think about it and put 2 + 2 together. Think about it for just one new home: in a space roughly 50ft by 100ft a year ago you had trees, shrubs, undergrowth etc (along with birds, insects, bunny rabbits and so on) in that space. The trees protect the soil from erosion, contribute to its health by dropping their leaves in the fall, suck up water when it rains keeping it from going directly into the rivers with all that sediment in tow, provide shade when the sun is out (to preserve moisture & keep things cool), provide habitat for wildlife maintaining the ecosystem, ad nauseum. THIS YEAR, there's dead wood, brick, mortar, insulation in that spot. When it rains, before they put the little bit of grass down, the water creates mud, carries all the good soil away down into the street and into the gutter, goes unfiltered into the river. On a windy day, the topsoil that's left just blows away. In the fall, there aren't as many leaves falling, and what do we put on our lawns to make them grow greener... and where does it all go? hmmm; and when we wash our cars, where does all that soap go?... So, not only is the portion of the ecosystem that resided there gone completely (no bunnies, no bugs, no birds, no birches) but instead you get synthetics and pollution. Do that over several THOUSAND square kilometers all over the GTA and it starts to add up.

 

Think about rivers in "developed" areas as diabetics, and rain is the sugar Before diabetes, rain came and was filtered gradually into the river. The organs that regulated the rain's transfer to the river i.e. wetlands, forests, did their job well & kept the river clean and cool. And when it rained it almost never muddied up (depending on geography & soil). Then, the organs were removed; so now when the rain comes, most of it shoots directly into the river. "Too much too soon"! The river is also flooded with sediments and all the junk, organic or not, that's small enough to be transported into it. It rises too quickly, eroding its banks, and gets very muddy - too muddy for many of the micro-organisms it used to support; and average water temperature also rises. When the rains leave, the trouble isn't over, because water used to trickle in from all that riparian acreage, so now there isn't enough sugar and the river is weakened. It will be like that until the next rain, when it will silt up again etc.. And what happens over years to many diabetics? Other health complications and/or death.

 

But I figure, if I sell my house next year, I can probably pay off my mortgage & maybe even upgrade to a newer model. It's all good! (pardon the irony)

 

p.-

Edited March 22, 2007 by Paulus

[tonyb]

Get up, go to work, consume, go to bed, rinse...repeat.