Draft Bait Regulations VHS Concerns?

[Lunker Larry]

HIGH IMPORTANCE

 

Here is another chance to review and comment on the Draft Strategic Policy for Bait Management in Ontario.

 

http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/displaynoticecontent.do?noticeId=MTMxNzQ3&statusId=MTk5ODc5&language=en\

 

You should look carefully at the Bait Management Zones proposed. Consider how these zones attach the VHS Zone / waters (Great Lakes, St Lawrence and Lake Simcoe) to other inland lakes/rivers that could be infected by movement of baitfish and leeches within these new bait zones. Infected bait would be allowed to legally move east to the Ottawa R (FMZ 12) through FMZ 15 and FMZ 18. Bait would no longer be restricted to the VHS Management Zone previously in place.

 

VHS is extremely harmful to muskellunge and bass populations. VHS killed over 60% of the muskellunge population in the St Lawrence River.

 

It should be recommended that FMZ 18 be a separate stand-alone Bait Management Zone and that the VHS Zone be maintained as its own separate Bait Management Zone.

 

Perhaps FMZ 12/Ottawa River Baitfish regulations should also be revisited. This proposal allows movement of baitfish to the Ottawa R from adjacent FMZs / Bait Management Zones.

 

It is really important that these comments are made by as many concerned anglers as possible, please share with your networks.

 

Comments are due by June 27, 2017.

 

Draft Strategic Policy for Bait Management in Ontario Posted on the Environmental Registry

 

February 28, 2017

 

 

SUBJECT: Draft Strategic Policy for Bait Management in Ontario Posted on the Environmental Registry

 

 

We would like to inform you that a draft Strategic Policy for Bait Management in Ontario has been posted to the Environmental Registry for consultation.

 

This draft policy proposes new rules regarding the harvest, use and movement of baitfish and leeches for both anglers and commercial operators. This draft policy is intended to minimize the ecological risks associated with the harvest, use and movement of baitfish and leeches while reducing the complexity of current management regimes and providing business certainty to the bait industry.

 

This draft policy is the result of a comprehensive review of provincial bait policies led jointly between Fisheries Section (Species Conservation Policy Branch) and Protected Areas Section (Natural Resources Conservation Policy Branch) and has involved extensive internal engagement across the Ministry and external engagement with a stakeholder group.

 

This policy outlines a number of new proposals, including:

 

• Changes to the list of permitted baitfish species
• Limiting the movement and storage of commercial bait to newly defined ‘Bait Management Zones’ (BMZs) across the province
• Limiting personally harvested (angler) bait to the waterbody where it was collected in (i.e., no overland transport) for Southern Ontario and to the BMZ for Northern Ontario, with documentation required in the north to allow overland transport
• Restrictions on the possession and harvest of bait in native Brook Trout lakes
• Restricting bait use, harvest and storage in certain classes of provincial parks and in conservation reserves
• Suggested direction for improving and simplifying aspects related to commercial bait licenses (e.g., allocation, dormancy, compliance, species at risk)
• More effective training and reporting for commercial bait operations

For additional information regarding the draft Strategic Policy for Bait Management in Ontario, please visit ontario.ca/ebr and search # 012-9791. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is seeking public input concerning this posting for 120 days from February 27, 2017 to June 27, 2017.

[Garfisher]

FMZ 18 could be it's own BMZ, you wouldn't need to keep the VHS zones though as bait from the areas most affected still have to stay within their own BMZ (i.e. FMZs 16 and 17). Making FMZ 18 its own BMZ would simply mean that all live bait sold in that BMZ would come from sources within it.

The VHS zones are somewhat useless as although bait harvesters/distributors can't move bait taken from within the zone to outside of it, there's no real way to stop anglers from buying bait from their local bait shop before heading north/east/wherever to fish at their camp/cottage. Or better yet an angler can take bait they caught from within the VHS zone and take them outside of it as there is no real way to prove where they got the bait from.