ut_falcon

2.3 billion goes into the Ontario economy from sport fishing, over 600 million per year from the great lakes fishery & 70 million per year generated from licence revenue. The amount that the Ontario government puts back into the recrational fishery is pathetic at best compared to what NY state contribues to the lake. We are lucky to stock one fifth the number of fish into the lake compared to NY state and now a greater and greater percentage of that contribution is from Atlantics that die before they make it out into the lake. http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/GreatLakes/2ColumnSubPage/STEL02_173913.html#Recreational_Fisheries

Right but they don't know what increasing that minute population of Cisco will do to the Alewifes. The Kings in Lake Huron and Georgian Bay weren't very adaptive when the Alewife population crashed, most of them starved to death. Some did adapt and switch to eating smaller baitfish, but that reduced the average size of the salmon to half of what it used to be. I agree that it doesn't sound like the Cisco program will have many negative effects on the salmon but its a pretty big gamble to start experimenting with the lakes ecosystem when what we have now is working.

I wonder if the OMNR and NYDEC considered the potential consequences of introducing yet another species into the lake? Like you pointed out there could be direct competition with alewifes which could lead to a decline in chinook size and population.

Could you provide some information about the benefits of Cisco vs Alewife? The kings seem to be doing pretty good feeding on Alewife but I’m interested to see how much of a difference the switch to Cisco could make. One thing to consider is that these deepwater Cisco were extirpated from the lake at one time so what makes the biologists think that they can be re-introduced? They went extinct in the lake for a reason, was it because of competition with Alewife or a change in water quality or foodbase? Same thing with the Atlantics, the lake has changed so much since the 1800's, just because the species could thrive then doesn't mean they can do it now. I support trying to re-introduce these species but not at the expense of what we have now, If you look at what's going on in the MNR I’m not so sure they would agree with me. Things are going on in Canada already to reduce steelhead populations and that is fact. The MNR mandate is to restore all lakes to their "natural" state, and that means to eventually eliminate all of the introduced species (Chinook, Coho, Browns, Steelhead) from the lake. This is now the goal of the Ontario government, their own management documents clearly say this. Unfortunately the Ontario government is no longer managing the fisheries with priority for the recreational angler and this will impact all Great Lakes that share a border with Canada. My hope is that American anglers can put pressure on their own government to stop this from happening, it’s sad but I think that the Canadian government will listen to the American government before their own citizens. There are many concerned fishermen in Canada trying to put a stop to this before it happens. Key thing here is no one is calling for a reduction in Kings YET, but the pieces are starting to fall into place to allow that to happen in the future. For some of the other non-natives it’s already happening and with inconclusive science to back it up. Let’s put an end to this before it gets a chance to snowball. Put an agreement in place on the great lakes that prevents population reductions of kings, browns and steelhead in order to re-introduce native species. Allow the native restoration programs to continue as long as they aren’t negatively effecting the more popular sport fish that the vast majority of Great Lakes anglers are catching.

Sounds to me like the MNR and NYDEC are setting the stage to re-introduce deepwater Cisco so they can eventually crash the alewife population and shift the lake to a native species only fishery - long term. Once the alternative food source is there and the thiamine deficiency isn't effecting the atlantics and lake trout then they can move on to eliminating steelhead, browns and pacific salmon from the lake. I have to ask who is pushing this and who wants this to be the future of the great lakes??? It makes no sense to me when the fishing community pays the bills and supports the MNR and NYDEC that these initiatives can go ahead without the support of the community. Things are already well underway in Ontario with proposals to eliminate brown trout stocking in the credit river if they are found to interfere with native baitfish, also a new provincial fishery management strategy that puts the priority on native species over existing successful non-native sport fisheries. Stocking of steelhead has already been stopped in the east end of the lake on the Canadian side because some Ganaraska strain steelhead were found down river in the St.lawerence. The MNR is afraid these fish will interfere with native stocks of Atlantic salmon on the east coast, the same study also found Salmon River strain steelhead on the east coast, somthing to think about there... There was also no mention of the potential impacts that non-native strains of Atlantic salmon being stocked into Lake Ontario will have on the native east coast atlantics if/when they also escape the lake and migrate downstream. Some scary things are going on in Ontario and the Great Lakes these days, just hope they don't decide to destroy a successful fishery for a theoretical one