Welcome to Week CCXXI of ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don’t have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
Locally we fisherfolk don’t put a lot of thought into the idea of farming fish.
There have been some limited attempts using large tanks, and there is Wild West Steelhead a Canadian aquaculture operation on Lake Diefenbaker in southwest Saskatchewan, but the idea is not widespread.
But in some jurisdictions the idea of farming fish in natural waters is more popular, and more controversial.
In terms of controversial, you need only look to British Columbia where the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is being sued for putting wild salmon at risk.
The lawsuit alleges the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is breaking the law by not testing B.C. farmed salmon for a virus that has spread like wildfire in Norway and Chile before allowing them to be transferred into ocean pens alongside wild fish, according to an article at www.ecojustice.ca
“According to federal fisheries laws, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is required to ensure that farmed fish are not carrying any harmful diseases or disease agents before he can license their transfer into the ocean,” said Morgan Blakley, Ecojustice lawyer. “The Minister, however, refuses to test farmed salmon for Piscine reovirus. In my opinion, this course of action is illegal and could lead to irreparable damage to British Columbia’s wild salmon stocks.”
Ecojustice lawyers, on behalf of independent biologist Alexandra Morton, filed a lawsuit recently seeking a court order to force the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to comply with the Fishery (General) Regulations and apply the precautionary principle when approving fish transfer licences.
The Fishery (General) Regulations require the Minister to ensure that farmed fish do not pose a threat to the protection and conservation of wild fish before allowing farmed fish to be transferred into the ocean, detailed the article. “Piscine reovirus is highly contagious and likely causes a disease called heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI). HSMI causes heart damage to salmon that would make it extremely difficult for them to capture prey, swim upstream and spawn or escape predators.”
In May 2016, the federal government revealed that HSMI had been found on B.C. salmon farms.
“This fall, with the Fraser sockeye salmon run size at the lowest ever recorded since 1893, the Minister must do all he can to protect wild salmon,” said Alexandra Morton in the article. “Instead the Minister has chosen to turn a blind-eye to his responsibilities, as laid out in the law. We’re here to help him make a better decision. There is no reasonable excuse not to test farmed salmon for Piscine reovirus before they are transferred into pens along Canada’s highly vulnerable wild salmon migration routes.”
Tracking flocks
As regular readers will know I tend to think of water birds as something of interest to most fisherfolk, so I found a recent online article at www.migrationweek.org
The article relates how meteorologists who use an array of technologies, including weather surveillance radars (WSRs). During the migration season meteorologists may observe large concentrations of activity on WSRs, which are not reported, because the waves of movement they’re seeing aren’t created by atmospheric conditions. On a clear day, near sunrise or sunset—they’re likely generated by birds’ wings—hundreds of thousands of them.
In the online article Winnipeg-based CBC TV meteorologist John Sauder says you can catch sight of migration activity on a WSR “if you’re looking for it.” Sauder admits that when your job is to provide reliable and timely forecasts on a deadline, you don’t spend much time trying to identify flocks of migrating mallards.
From rain to waterfowl, the same technology that helps meteorologists forecast the weather also allows researchers like Ben O’Neal to better understand the migratory journeys of waterfowl, and is guiding important conservation work.
O’Neal, a doctor of ornithology and professor at Franklin College in Indiana, was keen to explore the role WSR technology could play outside the weather room, capturing winged movement “largely invisible to the human eye,” detailed the article. “Ninety per cent of bird migration is nocturnal… and much of it occurs at altitudes of half a kilometre or higher,” said O’Neal. “Even on a bright, moonlit night we won’t see it, and we often don’t hear it.”
By using both pieces of technology they are able to cross-reference data collected from each system, and show the reliability of WSRs in tracking the movement of waterfowl.
The movement captured by radar shows how migratory birds use and rely on specific water areas, which is useful data in ensuring wetland restoration investments, are made in the best place.
