New Restrictions to minnow harvest and transport

[jjcanoe]

Hi Chili,

Same offer goes, if ever you are in the Belle River area, let me know we can hook-up for some Skie's.

BTW this thread is a few posts short.

Canadude: SSFC93

Hey Chilli I'll be down to Niagara a few times over the summer and if you're ever down London way... we still have to go on a brook trout mission. Virt, Canadadude: SSFC92 I've now got inlaws in Ridgetown just a couple of stone throws away from Rondeau bay or St. Clair, Welcome to the NFN western chapter!

jjcanoe

[Guest fishmaster]

Chilli send me the info on how to start a poll on here ..

[Dan Andrews]

Steve between your new topics title and the field where you print your message there's a "manage poll" link. Giver a go and if it gets screwed up we'll fix it for you or Pm me the question and choices and I'll giver a shot.

BTW the Zone J site has put up some additional info, some which states the Government agencie(s) responsible will be holding stake holders meetings. Steve make sure you call John Cooper yourself and get on that list. I would suggest having patience with the man as he is trying to prevent not only consequences to the fisheries but to the industry and he agrees with you.

Zone J on VHS - sorry about the popups but it's free.

Dan

[Brett]

Most of the posts I read is how the ban will affect, me or we or us. Think ahead to the next generations.

Allowing some harvest will leave loop holes to be stepped through in the law. Of course you will have people who don't care.

What will the out come of this virus be. No one has the answer. Best to put the state of the resources first.

Niagara and Erie shiners are sold all the way up to Temagami. Imagine if the virus whiped out the laker population, or perhaps the virus will be more harmful to certain species. Say for instance the Brook trout population is destroyed. No one has seen the affect of this yet. Will it be worse than what we expect, or will we get lucky and the fish become immune. We don't know, no one knows.

I for one am willing to stand back, really, live bait isn't a necessity. I'd be willing to go as far as to leave the fish alone period if need be. There are some great alternatives that most Ontario people haven't seen. When the need arises, I'm sure the local tackle dealers will find this and will make up their lost sales.

To put the almighty dollar, or our personal wants ahead of what objectively should be done is scarey. Pollution, green house gasses, changing weather patterns, just another invasive species. Sure, let's all just stick our head in the sand for another ecologically changing problem.

Think of what has changed in the last 20 years to our environment. Is their any wonder what the legacy of our generation will be?

[smerchly]

You are right Brett , as a fisherman I'd like to know how this affects me ,and if I must change the way I fish , then so be it . I think this is already too little too late if this virus has established itself in the great lakes , We have been shippng minnows all summer & fall to the northern lakes , so the virus seeds have been planted . Like the zebra mussels, the virus is here and it's here to stay ........Does this mean we will lose all of our fish eventually.......or will the virus somehow disappear ? Lets give this more time until we get more info . and our questions answered .

And......I recently read that 2 yrs. ago , the reason for the die-off of the drums in Quinte was caused by this virus.......We thought it had to do with the water turn-over . That means we have been transporting live minnows out of this area for over 2 years .

[Dan Andrews]

Brett I have one question. Are you affiliated with any outdoor organizations such as the NPCA? Just trying to get a feel from which angles each response is coming from. I know most of the guys here like Steve and know where they are coming from (bait harvester).

Myself I am involved in many environment and sporting initiatives and I'm a bit of a tree hugger but I still support harvesting from the infected area for the infected area as long as Joe angler is allowed to do it himself. If a level ban is enforced then I can live with that. Not banning me from bringing minnows North does nothing to stop this virus and If I can do it so can some doorknob who doesn't care and will dump his bait. Why put Steve in the poorhouse for nothing?

[rick]

Not banning me from bringing minnows North does nothing to stop this virus and If I can do it so can some doorknob who doesn't care and will dump his bait.

But you are banned from bringing them north from here. The rule states, "In the infected zone, south of Highways 401 and 402 across Ontario, live bait fish will not be allowed to be commercially harvested or transported north of the two highways." The way it's written it's not just for the commercial harvesters.

[Guest fishmaster]

Steve mentioned that someone called Mr. Cooper and asked him what would happen if baitfish were taken out of the infected zone by anglers. That person was me. On some of the other chat boards I was on, people were all asking the same questions. "This mentions commercial bait harvesters, but what happens if a regular angler goes out and gets their own baitfish, and brings it out of the infected zone for their own use?" I was wondering the same thing, so I phoned the M.N.R. on Friday. I first talked to this lady, who told me that that was allowed, as long as it was not bought from someone with a commercial license. She then transferred me to Mr. Cooper so he could confirm what she said. Mr. Cooper was not in so he returned my call later on that day. He confirmed what I had been told earlier and added that "yes, this was a loophole that they had not noticed, and that there was nothing they could do if you were bringing minnows into either the buffer zone, or the safe zone, provided that you caught them yourself. He said they were looking into it, but as of today, there was nothing that they could do about it. He mentioned it several times to me that these rules can only be enforced on commercial harvesters, and baitfish that was gathered by commercial harvesters. It seems a little odd to me that guys who are trained what to look for when they are harvesting baitfish, such as species at risk, legal kinds of baitfish, etc, etc, are the only ones that are really getting a beating. Makes no sense to me.

maybe

[packrat]

bump

Noticed a blurb on another board where they have now identified that this virus is affecting fish in Lake Huron and has been found in fish as far as Thunder Bay.

This is all the bait industry needs (minnows) to put the final nail in the coffin

/Markus perhaps you could access this latest report and put it up for everybody to read???

[D McV]

I agree Tommy, it's not just the large lakes like nip or simcoe that anglers use live bait on.

I have a cottage on a small lake near burks falls that is for the most part spring fed but has 4

small streams running in and out. Zebra musells and gobies have not yet entered the lake but

it could happen and if it did with something like VHS it could be devastating to the small lakes

in those areas. We have seen a great come back from fish, frogs and other wild life in the past few

years whose numbers had reduced as a result of acid rain. I do feel for bait harvesters and their

families but measures do have to be taken to stop the spread.

Dave

[Guest canadadude]

They have found it as far as Thunder Bay you really think leaven minnows in niagara is going to help ..if its in lake erie im sure its in all the great lakes and many more lakes allready ..

Who knows for sure if it will help but only seems like the logical road to take, It's better then doing nothing at all!!!!Why risk more bodies of water just to use minnows! I beleive the health of our enviroment out weighs the use of infected minnows!! I mean we now know there's a problem so lets try to do our best to stop it from spreading!!! We may be to late already but if we don't stop using infected bait we're done for sure!! I don't even understand why there is a debate about it don't transport bait period!!!!