Thursday, February 07, 2008

Lake Sturgeon follow-up

You may recall a while back I posted an ad from the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans seeking input on whether or not lake sturgeon should be protected. I sent them my opinion and received this email back today:

Thank you for your email of 21 January regarding the potential listing of Lake Sturgeon under the Species At Risk Act (SARA). We appreciate that you took the time to share your interest in the Lake Sturgeon with us. Your support for its listing under SARA will be included in the summary of comments which will be sent to the Minister to advise his decision to add or not to add the Lake Sturgeon to the SARA list.

You mentioned in your email that your father had fished for sturgeon in the Nottawasaga River and you wanted to know if they still exist in this river and Georgian Bay. Biologists from DFO and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources indicate that there remains a small, remnant population of lake sturgeon in the Nottawasaga R. There are definitely lake sturgeon throughout Georgian Bay. They spawn in the French, Key, Magnetawan, Naiscoot, Moon, Go Home, Severn, Sturgeon and Nottawasaga rivers and the adults from these spawning populations mix in the bay during the summer period. All the populations are small and considered vulnerable.

Thank you for participating in the public consultation of Lake Sturgeon.

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