Ministry fishing muskie with Ontario anglers to learn about its habitat

Originally Published by CBC News, Nov 01, 2018

On a cool, October morning on a lake as clear as glass, volunteers geared up at the Belle River Marina in Lakeshore, Ont. to reel in the big muskie.

About 40 anglers sent their fishing lines into the water alongside employees of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to — hopefully — catch at least 20 muskies. They would be tagged and sent back out into Lake St. Clair.

Some do their fishing from a boat, while others help from the shoreline — including Mike Parker who’s been helping the government for the second year in a row.

“I help them with muskies when they’re tagging them. When the boats come in, I’ll help get the fish off the boats. Help them with the tanks, getting the stuff ready. Just here to participate and do some video and get the word out to the public,” said Parker, who is a muskie tour guide.

The health of the muskie population is important for business. Parker said there was a 2006 outbreak of viral hemorrhagic septicemia, a disease which killed of tens of thousands of muskies in Lake St. Clair.

“Doing stuff like this here, we can see where the muskies are going and then if they’re surviving and it really is something important to give back to the lake, so we can keep an eye on where the fish are going so we can see maybe why are these diseases hurting them and why are some things not hurting them.”

To read the rest of this article about the Belle River Anglers’ muskie tagging initiative, please visit cbc.ca.

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2018-11-08T21:06:58+00:00November 8th, 2018|Categories: Issues, News, Ontario|Tags: , , , |Comments Off on Ministry fishing muskie with Ontario anglers to learn about its habitat
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