HIGHLIGHTS: President’s Message – Lee Gutowsky, AFS-OC Social – Women in Biology – Ann Rocchi, AFS-OC Student Subunit – Student Success Workshop – Jake Brownscombe, Lake Trout Diversity in Lake Superior: Dog River Lake Trout – Nick Jones, 2016 AFS-OC AGM Keynote Speaker – Henry Regier
The 2014 DFO Outstanding Scientific Paper of the Year is Bycatch, bait, anglers, and roads: quantifying vector activity and propagule introduction risk across lake ecosystems (https://doi.org/10.1890/13-0541.1), co-authored by Dr. D. Andrew R. Drake and Dr. Nicholas E. Mandrak. The article was published in Ecological Applications.
AUTHOR(S): D. Andrew R. Drake, Nicholas E. Mandrak CITATION: Drake D.A.R. and N.E, Mandrak.  2014. Bycatch, bait, anglers, and roads: quantifying vector activity and propagule introduction risk across lake ecosystems. Ecological Applications 24(4):877–894. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-0541.1
HIGHLIGHTS: President’s Message – Sean Stuart, 2015 AFS-OC AGM Summary, AFS-OC Social – Ripley’s Aquarium – Montgomery Fielding, 2015 AFS-OC AGM Award Winners, C.A.R.S. Update – Jack Imhof, Introduction to New Newsletter Editors – Kim LeBrun and Siobhan Ewert, “Tools of the Trade” Exposition – Bill Gardner
Two Asian Grass Carp have been found within a contained pond in Tommy Thompson Park along Toronto’s Waterfront. Toronto and Region Conservation (TRCA) staff discovered the first live Grass Carp Monday, July 27 while relocating fish from the pond as part of the construction of a nine hectare wetland.
In April 2015, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry launched the Provincial Fish Strategy, Fish for the Future, to provide up-to-date direction for the management of Ontario’s fish, fisheries and supporting ecosystems. The Strategy was developed through extensive input and the engagement of Aboriginal communities, agency partners and key stakeholders.
Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) are an elusive yet highly prized species in eastern North America that can attain trophy sizes. As a result, a dedicated catch-and-release recreational Muskellunge fishery has developed throughout their range. Management of this fishery has largely been facilitated by partnerships between anglers, researchers, and managers. To explore and encourage interactions among these groups a 2-day workshop was held in Ottawa, Canada in August 2014. Three key themes emerged from presentations at this workshop highlighting: 1) the success of Muskellunge management in most of their natural range, 2) knowledge gaps regarding their habitat requirements at various life-stages, and 3) the utility of genetic tools to assist with their management.
This paper presents a 30+ year record of changes in benthic macroinvertebrate communities and fish populations associated with improving water quality in mining-influenced streams. Panther Creek, a tributary to the Salmon River in central Idaho, USA suffered intensive damage from mining and milling operations at the Blackbird Mine that released copper (Cu), arsenic (As), and cobalt (Co) into tributaries. From the 1960s through the 1980s, no fish and few aquatic invertebrates could be found in 40 km of mine-affected reaches of Panther Creek downstream of the metals contaminated tributaries, Blackbird and Big Deer Creeks.
State of the Salmon joined forces with public, tribal and private organizations along with individuals around the North Pacific to identify and articulate the best available salmon monitoring practices. We gathered these principles and tools into the Salmonid Field Protocols Handbook: Techniques for assessing status and trends in salmon and trout populations (https://doi.org/10.47886/9781888569926).
Changes in resource development and expansions of urban centres suggest that the intensity and types of anthropogenic stressors affecting Canada’s watersheds are changing. Chu et al. (2003) integrated indices of freshwater fish biodiversity, environmental conditions, and anthropogenic stress to identify priority watersheds for conservation and management. Here, we update those indices using recent climate and census data to assess changes through time. We also applied different conservation and management scenarios to evaluate the robustness of our prioritization approach. Between time periods, the environmental and stress indices expanded northward because of warmer temperatures at higher latitudes and more intense anthropogenic stress in the northern regions of the provinces.
The Mid-Canada Chapter of the AFS presents a seminar featuring Doug Watkinson from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Doug will be discussing his work on species at risk in the Milk River, Alberta. The seminar is on Nov 27 at 2:00 pm Central.
Register at
https://midcanada.fisheries.org/mcc-seminar-doug-watkinson/
