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Foreign invader threatens Margaree Watershed. NSSA offers $5,000 reward.Saturday, January 31, 2004 The Nova Scotia Salmon Association (NSSA) has issued a notice of a one-time reward in the amount of $5,000 to anyone providing information that leads to a conviction of any person or persons responsible for the illegal releasing of non-native fish into Nova Scotia watercourses.
“The illegal transportation and dumping of exotic fish species into our local watersheds has got to stop. It’s been going on far too long”, says NSSA president David Reid. “Smallmouth bass and chain pickerel have been deliberately spread into watersheds across the province where they have never existed before. It’s against the law and it represents an ecological disaster for native salmon and trout.”
Smallmouth bass and chain pickerel are highly efficient predators who compete directly with juvenile salmon and trout for food and habitat. These warm water fish also have a biological edge over native cold-water species – they can actively forage during the heat of the summer when salmon and trout are under temperature stress and concentrated into limited cool-water pools, making them easy pickings for the introduced exotics.
“Last year it was chain pickerel in the Shubenacadie. Before that it bass in the LaHave River system. Now it’s happened again in Lake Ainslie - part of the Margaree watershed, our most famous salmon river,” says Reid. The Margaree is the province’s top-producing salmon river with a sports fishery valued at approximately $1.0 million annually. “Smallmouth bass have been deliberately dumped there and they have the very real potential to do serious damage to the Margaree’s native salmon and trout populations,” says Reid. “That’s why, in conjunction with our affiliate, the Margaree Salmon Association, we have decided to offer this one-time $5,000 reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the successful conviction of any person or persons responsible for illegal fish dumping into Nova Scotia watercourses. We are particularly interesting in the Lake Ainslie incident.”
The introduction of non-native fish species is illegal according to the Fisheries Act and carries a maximum penalty of $100,000.00 for an initial conviction. To date there has never been a successful case tried in Nova Scotia, although the problem has been known to fisheries officers for years.
“The Margaree River sportsfishery is a major economic driver to our local tourism industry and we can’t afford to loose it to some short sighted clown with a bucket,” says John Hart, president of the Margaree Salmon Association. “It’s a shock to the whole ecosystem.” “We applaud NSSA for taking this action and for their support of our river,” says Hart. “I hope someone calls it in and they nail whoever’s responsible for this.”
Anyone with information about the illegal introduction of bass into Lake Ainslie is asked to contact the Nova Scotia Salmon Association at (902) 275-3407 or by e-mail at: nssa@ns.sympatico.ca
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For further information, please contact:
David Reid, President, Nova Scotia Salmon Association - (902) 491-4131,
John Hart, President, Margaree Salmon Association - (902) 248-2578
Other useful contacts:
Murray Hill, Director, provincial Inland Fisheries (902-485-7021)
Charlie MacInnes, Habitat Manager DFO - (902) 863-5670
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