FISHING AT THE BARRICADES PART 1 and PART 2 are two interesting recent podcasts from Lake Ontario Waterkeeper on the state of fishing in Lake Ontario.

Lake Ontario covers 7,540 square miles. There is very little commercial fishery activity on the Canadian side, and no commercial fishery at all based on the the American side. Not so long ago, there was lots.

Subscribe to the Living At the Barricades Podcast via iTunes.

INSIDE LOOK AT THE LAFARGE TIRE-BURNING CASE is a very interesting podcast from Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. A good summary of where we stand, and don't stand.

Download the 12.5 Mb MP3 file which runs 27:19 minutes. You can also subscribe to Lake Ontario Waterkeeper podcasts with iTunes.

THE SPINY WATER FLEA is the subject of an interesting article in The Whig yesterday.

Anglers on local lakes are being asked to let their lines, nets and other gear dry completely between fishing expeditions to prevent the spread of a parasite that a Queen's University researcher (Dr. Shelley Arnott) fears is taking over Ontario's lakes.

The same proscription presumably applies to boats and trailers.

Well worth reading each spring: SHOCKING NEWS ABOUT COLD WATER.

• Nine elite marines, water survival instructors, capsized in 36 degree water wearing sweatsuits and no PFDs. None of them survived the attempted 100 yard swim to shore.
• Sixteen (16) Danish fishermen jumped into the icy waters of the North Sea when their trawler sank in a storm. They were in the water for a 2 - 3 hours before being rescued. They walked across the deck of the rescue vessel and went down into the galley to warm up. Each and every one collapsed and died in the galley.
• An average adult person has a 50/50 chance of surviving a 50 yard swim in 50F water.
• A 50 year-old person in 50F water has a 50/50 chance of surviving for 50 minutes.

The water temperature in Kingston Harbour is currently about 40F.

Read the whole thing. Stay safe.

WE ALL NEED CERTAINTY...AND A SWIMABLE, DRINKABLE, FISHABLE KINGSTON is a wrap of recent Lake Ontario Waterkeeper activity in the area, including the Lafarge tire-burning issue.

Bet you didn't know that Lake Ontario Waterkeeper started in Kingston.

• This Friday, February, 22, 2008, from 2:00-3:00pm, Waterkeeper brings its weekly radio show - Living at the Barricades - to The Grad Club in Kingston, ON. Very special guests and musicians will join hosts Mark Mattson and Krystyn Tully for an exciting and inspiring live broadcast entitled: "Beyond the Barricades: The promise of a swimable, drinkable, fishable Kingston."

  Free Admittance. Please join us!
  162 Barrie St. in Kingston, 2:00-3:00pm
  Contact: Avi Grand (Producer)
  barricades@waterkeeper.ca

• Saturday February 23, Waterkeeper will have a booth at the Kingston Regional Sports and Entertainment Centre where The Tragically Hip will play the venue's first live concert. Enter a draw for a signed Kingston Frontenacs jersey, pick up a copy of At the Barricades: Volume 1, chat with Waterkeeper staff, and enjoy the show!

THE LACK OF SHORELINE FISHING SPOTS is the subject of an interesting front-page story in today's Whig. It highlights a big problem with the waterfront in the City of Kingston: accessibility.

We've got:

• town docks we can't walk,
• birds-only breakwalls,
• several ramps with little or no parking for trailers,
• apparently numbskulls are in charge at Fort Henry and,
• according to the article, angler-hostile desk-flying bureaucrats at all levels.

UP TO THE GILLS -- POLLUTION IN GREAT LAKES FISH is a 15-page report by Environmental Defence released on July 5th, 2007.

In short:

• Toxic chemicals in Great Lakes fish are alarmingly high and becoming more serious over time.
• Lake Ontario is the worst of all the Great Lakes.
• Toxins that once only surfaced in big fish are making their way down the food chain, to smaller fish.

Here's Recommendation 1 (of 8 in total) which is interesting:

RECOMMENDATION 1: In order to provide a more realistic representation of the state of fish contamination in the Great Lakes and improve fish advisories as an indicator of Great Lakes health, provincial, state and national partners in the U.S. and Canada must develop and maintain a publicly accessible record of information on the current status, evolution and historical levels of chemical contamination of fish in the Great Lakes, including information on the toxicity levels in and around the Great Lakes basin.

In other words: That's not happening now.

Well worth reading each spring: SHOCKING NEWS ABOUT COLD WATER.

- nine elite marines, water survival instructors, capsized in 36 degree water wearing sweatsuits and no PFDs. None of them survived the attempted 100 yard swim to shore.

- sixteen (16) Danish fishermen jumped into the icy waters of the North Sea when their trawler sank in a storm. They were in the water for a 2 - 3 hours before being rescued. They walked across the deck of the rescue vessel and went down into the galley to warm up. Each and every one collapsed and died in the galley.

- an average adult person has a 50/50 chance of surviving a 50 yard swim in 50F water.

- a 50 year old person in 50F water has a 50/50 chance of surviving for 50 minutes.

Read the whole thing.

The water temperature in Kingston Harbour is currently about 37F.

WATERKEEPER ROUNDUP: Canada slow to respond to fish virus from The Whig, and Issue burns in Bath, also from The Whig, about last week's stunning approval by the Ministry of the Environment that allows Lafarge to import and burn up to 100 tonnes of municipal waste per day, including tires, meat, bone meal and pelletized garbage for two years whilst, at the same time, banning it everywhere else.

PROVINCE OF ONTARIO APPROVES TIRE BURNING at the Lafarge plant in Bath.

The kicker: The Ministry of the Environment proposed a ban on tire incineration at the same time. This ban would prevent other facilities from applying for permits to burn tires and is based on the Ministry’s, "lack of experience monitoring the environmental performance of facilities that incinerate tires."

THE HERITAGE NEWSPAPER, via Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, reports Pollution-to-housing waterfront deal hits a snag about the Davis Tannery site development.

American boaters, on the other hand, are rightfully pissed at the idea since it affects them far more than it will ever affect Kingston.

If this goes through, it's just one more reason why the northern shore of Lake Ontario is a nicer place for boating, and for quality of life. On this so-called "issue" Kingston's current mayor, Harvey Rosen, would be well advised to zip it.

Click the chart below for a larger view or, better yet, see the US Homeland Security page. The box outlined with "blue" dots is the five-mile distance from the U.S. shores and/or U.S.-Canada maritime border. The boxes outlined with "yellow" dots, here shaded pinkish, are the proposed safety zones on Lake Ontario .

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THE LAKE ONTARIO WATERKEEPER/ WOLFE ISLAND WILDLIFE ASSOCIATION WETLAND CORRIDOR PROPOSAL has been released. This is all about cleaning up and renewing the Wolfe Island Canal.

See the very interesting 40-page, 19 Mb PDF document , which includes some fascinating appendices including an inventory of fish, plant, and wildlife on Wolfe Island.

THE WHIG REPORTS on the three options presented by the International Joint Commission for regulating Lake Ontario water levels. See the commission's 162 page report, including some fascinating annexes.

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper endorses Plan B+:

Plan B+ represents a favorable compromise between pre-dam ideal environmental conditions and human uses of the Lake and River waterways. LOW notes that this is the only candidate plan that is directed towards the goals of the study, that is improving the Lake and River ecosystem. By permitting a greater range of fluctuations, meadow marsh habitat in Lake Ontario will be significantly improved. Plan B+ does more than any other plan to address species at risk, with notable improvements to populations of least bittern, black tern, yellow rail, and king rail.

CORMORANTS TAKE A BITE OUT OF FISH STOCKS, which confirms what local fishermen have been observing for a long while.

FUNDRAISING CONCERT: GORD DOWNIE will be performing a "Heart of a Lake" tour in three cities between September 18 to 21, 2006. All proceeds from the tour will be used to help communities win back their rights to safely swim, drink, and fish in Lake Ontario.

He'll be performing in Kingston on Thursday, September 21st, 8pm at Sydenham Street United Church, 82 Sydenham Street, Kingston. Tickets $18, fees extra. Available online at www.maplemusic.com and www.grandtheatre-kingston.com, at the Grand Theatre Box office, the John Deutsch University Centre and The Grad Club, and by phone at 613.530.2050

CORMORANTS: The Syracuse Post Standard today ran a story titled Give cormorants credit for goby diet. Cormorants have become a huge problem on some islands near Kingston. Gobies (see also here) are an invasive species currently threatening many native fish populations.

Here's another recent article about the deadly virus killing fish in Lake Ontario.

Here's a Utilities Kingston Tender posted August first, closing August 16th, for work that must be done before December 15th 2006. Therein:

Landscaping of the on-shore areas of the east and west shores of the Great Cataraqui River - the naturalization of 5,800m2 on the west shore, the restoration of the east shore and landscaping in the vicinity of the River Street Sewage Pumping Station, including Douglas L. Fluhrer Park.

In-water fish compensation works in the Great Cataraqui River - construction of an artificial reef on the east shore of the Great Cataraqui River and the installation of ten (10) root wads on shoreline areas.

Two recent posts from Lake Ontario Waterkeeper:

CKWS-TV has filed a transcript of a report on a recent fish die-off in Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence river. It's apparentlly caused by the VHS virus. Here's the report byThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on the matter. See also here and here.

Waterkeeper is right: Lafarge's application for a landfill in Bath and it's recent application for burning waste in its kilns should be examined in context together.

Cold water and its effects are involved in virtually all kayaking and recreational boating deaths. An article posted on the Yachting World website explains what makes cold water exposure so potentially risky, reviews some strategies to minimize that risk, and raise a few hairs with some stories of tragic, and mostly preventable, cold water deaths. For example:

• Nine elite marines, water survival instructors, capsized in 36F water wearing sweatsuits and no PFDs. None of them survived the attempted 100 yard swim to shore.
  
• Sixteen (16) Danish fishermen jumped into the icy waters of the North Sea when their trawler sank in a storm. They were in the water for a 2 - 3 hours before being rescued. They walked across the deck of the rescue vessel and went down into the galley to warm up. Each and every one collapsed and died in the galley.
  
• An average adult person has a 50/50 chance of surviving a 50 yard swim in 50F. water.
  

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and Gord Downie ask the government to deny Lafarge permits.

Their 11-page submission in PDF format is here. That's a long list of concerns; read the whole thing.

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper has serious concerns about Lafarge’s plan to burn tires and other garbage in its cement kiln near Bath.

The Bath cement plant is already one of the largest polluters in the region (see also here).

From the United States Army Corps of Engineers:

All of the Great Lakes are 3 to 8 inches below the levels of a year ago. Lake Superior is below chart datum and is expected to be at the same level a month from now. Lake Michigan-Huron is below chart datum and should rise 4 inches within the next 30 days . Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie are expected to rise 4 inches over the next month and Lake Ontario is expected to rise two inches over the next month. Due to a warmer than average January and February some of the Great Lakes seem to have begun their seasonal rise earlier than normal, but levels over the next few months on all the Great Lakes are expected to remain lower than 2005.

The Ministry of Natural Resources is rethinking a controversial plan to close bass sanctuaries in the Rideau Lakes area after angry opposition from tourism and fishing operators.