Let’s give them a chance to recuperate
To the Expositor:
On Manitoulin there is a ban on fishing for lake trout from October 1 to December 31, a ban that is important to respect. At this time of year the lake trout come from their deepwater habitat to shallow water to spawn, and they become more vulnerable. They must survive at least five to 10 years before maturing into adults and they need every chance we can give them at spawning time.
On Manitoulin lake trout can only thrive in Lake Manitou, none of the other lakes are deep enough and cold enough at their depths. It’s a provincially significant lake, one of only two lake trout lakes in Ontario with limestone to buffer against acid rain. We should be proud to have it and the lake trout it supports. But due to excessive sewage loads in Lake Manitou, by the end of the summer these fish are already suffering from oxygen depletion in their deepwater habitat. The fall turnover, when surface water cools and sinks to the bottom, allows them to come up from the deep water and spawn. The lake trout population is already under stress, so it’s especially important to give the adults a chance to spawn and not catch them for the dinner table.
Sincerely,
Jan McQuay
Mindemoya
