Quote:
Originally Posted by Kim473
I still think that closeing all or some lakes would help the fishery 10 fold. Or make them all C&R for a year or two every once in a while.
Let mother nature do her thing. She knows best.
10,000 fish laying 1000 eggs each with a survival of 1/2 would increase our fishery 10 fold in one year.
Just an estamite of how many fish taken out of the lakes in one year. You do the math over 5 years.
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It would, if fishing were the main contributor to a decline but if fishing is not the cause as is the case with Grayling in the Notikewin river system then obviously it will have no effect. Which is exactly what I am seeing in this case.
I also know of a lake that has a declining fish population and almost no fishing pressure. This time the decline is due to an overpopulation cause by a poorly though out dam to improve Water fowl habitat.
The dam blocked migrating fish which then moved further upstream into a much smaller lake then the one that was dammed.
The end result was a drastic drop in the fish population in the big lake and a subsequent drop in fish in the main river in the system plus no significant increase in the Duck population.
It decisions like that which do the most damage to wildlife populations.
Another example is Chronic Wasting disease which was introduced to this province by captive Elk herds.
The use of DDT is yet another.
The wolf threat to Woodland Caribou herds is yet another.
Our Deer herds were managed to increase hunting opportunity for human hunter. This and the opening up for agriculture of forest land resulted in a significant increase in Deer herds in woodland areas which in turn resulted in a greatly increased Wolf populations which now threaten Woodland Caribou with extinction.
In every case cited it was not fishermen or hunters that caused the problem, it was industrial activity and government mismanagement that cause the problems.
Catch and release may well turn out to be one such decision. Only time will tell, if it is monitored properly, which it seldom is.