NEWS RELEASE
MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND FORESTRY
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Boaters Beware – the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) will have nets set in the Mattagami River from September 28 through to October 9 as part of the ongoing Mattagami Sturgeon Restoration Project.
The nets will be clearly marked by two white buoys with ‘MNRF’ and ‘don’t lift’ tags.
Please do not drive between the nets or tamper with the equipment.
The Mattagami Sturgeon Restoration Project is unique to Ontario and these nets play a critical role in the project.
This is the first successful attempt to restore a naturally existing lake sturgeon population by transplanting adults from one area of a water body to another, and allowing them to spawn naturally.
Other provinces and the United States have attempted to move adult lake sturgeon, but these attempts did not result in an established population.
Lake sturgeon was added to the Species at Risk list as a special concern in 2008.
Locally, this fish was suspected to be no longer present from the section of Mattagami River from Wawaitin Generating Station to Lower Sturgeon Generating Station due to habitat loss, pollution, fragmentation and over-fishing.
Since 2002, in an effort to re-establish a lake sturgeon population to its historic habitat, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and its partners have moved 52 adult lake sturgeon from the Little Long Generating Station to an area above the Sandy Falls Dam.
Since the initial move of these 52 fish, lake sturgeon have started to naturally repopulate in the river.
Today, these fish are found in the Mattagami River from the Moose River upstream all the way to the Wawaitin Generating Stations, that’s 340 kilometres in distance.
The MNRF is pleased to be working in partnership on this vital project with the Timmins Fur Council, Club Navigateur La Ronde, Ontario Power Generation, Glencore, Lakeshore Gold and Mattagami Region Conservation Authority.
As part of this ongoing project, MNRF and its partners will continue to research and analyze what made this transfer of adult lake sturgeon such a success.
The monitoring project is in the fifth year, where 22 lake sturgeon have been monitored since 2011.
The information gathered will eventually help experts understand seasonal habitat usage, identify spawning grounds and provide data on population restoration.
Graduate student Maggie Boothroyd from Trent University is focusing her work on genetics, spawning grounds and a population estimate.
“These components of the project will help to assess the success of the restoration project.” She goes on to state, “increased angler success is a good sign. The genetics work we are doing will provide insight into the number of fish successfully reproducing, which has implications for the population’s genetic diversity and long-term persistence. This information can be used to inform future restoration efforts with regards to number of relocated fish needed to make the population strong and genetically healthy.”
The monitoring work is critical to understanding how successful the adult transfer was.
If you are out on the Mattagami River from September 28 to October 9, please be aware of the nets and think of the significant research that is happening right here in our own backyard.
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