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To say there was " a lot of dead fish " seems like a problem.
My fear when I hear that they were donated is that those people end up throwing them out or freezing them for later and then throwing them out.
I can't see a fish that died in a live well and then floated around in there for anything more than 45 minutes being worth eating.
Just my opinion.
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It seems rather irresponsible to allow a tournament to be held in conditions that may lead to the death of many fish. I think in the public eye it doesn't look so great. Why not postpone or reschedule these tournaments? I think if the people responsible for this tournament are looking at it as a long term event for years to come, they are shooting themselves in the foot for the short term gains. Looks like selfish tendencies have lead to unnecessary mortality in the name of $$, victory, prizes and bragging rights.
Just my .02
Icing your livewell will merely improve your pre-release mortality rate for Walleye (eg. get your fish into the weigh station still alive). Your oxygen level will be up a bit if you drop your livewell temp a few degrees (you've increased your gas solubility). You'll get them alive to the dock, but other than that, you've just given the fish a death sentence for post-release. The 3-4 rounds of thermal shock that they'll be exposed to prior to release, as well as the repetitive handling, and holding in a livewell for potentially 8 hrs, has just killed your fish. There are lots of really good science lit. abstracts on the matter - easy to find using Google. One of the better ones - http://mncoopunit.cfans.umn.edu/file...2010-NAJFM.pdf
To even ponder the thought of having a late-May walleye tournament is absolutely insane. That MNR has endorsed, and signed-off on it, is criminal (IMO). The outcome is completely predictable. Anything above a surface water temp of 10 degrees and post-release mortality increase becomes exponential, without even looking at the myriad of other stressors for the fish during the event. OMNR protocol for walleye transfer operations - they cease at anything above 12 degree C when working with fish that are the same size as your Sturgeon slot fish. Ice is not used in any of the tanks, because we know from experience that this will kill all the fish. Surface water temp on Saturday at 1130am off the Long Beach dock was a ridiculous 23.7 degrees when I checked it with a thermister. It's not even worth commenting on this, or wasting anymore breath on the matter. It's like beating the perverbial dead dog.
OMNR should be ashamed of itself, to allow this event to continue eg. existing stressed population in decline, on a special regulations lake that has a 15 year fully documented data set (FWIN and NSCIN) that indicates a vulnerable fishery. Someone in Fisheries Policy, with apparently a fisheries biology background, is responsible to every person in this province to make sound decisions and ensure the conservation of our resource. This person signed a permit giving this event the OK to proceed. They've disregarded all of their own science, and experience, in dealing precisely with fish health care, and common sense. If you want a good read, go to the Alberta DNR site and see what is supposed to happen in a province that values its natural resources. Read the BMP section for live-release events, and pay particular attention to the word "Walleye".
Dave
While it may be a political black eye for the tournament. There was no devastation to the fishery that can pointed directly and only at the tournament.
Day 2 the field was cut in half to 70 teams, and a 3 fish bag limit and by looking at the teams total weights, not every team brought in 3 fish to be weighed. At absolute worst, 210 fish would have been taken out of the fishery if they all died, but they didn't.. If your lake can't take that, it's not the tournament that caused the crash.
I know guys who fished the tournament and they told me the fish they caught were dead when they weighed them, apparently by the day 1 weigh in over 80 walleye were dead and changes were made. The fish that were being released continued to die off as they were transported back to be released. Some fish were going to be donated to the food bank but their suitability for consumption would be questionable after being in a warm live well all day as others said.
sad sad sad.
The MNR was there and not impressed, i find it unimaginable that these tournaments which are about cash and prizes for contestants and sponsors come at the expense of a natural resource.
As i said in a prior post here we had the OPP out charging a guy over taking one fish which may or may not have been over the slot on the Tri lakes last week and here we see hundreds of fish being killed for the purpose of having a tournament so contestants can compete for cash prizes and tournament organizers can skim their cut from the prize money.
You tell me who the criminals are, everyone with an IQ over 19.7" knows tournaments like these are not sustainable and are being undertaken for all the wrong reasons.
Agreed !!Quote:
Originally Posted by Monster29/66
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Make it a catch and keep tournament all within the slot, then no need to worry about them not making it. Hey get the proper permits, have a fish fry and donate the proceeds from the fish fry to stocking
What laws did they break? Did the MNR lay any charges? If you want to help with a resource minimize the limits from the meat hunters, a one time tournament will not impact the lake at all. Long term catch and keep however will.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monster29/66
I hate seeing these results from the weekend as well and hope that the tournament organizers make changes going forward. For one I don't know why they let participants weight in dead fish, any tournament I have participated in gives you a penalty for any dead fish plus the dead fish does not count. This ensures participants take care of there catch as well as maintaining a proper live well system.
Allowing fish to spoil is against the law.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bandwagon
I call B-shet on the fish being donated to the food bank.
They are not allowed to accept non commercially caught fish under the donation of food act of Ontario.
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I don't know why in this day and age you can't film your catch and release the fish immediately after measuring it and just go by total inches. But that would get subjective I suppose where 1/4 of an inch could cause a big argument because people can't be reasonable, that's the problem with money on the water it brings out the worst in people.
Or alternatively have 15 judges on the lake with portables scales that could weigh everyone's fish every hour or so.