Sturgeon in the Kam River

[Sauron 14]

Does anyone know how the sturgeon are doing in the Kam River? I have hooked quite a few this year while fishing for pickerel. I know we are not allowed to target them and all but do you think this will change? Like maybe just having a catch and release type of season for them? I know the season was shut down due to poaching and cultural reasons. If anyone knows let us know.

[gsambray 172]

It will probably be like the spring bear hunt  years and years of government BS and then maybe a glimpse of hope

[Zackcorbin1401 542]

I also seen a few caught this year while walleye fishing,

[mad scientist 140]

OK, so here's the way things work with sturgeon:  First, you have to understand that under both provincial and federal species at risk legislation, there are basically four categories an organism can fall under..."not at risk"; "special concern", "threatened" and "endangered" (they can also be "extinct" and "extirpated", but in those cases there won't be any in Ontario.  They also have "data deficient".  But the four categories are the main ones).

 

 

"Not at risk" has no protection under the species at risk legislation; "special concern" requires the government to produce a management strategy, but also has no legal protection for the species.  But "threatened" and "endangered" provides legal protection for both the species and their habitats, under both the provincial Endangered Species Act, and the federal Species at Risk Act.

 

 

Under both of these Acts, it isn't the governments themselves that designate a species under one of the categories; there is a panel of external scientists that meets annually to review the status of species of interest.  If the panel decides to designate a species to the Threatened or Endangered list, the government is legally compelled to provide protections for it.

 

Both the federal panel (COSEWIC) and the provincial panel (COSSARO) have reviewed the status of lake sturgeon.  The most relevant decision came from COSSARO in 2009; they decided that sturgeon in Ontario should be grouped into three populations based on drainage basins: The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence and Nelson River populations were designated Threatened while the Hudson Bay-James Bay population  was designated Special Concern.

 

 

The Ontario Endangered Species Act includes the following statement:

    9.  (1)  No person shall,

    (a)   kill, harm, harass, capture or take a living member of a species that is listed on the Species at Risk in Ontario List as an extirpated, endangered or threatened species;

 

 

Because of this, when COSSARO designated the two populations of sturgeon as Threatened, it became illegal to catch a sturgeon, even for catch and release...therefore, the provincial government made the appropriate changes to the recreational fishing regulations in 2010; commercial fishing for sturgeon is also prohibited.

 

However, in that part of Ontario where sturgeon are designated as Special Concern, catch and release fishing is still permitted...that's basically the far north, FMZ 1, 2, 3 and parts of 7 and 8.

 

So the take-home message is that while sturgeon might be doing ok here and there (such as the Kam), the legal status for sturgeon is based on how well they are doing throughout the entire Great Lakes basin...and until they recover throughout the basin to the point that COSSARO changes their official status, it will continue to be illegal for most people to fish for them them (important to note that Section 46 of the Endangered Species Act exempts harvesting according Aboriginal and treaty rights from the prohibition in Section 9).  The province is not legally entitled to allow sturgeon fishing in the Kam until the "Threatened" classification is improved.

 

As for what caused the decline of sturgeon in the first place, blaming it on poaching and other harvest is overly simplistic.  The Sturgeon Recovery Strategy lists the following factors as contributing to the decline of lake sturgeon in Ontario:

- Exploitation

- Habitat alteration and fragmentation

- Pollution and water quality

- Illegal harvest

- Species invasions

- Climate change

 

The bit about habitat alteration and fragmentation is especially important on rivers that have hydro facilities and other dams...water fluctuations due to hydro management is one of the key factors that has been implicated in causing reproductive failure in sturgeon populations.

 

If you want to read the Endangered Species Act, it can be found here:

https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/07e06

...and the Recovery Strategy for sturgeon in Ontario can be found here:

http://files.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/species-at-risk/stdprod_086034.pdf