June 20,2017…

June 20,2017

To Whom it May Concern:

This letter is in regards and response to the proposed changes to the bait fish policies in Ontario. We have many concerns of the impact that these changes will have on the industry and tourism while not having the desired results. First we would like to give you our background in the bait industry in Northwestern Ontario. We have trapped bait since 1980 but we also were involved in the bait business since the early 1970’s when our grandfather and dad started trapping bait. So we have seen and learned a great deal about live bait in the last 37 years. One of our major concerns is that while you had people with extensive knowledge about bait you really didn’t ask or invite them to share that information with you during the whole process. We personally as one of the bigger harvesters in our area was not approached at all. With our experiences and knowledge we do understand the need to do something to try and protect our lakes and waterways from the spread of invasive species but with that said we feel that the proposed changes do little or nothing to that achieve that. Your first step a few years ago of making all harvesters aware of what they were and what to do was a great start. Now the education process needs to continue on to all dealers and their staff, to all fisherman and especially those residents that trap their own live bait. We do understand that this would be a huge undertaking but requiring everyone with their trap to have gone through a course could and would only help educate. Right now all you need is your fishing licence with little or no knowledge as to what you are catching if you are trapping for your own use. Not educating everyone no matter how much bait they trap is a huge mistake because it only takes 1 person not knowing and still doing to transport an unwanted species. We also feel that a continued education system with the harvesters and dealers could possibly have the end result of a certification for a clean and safe bait, which could give way to a more lenient movement of bait from those with this certification. This would help to make bait more available to everyone no matter what zone they are in. In the area we are in the zones and restrictive movement could make bait unavailable or extremely expensive to obtain. Now about those zones…. They suck plain and simple! There has been no considerations of the water shed and there are areas where lakes have been divided. How can this help the problem at all. There are areas of concern around the great lakes and the Minnesota border but there is no buffer zones around these areas. For example live bait can come from the Fort Frances area (there are areas of concern here) and travel 300 plus kilometers north where the water flows north. Good Idea ??? We have heard that the zoning is what it is because it was the easiest way to establish them around the existing fishing zones, but to us this does not work. The proposed change to bait regarding sticklebacks is wasteful and will have a huge impact on us as harvesters. Sticklebacks are in most of the waterbodies and trying to sort them out at the lake would be harmful to the whole catch and very difficult to insure that they were all removed. This would mean more sorts which would end up in more cost to the fisherman with less bait available. They are a good bait fish and taking them off the usable list makes no sense. We hand sort 100% of our bait and we are continually looking at and examining our bait to make sure there is no unwanted species. We are trying to do our part to control and prevent any and all movement of unwanted species. WE have grandchildren that we would like to see have the opportunity of continuing in the live bait industry if they want. We do realize how big of an task doing some of the things that need to be done will be but all areas that offer concern need to be looked at not just the bait industry. Boats and their movements from waterbody to another is a huge area of concern. Throughout our interaction with various people we have heard numerous times “do you know how hard or how much work that would take?” Yes there is hard work ahead but SUCCESS ISN’T EASY AND EASY ISN’T SUCCESSFUL

So we need to decide do we want success or easy.

Putting so many regulations on 1 small area and overlooking others makes no sense.!

We feel you need to stop and re-examine the proposals with input this time from more professionals that have spent a lifetime learning this area of expertise. If we work together and utilize everyone’s knowledge we are bound to be far more successful. This letter has touched on only a few of our concerns but to address them all we would need to write a book. Thank you taking the time to read this and hopefully you will take some of our concerns seriously.

[Original Comment ID: 209872]