Warm weather and "very low flow" in some Alberta waterways will soon limit fishing in the south and southwest of the province, according to one biologist There is a possibility.
"We have been monitoring the flow and temperature conditions and after enjoying some very late snowpack thaw and fairly high currents for some time, we are now experiencing much lower currents and uplift.Paul Christensen, a senior fisheries biologist at Cochrane's Alberta Environment and Parks, told Global News on Wednesday. Depending on the fish species, exceeding a certain amount can cause physiological stress in the fish because it holds less oxygen, and most seriously, it can actually cause fish death.”
Christensen notes that "fishing and fighting" causes more stress and the goal is to minimize disruption to fish populations. I said to keep it to a minimum.
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Read more: Alberta anglers fear river closures Blame it on industry and recreation
Fishing restrictions have not yet been announced, but Christensen said they could take place as early as Saturday. If the restrictions are announced, he said they will go into effect at 2 p.m. August 31st. Due to this restriction, fishing is permitted daily, but not between 2:00pm and 2:00pm. and midnight.
Mr Christensen said that if restrictions were introduced, the waterways affected would be the Bow River East He Slope Fisheries Management Zone 1 and the St He Mary River below the St He Mary Reservoir. said.
"Includes the Bow River from Banff to Bassano," he pointed out. "That is, it extends slightly outside fishing zone ES 1."
Read more: Fishing regulations change on Bow River from Banff to Bassano
Christensen could see the limit, admitting that some anglers may wonder why there are all streams in the area.
"A big driver for this is managing the expected large shift in effort from the Bow River to these streams," he said. “Our thinking and some data show that if we close the Bow River, much of that effort will simply shift to the East Slope. low density and high vulnerability fish populations in those areas.
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"So , if you can imagine all of the popularity of fishing on the Bow River, if it just moved to much of the East Slope this would put even more pressure on those streams and we would like to avoid this
READ MORE: Rising temperatures in Alberta's rivers and lakes threaten aquatic life
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"One of the things I've noticed is that the industry itself is adapting to some of these situations," he said.
''Their behavior we saw was to tell their clients to shift their fishing activities to the morning. Or a better user experience, which I think is actually quite driven by some of this awareness of the impact on fish. voluntarily moved to a time zone that does not reflect it."
To see how trout are recovering after the 2013 floods, Calgarians has stepped in. 88} Calgarians come in to see how the trout are recovering after the 2013 floods: 'We should take care of the fish' - 8 Nov 2019 Hydrographic trends over the last decade.
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"You can see it coming out differently every other year," he said. “We thought we were in really great shape this year. As you know, Sunshine Village (the ski resort) was open over the Canada Day long weekend because of the heavy snowfall. I saw that the snow pillows stayed much longer than they actually did, and until then the water remained very high.
"But now that we have had a very hot day, those snowpacks are It is gone and there is less current coming into the bow…At the moment it is very difficult to predict when this will happen.”
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Christensen said that with limits, the goal is not to "enforce" but to " It reinforces good behavior.”
"But if anyone doesn't follow the rules, it's a fishing regulation. Like any other fishing regulation, it's subject to some form of enforcement action."
READ MORE: Warmer waters due to climate change will cause fewer fish: UBC researchers
said that the problem is that it is "experienced in various parts of the world right now".
– Global News, using files from Adam MacVicar
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
