Fisheries management can be a tall task — how to best set fishing regulations that does the most good?  For black bass management in Ontario, the current regulations are designed to protect bass reproduction and set a closed season for any fishing for bass until the third Saturday in June. Does that regulation do the most good for black bass populations?  After years spent researching that question (and other questions relating to the impacts of angling nesting bass), we now know that the regulation is extraordinarily ineffective. Why? Fishing for other species is allowed during that time, so either through the accidental hooking or through the illegal, targeted fishing for nesting bass, a high number of nesting bass are angled off their nests. We also know that permitting angling nesting bass has a cascade of negative impacts.

This year, the Ontario Ministry of Natural resources has provided granted FCF and researchers from the Carleton University to test an innovative fishing regulation for black bass in two lakes in southeastern Ontario.  Spawning sanctuaries were established in designated areas where no fishing for any species is allowed from April 15 through the Friday before the first Saturday in July.

To determine the effectiveness of spawning sanctuaries, FCF, in concert with researchers and graduate students from the Fish Ecology and Conservation Physiology Laboratory: Carleton University and from the University of Illinois, are working to evaluate how these sanctuaries protect nesting bass from fishing pressure, as well as how that protection translates into increased juvenile bass production.

You can learn more about the current spawning sanctuaries and our research approach at: https://arcg.is/jGPuz0