Freshwater Conservation planning

WCS Canada Comments - Bait Use and Commercial Harvest in Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves - December 2014

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada [WCS Canada]

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Abstract

In Ontario, commercial harvest practices for bait are imperfect, and suffer from a number of key problems such as the lack of ecological boundaries for Bait Harvest Areas, harvesters can store live bait in areas that are not where they were harvested, and non-target species including species-at-risk and invasive species continue to be caught by bait harvesters. We strongly agree with the need to revise Ontario's live baitfish use policy. We agree with an outright ban on live bait in Ontario due to the associated ecological risks, which include invasive species and pathogens with potentially significant impacts on recreational and commercial fisheries. We support prohibiting the use of personally harvested or purchased live baitfish/leeches in Ontario’s Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves, and disagree with the current practice of commercial harvest and storage of bait in these areas. We also suggest phasing out commercial operations from Provincial Parks immediately and extending this policy on commercial harvest and bait use to connected waters outside protected area boundarie

Recommended citation

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada [WCS Canada] (2014). WCS Canada Comments - Bait Use and Commercial Harvest in Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves - December 2014. WCS Canada. https://wcscanada.org/resources/wcs-canada-comments-bait-use-and-commercial-harvest-in-provincial-parks-and-conservation-reserves-december-2014/