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EPISODE 307 THE ALEWIFE POPULATION EXPLOSION: millions dead, multiple millions living in the Great Lakes 1867

EPISODE 307    THE ALEWIFE POPULATION EXPLOSION: millions  of  dead, multiple millions living in the Great Lakes 1967


alan skeoch
April 2021



HOW DID THE ALEWIFE GET ITS NAME?

Alewives have a peculiar shape.  The  front part of the fish is enlarged…bigger than the bottom part.  Apparently the name
alewife referred to the imaginary wives of saloon keepers whose wives were supposedly Buxom.  Today that definition
would be considered sexist and  unacceptable.





Howard  Tanner was a passenger in a small plane flying over Lake Michigan when he noticed
something strange in the water below.  It was a great white streak on top of the normally blue
water … several miles long and half a mile wide.

“What’s that streak?”
“Dead fish, millions of them.” responded the pilot
“Circle snd go lower so I can get a better look.””

Sure enough there were millions of little fish floating dead in
the middle of Lake Michigan.  Howard knew what they were.  

“Alewives.”

Keep the name Howard Tanner in mind.  He  eventually changed to whole ecology  of the Great Lakesl
…”I will either be a  hero or a bum,” he commented.  You ve the judge in subsequent  Episodes.

THE 1967 DIE OFF IN LAKE MICHIGAN

THE ALEWIFE EXPLOSION: REPORT BY THE (U.S.) FEDERAL WATER POLLUTION CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION, JULY 25, 1967

FISH populations in the Great Lakes had declined but the decline was worsened dramatically in
“ THE 1945-49 period  when the lake trout  declined sharply.   Subsequent species  changes  took place in
swift succession and by 1965 the catch  was dominated by the alewife which invaded  the lake (Michigan) where it was first
recorded  in 1949; exotic  species constituted nearly 63% of the catch and the portion of the catch composed  of Lake Trout,
lake  herring, suckers and whitefish which exceeded 82% in the 1898-1909 period, was only 4.5% in 1965.”

“There  is no question, however, that predation of the sea lamprey triggered the decline of the lake trout in the upper three
great lakes…and a population explosion of he alewife were major contributing factors..”


THE ALEWIFE STORY

These  changes in the fish populations of the Great Lakes occurred  in a remarkably short period of time.  The sea lampreys
sucked the blood out of huge numbers off lake trout.  Lake trout relied heavily on alewives for food and doing  so
kept the alewife population in check.  Once the lake trout population declined suddenly there was an equal and opposite
reaction by the alewives.  By the 1960’s it was estimated that 90% of the biomass in the Great Lakes  was alewives.
Not thousands…not millions…but billions of alewives.   

Alewives  are bottom feeders.  Lake trout lay their eggs on the bottom of the Great Lakes which when they hatched  provided
a food  bonanza for the alewives.    The victims of these two creatures…the sea lamprey and the alewife…were the Lake Trout.
Suddenly the Great Lakes fishery got out of balance.   Lake Trout (and other Great Lakes fish) dropped  from 82% in 1898-1909
to 4.5% in 1965.   An amazing change done with great speed.

In 1873 the first alewife was  detected  in Lake Ontario.   How did it get there?   Normally an Atlantic fish that lived its life in
salt water but spawned in the rivers and ponds and even drainage ditches of the east coast.  Some  may have ventured up
he St. Lawrence waterway.  But alewives may also  have been present in Lake Ontario and  Lake Champlain for ages.
And not a  problem.  Lots of natural  fish liked eating alewives. a  fact that kept the population in balance.  Lobster fishermen
use alewives as bait.   

As  long as there was  a healthy lake trout population then the alewives were no problem.  Lake trout liked to eat alewives
as did other prey fish.   However when the lake trout began to disappear due to sea Lamprey predation there was
less and less  check on the alewives  of the Great Lakes.   A population explosion followed that overwhelmed the Great
Lake fish populations.   So many alewives that they became 90% of the biomass of the Great Lakes by the 1960’s.
A number that high is hard  to believe but true.  

IT  was the millions of dead  alewives that alerted Canadians and Americans to the fact that untold  millions of live alewife
had taken  control of the Great Lakes.   The alewife  takeover was not ‘about to happen’ nor was it ‘happening’.  It had  happened.
The Great Lakes fish bowl was full to overflowing with alewives.  Remember this figure…90% of the biomass of the Great Lakes
in 1967 was alewives.  Incredible. Devastating.  Perhaps insoluble..


The huge carpets  of floating dead  and dying alewives noticed by Howard Tanner was  repeated elsewhere in the Great Lakes
I was a  teen ager in 1953 when I noticed carpets  of dead alewives on Sunnyside Beach in Toronto.  Nothing like what
Tanner noticed but striking … and revolting …all the same.  These huge carpets  of  dead  alewives were explained as
having been killed by sudden water temperature change.  Which may have been true.  Another explanation was that the
alewife deaths were natural.  Millions just reached maturing and died.  The Great Lakes had become a fish bowl almost
exclusively alewife.

page1image133874720

The alewife dead on Toronto beaches in the 1950’s and  1960’s looked much like this  photograph.  In Chicago in 1967 the
dead  alewives piled up in millions…carcasses  rated…millions and millions of flies feasted…and the smell was so bad that beaches
were abandoned while bulldozers and trucks moved as many as 60 tons  of red  alewives to disposal sites where they were buried.
Below are some excerpts from local  Chicago newspapers and  individuals.   One local said that a floating strip of dead  alewives
in Lake Michigan was estimated  as 40 miles long.  Surely an exagerration!  

CHICAGO….DEAD ALEWIVES NIGHTMARE

WHAT WAS HAPPENING?

Why did the alewife population explode?

1) Overfishing for a century.  Fish population was not infinite but was treated as if infinite.
2) Sea Lamprey population explosion peaked 1960…lake
trout biggest victims
3) Alewife population explosion…lake  trout biggest victims
for two reasons.  1) Alewives feasted on lake trout fry which
were born in the great lakes rather  than the feeder rivers.
ii) Lake trout diet of alewives triggered  thiamin deficiency in
lake trout where the fry became sterile.  Attributed to the absence 
of thiamin in the alewives.

COMMENTS BY NEWSPAPERS AND CITIZENS IN CHICAGO IN 1967

artwork.chicagoartsource.com
June 19, 1967 – The beaches at Montrose, Rainbow, North Avenue, Ohio Street and Oak Street are flooded with dead alewives in what a park district official calls the worst plague of the fish that he has seen in his career.  Park district crews use bulldozers and high-lift trucks to remove the fish, but they keep washing up on the beaches faster than they can be carted away.  Joseph Krzesinski, the director of landscape maintenance for the park district, says, “They keep coming in.  In some places they are a foot deep.  Look out over the lake there they are as far as the eye can see.”  [Chicago Tribune, June 20, 1967].The invasion was first noted on June 15 when an official of the Great Lakes Region of the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration spotted streaks of the dead fish being blown toward the Michigan shore.  Between June 17 and 18 the wind shifted, blowing from east to west, and by June 19 “Chicago’s shoreline was clogged with a silvery carpet of alewife carcasses.”  [nepis.epa.gov]. Alewives, originally inhabitants of the North Atlantic, were first seen in Lake Ontario in the 1880’s and gradually moved through the Great Lakes over the years. Marine biologists suggest that a combination of factors has led to the plague of dead alewives in Lake Michigan.  Over-fishing in the Great Lakes in the early part of the century, along with the explosion of the sea lamprey, an invasive species, resulted in the demise of the lake trout, the only natural threat to the alewife. When the 1960’s arrived, it was estimated that alewives made up 90 percent of Lake Michigan’s biomass.  Schools as large as 40,000 fish moved close to shore in late spring to spawn, with a female alewife carrying between 10,000 to 12,000 eggs.  After spawning a mass die-off of the fish would occur, which was especially pronounced in 1967, biologists theorize, because of extreme fluctuations in the temperature of Lake Michigan.  After 1967 the government began stocking the lake with Chinook salmon, “the most voracious fish in the lake”.  [Chicago Tribune, January 22, 2006].  The salmon feed at the same water level as alewives and have kept the alewife population in check.  The above photo shows the lake shore at Diversey Harbor during the invasion.




The old adage, “an east wind is neither good for man nor beast,” was especially relevant for Wilmette in the summer of 1967. That was the year that a particularly heavy die-off of alewives washed up on the beaches. The prevailing east winds pushed the decaying bodies of these small, silvery fish ashore in droves. By July, the Wilmette Park District was hauling six or seven truck loads of alewives out to a landfill in Des Plaines every single day. Next door at Winnetka’s beach, the dead fish were piled up one foot deep and ten feet wide, while Highland Park hauled sixty tons of dead fish away in just two days. Accompanying the sharp smell of decay was an influx of flies and mosquitoes. All in all, not a great beach year for Wilmette. Beach attendance was already hitting record lows– down almost sixty-five percent from its high in 1960– before the alewives arrived. Then things got even worse. 

It’s summer.  We’re all enjoying the great outdoors, and some of us are going to the beach.  Back in the 1960s, when people around Chicago went to the beach, they had to deal with alewives.

An alewife is a kind of herring.  It’s about 7 inches long and weighs a few ounces.  You mostly find them off New England.  In the Boston suburbs, one of the major streets is even called Alewife Parkway.

alewife1X.jpg

Well, during the 1930s, these alewives got into Lake Michigan.  They weren’t much of a problem because the bigger fish–like the trout–would eat them.  But the sea lamprey came along and ate the trout.  Sea lampreys didn’t eat alewives, so suddenly, the lake had all these alewives and no predators.

Pretty soon there are alewives filling the lake.  That’s what today’s story is about—July 7, 1967.  There are so many alewives around Chicago that it’s become national news.  Even Time magazine is talking about it.

Each year, we’d have the annual Alewife Die-Off.  All these alewives would die in Lake Michigan, and their bodies would drift in.  They’d fill the water near the shore or wash up onto the beach.

Alewife2.jpg

Of course, those alewives would be decaying, and you can imagine the smell—well, you probably don’t want to.  The flies would come in, and the beaches would be a mess.  The city would have to use tractors and bulldozers to clear off the beaches.

Nobody knew how many dead alewives there were.  Experts said hundreds of millions, maybe a billion.  A guy in a plane over the lake saw a ribbon of drifting dead alewives 40 miles long.



alan skeoch

April 2021

POSTSCRIPT:   REVIEW LIFE  AND DEATH IN THE GREATEST FISH BOWL ON EARTH: THE GREAT LAKES

TROUBLES:  1) OVERFISHING  2) SEA  LAMPREYS   3) ALEWIVES  4) NEXT:…EPISODE 308   HOWARD TANNER …COHO AND CHINOOK SALMON

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EPISODE 305: SEA LAMPREYS: LIFE AND DEATH IN THE GREATEST FISHBOWL ON EARTH

EPISODE  305   SEA LAMPREYS, :  CONTRIBUTE TO THE GREAT LAKES DISASTER


alan skeoch
April 2021

( series titled LIFE  AND DEATH IN THE GREATEST FISH BOWL ON EARTH: THE GREAT LAKES)

www.science-rumors.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Fact-about-Sea-Lamprey-to-know-What-this-Creature-is-300×148.jpg 300w, www.science-rumors.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Fact-about-Sea-Lamprey-to-know-What-this-Creature-is-768×379.jpg 768w” sizes=”(max-width: 793px) 100vw, 793px” apple-inline=”yes” id=”993B8393-9A04-44F5-AB54-F7BFF7C9F434″ src=”http://alanskeoch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Fact-about-Sea-Lamprey-to-know-What-this-Creature-is.jpeg”>

Lamprey attached to fish

 Sea Lampreys

The first sea Lamprey was found in Lake Ontario in 1835 perhaps  using the new Erie Canal as an access route.
It is suspected that these early sea Lampreys took a short cut north to Lake Ontario first and much later
used the Welland Canal  to get access to the upper Great Lakes.  

 There are four kinds of lampreys but
the sea lamprey was the most  threatening to the Great Lakes fishery because it adapted to fresh water life. And
 found the lake trout easy prey….Slow moving deep  down in Lake Ontario…Fat. Lots of blood…
Easy to grab..  Just swim up beside then use the barbs on their velcro like mouths to hook
a lake trout anywhere and begin sucking the life blood out of them.   One sea lamprey can eat forty pounds
of fish (not just lake trout) 

Since the sea lamprey found life in the Great Lakes abundant with easy prey it did not return to the Atlantic 
ocean as the creature may have planned when it first gained  access.  The  clean, clear, fast flowing rivers
 were ideal  for sea lamprey spawning.   One female sea lamprey produces
up to 100,000 baby lampreys.   It did not take long for the sea lampreys population to overwhelm
the natural fish cycles in the Great Lakes.  By 1960 the top predator, the Lake Trout, that served
the function of keeping the fish population in balance was nearly extinct. 


  • Lake Ontario, 1835
  • Lake Erie, 1921
  • Lake Huron, 1932
  • Lake Michigan, 1936
  • Lake Superior, 1938
.
Sea lamprey lifecycle graphic






www.science-rumors.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/20-Facts-about-Sea-Lamprey-to-know-What-this-Creature-is-300×180.jpg 300w, www.science-rumors.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/20-Facts-about-Sea-Lamprey-to-know-What-this-Creature-is-768×461.jpg 768w” sizes=”(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px” apple-inline=”yes” id=”8732DEA3-9111-40D8-8934-4E3F977FEA2E” src=”http://alanskeoch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/20-Facts-about-Sea-Lamprey-to-know-What-this-Creature-is.jpeg”>




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SEA LAMPREYS




SOME FACTS

Sea Lampreys are parasites that feed  by sucking the blood  of host fish like trout, salmon and any others they can sidle up to..  
They are ugly and that is putting it mildly. Adult sea lampreys have an eel like body with dark olive or brown yellowish colouring with
a lighter coloured belly.  Most remarkable and frightening are their heads which are dominated by a round mouth with teeth arranged
in concentric circles and in the centre an opening to the body.   They can grow up  to 1.2 metres in length and weigh 2.5 kg.

Adult sea  Lampreys live in the saltwater seas of the Northern Hemisphere (North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Black seas)  but lays its eggs in freshwater streams with fast currents
where the larvae lay burrowed in the sand  for many years feeding on planktons and detritus.  After several years the larvae suddenly
metamorphize into young adults and historically they head for the sea.  But some adjusted to life in freshwater like Lake Ontario.
  Their life  cycle lasts 5 to 8 years from egg to adult.  Adult sea lampreys live from12 to 20 months sucking
the blood  out of whatever host fish they can find.  The barbed mouth grabs  hold, then a ras-like tongue looses  fish scales to get to the fish flesh and
to suck the fish blood killing  the fish in most cases.  The sea lamprey mouth injects a chemical that prevents the host fish from clotting
its blood.

One sea lamprey moving from host to host can kill 40 pounds of fish every year.
One female sea lamprey can lay 100,00 eggs.
BY 1960 over 85% of fish caught in the Great Lakes had lamprey scars.


Sea Lampreys are not natural natives of the Great Lakes.  How they got here is unclear  Some sources say they came up the Erie Canal
in 1835 .. partway … then decided they liked the cold fast moving rivers feeding  into Lake Ontario where they settled.  Still another
source believes these lampreys have been in Lake  Champlain for 10,000 years.  How they got into the upper Great Lakes may have happened 
In 1929 when the Welland Canal  was  improved for shipping and also for the sea Lampreys.   All sources agree that the
sea lamprey destroyed  the commerce  rising industry  between  1940 and 1950.  Why such a sudden population explosion?
A lot of guesswork and scientific exploration has not completed solved thus sudden devastation.   What is known for sure is
that the sea lampreys had a devastating effect on the Lake Trout population.  As soon as that happened other problems followed.

Life under water is not pleasant.. Big fish eat little fish.  Strange that no fish developed a taste for adult lampreys.

Killing the sea lamprey spawning adults has been achieved by use  of a chemical lampricide, TFN, to kill the larvae.  Also electricity
has been used to prevent adults  lampreys from getting access to their spawning grounds.  Sterilization of males is also used.
Their numbers have been reduced but not extinguished.   Port Credit fisherman, Andrew Skeoch, has found the occasional
ses lamprey attached to coho and chinook salmon.   He practices ‘catch and release’ sport fishing. That is never done with
any lamprey…they  are killed.

Perhaps the most unusual change in the sea lamprey life cycle was the  total adjustment of life in fresh water.  The  Great Lakes
were the ‘golden marine city’  where food was plentiful and clear fast moving streams with gravel and sand bottoms made spawning phenomenally
successful.  One female can lay 100,000 eggs.  Some larvae get eaten by other creatures but one sampled river in the upper Great 
Lakes trapped  22,000 sea lampreys  as they headed downstream and changed  into vicious predators.

One of the strangest adult changes is that they begin to breathe through 7 holes partway down their body and their eyes become
sinister looking just above their suddenly enlarged and spike filled lethal mouths. Vampires of the Great Lakes.


alan  skeoch

Threats to Great Lakes   1) Overfising  2) Sea Lampreys  3) Alewife (COMING NET EPISODE)



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EPISODE 303 LORNE JOYCE — THE COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN ON LAKE ONARIO – A TOUGH LIFE


Note:  This  is a personal description of the commercial  fishery on Lake Ontario as seen through the eyes of Lorne Joyce, the
son of commercial fisherman Bob Joyce.  A few years ago I interviewed  Lorne about his  father.   I made notes then converted
the notes to dialogue from.  The result is a little choppy because our conversation jumped around.  I do think it give some idea about
the nature of commercial fishing on Lake Ontario up until 1960 when a ‘perfect storm’ (many many reasons) happened  that ended
commercial fishing in Port Credit.   Episodes that follow this episode will make the picture clearer.  

Lorne talked about the rum running years which  were so  dramatic that they obscured  the history of the Port Credit commercial
fishery.   The rum running years were dangerous times even though today  those years are made into sensational and amusing
twists of history.   Lorne’s  family and most families in Port Credit were Temperance people.  They did  not drink.   I believe Lorne;s
father may have dabbled in rum running….beer by what Lorne said…but our conversation skirted  around the facts.  Lorne was
hard to pin down on the prohibition years.  

Pictures of the Commercial Fishery are more  difficult to find than pictures of the rum running adventures.   The result distorts
this episode.



EPISODE 303   LORNE JOYCE — THE COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN ON LAKE ONTARIO – A TOUGH LIFE.



heritagemississauga.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Lorne-Joyce-20101-570×428.jpg 570w, heritagemississauga.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Lorne-Joyce-20101-600×450.jpg 600w, heritagemississauga.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Lorne-Joyce-20101.jpg 640w” sizes=”(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px”>

1926 – 2013









LORNE JOYCE: OPTOMITRIST, FISHERMAN, HISTORIAN…PERHAPS RUM RUNNER


             “LORNE ALWAYS LAUGHED BEFORE HE SPOKE AND WITH HIS LAUGHTER THERE WAS A TWINKLE IN HIS EYES.  HE WAS A GOOD MAN.  I SPENT A WONDERFUL

                SUNDAY AFTERNOON TRYING TO DISCOVER WHAT MAKE HIM TICK….ONLY TO DISCOVER HE WAS TRYING TO DISCOVER WHAT MADE ME TICK.  HE WAS THAT
                KIND OF MAN.  SELF-EFFACING.    ABLE TO DIVERT TALK ABOUT HIS LIFE WITH A  LAUGH AND A STORY.  ONLY TO FIND HE WAS GENTLY DOING THE INTERVIEW. WE ALL MISS HIM.”
                   (Alan Skeoch, 2013)

Lorne Joyce is a man that is  hard  to forget.  He is gone now but shortly before his death we talked about fishing, rum running and, of  course, stonehookers.
Let me use his voice…pretend  I am Lorne using the notes I made that day…I remember him so well.

             
Picture of a typical fish boat…i.e. shaped  like a jelly bean.


“My dad and brothers were Port Credit fishermen…commercial kind.  No fishing rods…they were used by the sport fishermen and women.  We had long nets designed to catch adult fish  by their gills.  Our fish boats
were ugly things.  Fishboats looked like giant jelly beans…long, round on bottom and top, with side opening doors and a low transom so they could see where we
were going.  We dropped  the nets from the side doors…lead weights on the bottom, bobber floats on the top.  Then we would wait.  Drop other nets  in the mean time.
After a week or so we would return to the  first nets and pull them up hopefully with fish trapped by their gills.  Those nets were expensive…perhaps $25,000…so a
lost net was  a disaster.  Buoys were set above the nets so they could  be found.  How  were they found?  “We used a compass and  a  watch.”  Hauled the nets with with 
a roller winch.  Busy time. Detaching fish, gutting and cleaning them, packing them in ice  in summer time and stowing them in the fish boat.  Where did we get the ice”
We cut big blocks of ice from the Credit River in January and February, piled the blocks under straw in our ice house which was really just a simple shack. On a good day we could haul in ten tons of fish…whitefish for instance.  Big hauls were exhausting…they had to be cleaned fast, iced, packed in fish boxes on Port Credit dock and then
shipped  to the big fish markets in Chicago, New  York…even San Francisco.  Winter time fishing was dangerous.  Ice on the  lake could trap a fish boat.  I remember
Dad talking about one fish boat that got both trapped and  lost out on the lake ice for several days.  When  found the three men on board were alive but in bad shape
from the cold.

“Ice was dangerous in another way.   Winter spray would freeze on the fish boat.  Get thicker and thicker until there was real danger the boat would roll 
over.  We had to crawl  out with axes and try to knock big chunks of that heavy ice off … we could slip off ourselves. 

“Yes, men did die.  In January 1943, the Thomas brothers never returned.  They were lost somewhere near Port Dalhousie.  We sent the steel hulled Naomi to scour
the lake for them but all that  was found as a burned coat.  Fire  and  ice, bad combination.  Even  the Naomi got into trouble that year.  The tug was so heavily iced over
when it lumbered into port that the crew  had crawl out through the wheelhouse window.   Commercial fishing was a 12 month business full of risks.  The price we got
was the biggest risk of all.  Fish had to be sold fast.  By the 1940’s big catches did  not happen often.  The fishery was  getting fished out…Then  in 1960 our fish shacks
were sold from under us.  The land on the  east bank of the Credit River was put up for sale by he Federal government.  We were finished.”

“Our best years were the 1920’s.  But our money was not all  made by fishing.  Some  of the fishermen ran a little rum.  Dad did but he was  not proud of the fact for we are a Temperance family.  None  of us drink.  The lure of fast money trumped moral  principles.  Prohibition in the United States was a godsend
to a lot of fishermen.  The 13th amendment to the American constitution banned alcohol.  But it did not ban the thirst for whisky and beer.  Some Canadians
undertook to quench  that thirst.  We had Prohibition in Canada for a while but our distilleries were allowed to continue making the stuff.  Weird, right?
This is  how it worked shipping liquor from the Main Duck islands.  A large boat loaded with crates and  sacks  of whisky and beer would pick up the stuff  from Canadian
distillers like Corby’s, Gooderham and Worts, motor to the Main Duck islands and  then transfer the liquor to smaller motor boats that would race
to secret destinations  on the US shore….used  low sleek  and fast little launches.  Easy money.  Price of a bottle of whisky sky-rocketed  to $40 each. That’s $500 a
bottle today.  Big time criminal activity…got bigger and bigger…more and more dangerous.  Roots of organized crime.  People got killed.  Boats got burned.  Politicians, police, normally law  
abiding citizens got corrupted.  Speak easies proliferated.  Gangs got rich.  Al Capone emerged along with other big time criminals. 

“American coast guard boats were armed with machine guns.  I remember dad saying that one
rum runner bent over to grab a lunch sandwich and a US machine gun peppered the windscreen just missing him.  For a while rum runners built fast boat
that could  outrun the Coast Guard boats. We laugh about those days now but rum running was no joke. Lake Ontario was dangerous at night.”



THE










Chicago crime boss Al Capone, center, in the custody of U.S. marshals, leaves the courtroom of Federal Judge James H. Wilkerson in Chicago. Oct. 24th, 1931. He is facing tax evasion charges. Ref #: PA.2534968 Date: 24/10/1931flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/PA-2534968-300×235.jpg 300w” sizes=”(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px” apple-inline=”yes” id=”AA3A4A80-7D4D-46BC-8FC8-A7EB5E7C0D29″ src=”http://alanskeoch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/PA-2534968-1024×802-1.jpeg”>

“Joe  Burke was the big rum runner in Port Credit…or so I was told.  During the years of  Canadian Prohibition, He  would  buy a lpad of liquor from a Canadian distillery, have it shipped by train to Port Credit, load it on a boat here and assure  Canadian customs people that the liquor was being shipped to St. Pierre and Miquelon, French
territory off the coast of Newfoundland.  Then peddle the liquor to American criminals.   His rum running boats never had enough gas for the long
trip up the St. Lawrene.  Only enough to get across the lake and  back.

“  Sometimes we  failed to sell the beer to the Americans and had to bring it back to Port Credit.   That was why we always had  about 150 feet of good rope
on board.  To avoid Canadian  customs people we would tie the  sacks beer to the long rope and drop it overboard just outside Port Credit harbour.   Then use
a drag a  hook to recover the beer when it was safe.   I know you are  wondering if we drank any ourselves.  We  did not but others did.  Opening a sack
of beer would get the big time bootleggers angry.  Dangerous.  To get around that the sack would be held over awashtubm and then slammed with a  hammer.  Bottles
would break and beer would leak into the washtub.  Ladle the foamy stuff into tin cups.   Explain to big time bootleggers, “ Sorry, Accidentally broken!  ” 

“My Dad  died  in 1928,  Shortly before he died he told mom to sell the boats as fast as possible.  Why?  Because they are old, made of wood,
and will rot fast.  She sold them but got next to nothing for them.  The same was happening to the stonehookers about then.
Both the fishery and stoehooking were in decline.    Stonehooking  was killed by the cement factories.  Commercial fishing limped along
until the late 1940’s and1950’s 


              


What remains?
 Some stonehookers houses are still in Port Credit.  The Naish house for instance 
And the Wilcox Hotel  And the blacksmith on Stavebank.  Perhaps most surprising is  the survival
of one old and decrepit ice  house over by Riverside  School.  


FISHING  to 1950    Fishboats open and Fishboats covered
 

 
They would motor out into Lake Ontario, often heading for the waters around  Main Duck Island far to the east.   Eight foot nets were strung together and dropped in the lake … corks on one side, weights on the other so the nets would hang vertically.  Buoys were attached to mark the place.  Lots of nets used…if a winter storm destroyed the nets the fishermen could lose as much as $25,000 and this did happen.  Five or ten days later they would return to the nets using a compass and a watch.  Compass and watch…think about that.  Then they would roller-winch in the nets, detach the fish and begin to clean and pack them on the ice that had been stowed in Port Credit ice house from the previous winter.  On a good day a fisherman could get ten tons of fish.  Big hauls like that had to be cleaned and iced fast and then shipped to the big fish markets in Chicago, New York…even San Francisco.
 
Ten tons!   That was good day.  There were not a lot of good days.  
 
Up early in the morning and out into the lake.  Fog made things difficult but winter ice was the biggest hazard.  “Ice formed on the water and once in a while the b oats would get trapped.  My Father (Bob Joyce) always managed to get home safely but I remember one time one boat with three men abourd was trapped in the ice for several days and my father and others searched for them, day after day.  It was scary.  The boat was finally found and the men were alive but in very bad shape from the cold because while the boat was covered and had a motor and stove which would normally keep them warm, they ran out fuel after the first few days.”*
 
(*Grandpa Bob (Joyce) spins a few tales to his grandchildren in the year 1993, P.17, book loaned from Sandra Church)
 
Men used axes to knocking off  chunks of ice from the sides and deck…trying to lighten the boat lest she capsize.  Those fish boats would never win a beauty contest.  Looked like an odd shaped wooden piano box afloat…or to use another metaphor…a toad sliding across the ice…a giant bobber.  But These covered fishing boats were a great improvement over earlier fishing boats … a covered deck with a side door for hauling in nets was a lot better than an open deck because the fishing fleet was a 12 month operation and protection was a godsend even if the slick lines of the old schooners were jettisoned.   
 
Some died.  The Thomas brothers were missing in January 1943 somewhere off Port Dalhousie.  The steel hulled Naomi scoured the lake for three days and all they found was a man’s burnt coat.  The Thomas brothers were never found.  Then men on board the NAOMI were at risk themselves for their tug was so heavily iced over when they lumbered into Port Credit the men had to crawl out the after-wheelhouse window.   Winter fishing was not some kind of holiday.
Naming fish boats was not always flattering.  The Norma Jean was named after Mrs. Bob Joyce .  She was not amused…being named after a schooner or one of the sleek launches in the harbour was OK.  But to be named after a fish boat!  A floating block of wood…a toad in the water.  Forget it. 
 


THIS photographer who took this picture was threatened by the men in the skiff.  “You better not be taking a picture”  A rum runners spped launch

had run aground  on the Detroit River and  the rum runners rushed to transfer the liquor to shore before being spotted by the Coast Guard sometime in the 1920’s

            alan skeoch
            Port Credit, Ontario
            based on a speech given in 2013

            Poor Scripts


1)   Canada adopted Prohibition in 1916. Repealed it in 1921

Not to be deterred, Province of Ontario passed its own prohibition. The Ontario Temperance Act (OTA, 1921-1927) outlawed the sale and consumption of any alcoholic beverage in Ontario. OTA did not restrict alcohol manufacture. It did restrict any distiller or brewer from selling their products within the province. Producers moved their sales operations to Province of Quebec.2 This allowed products made in Ontario to be legitimately sold from Quebec, and then legally shipped to foreign customers from Ontario. 


2)  The document below was excerpted from the AnnulReport of the Department of Fisheries of the Province of Ontario, 1899-1906

District Overseer Pratt reports :     That the season has been a profitable one both to the fishermen and the dealers j   that a smaller number than in former years have been engaged in fishing ; that prices   have ruled higher, and that with the exception of a few particular localities in Georgian   Bay, fish are decidedly on the increase. He is of the opinion that the causes of the   non-increase of fish in some localities are : (1) That in former years, saw dust had been   allowed to enter several streams and thereby became deposited over a considerable area   at river mouths ; (2; that the towing of large rafts of logs is detrimental to both fish,   life and fishing operations ; and (3) a fermentation process takes place when fresh bark   is deposited in the water, which causes the fish to avoid such places.     The fishermen, he says, complain that tugmen are not careful to avoid unnecessary   damage to nets, but frequently tow their rafts over net buoys, often getting foul of th   buoy line, dragging and tearing valuable property. He is of the opinion that the preser   vation line, inside of which net fishing is not allowed, is too far from shore from off   Moose Point north, and that there does not appear to be any good reason for shutting oft   so many acres of water. 

  Implements of Capture.     The principal implements of capture authorized in Ontario are the pound set, the   gill net, the hocp or fjke net, and the seine. The pound net preserves the fish alive,   and is set at right angles to the shore, from which runs out a leader until water   sufficiently deep in which to set the pound is found, vaiying from 25 to 40 feet, according   to the length of the stakes used. The fish, in passing up and down the shore, encounter-   ing the leader, are turned in their course and work along the leader until they pass into   the heart and thence into the pound, from which the net derives its name. Not more   than three nets in a string are permitted to be set, and an open or disconnected space   must be left between each net. They are placed at various distances apart, care being   exercised to prevent crowding or oveifishing. On the American side, where the water is   very much shallower, as many as 25 or 30 nets are set in a string, and as closely together   as the fishermen may desire. The fisherman with small capital has, therefore, no chance,   pocketed between long strings of these nets, and is forced out of the business, while on   this side all are put upon an equal footing. ^_^ — \     The hoop or fyke net, though differently constructed, operates similarly to the pound]   net, the fish being found alive in the bag or purse. It is set in marshy inshore waters,/   and is licensed to take coarse fish only. — ^     The gill net bangs like a wall in the water, suspended by buoys and floats, and is   kept taut by sinkers. It may be set in shallow or deep water. The fish are gilled in   attempting to pass through the met he s, and soon die. The occupation of gill net fishing   on the great lakes is attended with many dangers and hardships. The fishermen must   be on the water in all kinds of weather, the best lifts being, it is said, sometimes made   wien the lakes are the roughest.     The seine or sweep net is probably the oldest device for taking fish, and is a most   effective on« ; To it, however, is attributed the depletion of many waters once teeming   with fish, ai d its use, therefore, has been for seme years discouraged. It varies in length   according to the distance to be swept, one end being attached to the shore. All fish,   irrespective of size, within the circle described in its operation are taken.   

  The Commercial Fisheries.     ' As a national possession they are inestimable, aud as a field for industry and en-   terprise they are inexhaustible." They are perhaps unsurpassed in any country on the   giou«, not only in extent, but for their great economic value. Practically no attention   has as yet been directed to our great north west and northern waters, which teem with the   finer qualities of fish. These fisheries are destined in the near future to afford a liveli-   hood for thousands of our population, and become an important and continuous source of   food supply and revenue. In the older portions of the province, under a judicious   licensing system, a vigorous policy of supervision, and the requirement of a strict com-   pliance with the laws and regulations enacted for the protection of the fisheries, there   may soon be expected to be a large increase in the supply of fish and a perceptible im-   provement in the fishing industry, a matter which concerns not the present generation   only but which ia of vital importance to succeeding generations alsa. Any other course   will result in their complete extinction. ' : Propagation may plant and generous nature   may water, but a reasonable protection must be added to give permanent increase " The   fishermen for a consideration, are granted the privilege of netting in the public waters, but   this privilege must not be abused, nor the public's interests in the fisheries prejudiced   thereby. The history of commercial fishing in the great lakes of this province, until   within very recent years, has been one of wholesale destruction. Not many years ago   Lake Ontario teemed with whitefish and there are well authenticated instances of as   many as forty, fifty, and even ninety thousand having been taken in one night at Bur-   lington Beach. No thought was then had of saving the immature and unmarketable por-   tion of the catch, aud no thought was had of the morrow, but they were thrown upon the   beach to die, rot and be carted away as manure, and as a result of this improvidence   there are now but few whitefish in that lake ; aud, as in Lake Ontario, so in most of the   large bodies of fresh water where fishing has been engaged in to excess. The urgent   necessity of some decisive action to prevent the continued destruction of the immature   fish led to the introduction into our licenses, and subsequently into the Fisheries Act, of   the clause prohibiting the taking of any trout or whitefish under two pounds in weight —   in other words, the taking of these fish before they have arrived at the age of reproduc-   tion. It was suggested that the object desired could be accomplished by requiring the   mesh of the pot of the pound net to be sufficiently large to permit the escape of all fish   under that size ; and while this might have been a remedy in some place?,, in others —   such, for instance, as in Lake Erie, where a variety of kinds and sizes of fisll inhabits the   lake, and where the bulk of the catch is of herring and a small kind of pic ":erel — such a   condition would have resulted in the bankrupting of the fishermen, and was therefore   impracticable. Could a size have been stipulated, it would have been admittedly prefer-   
1899 ] GAME AND FISHERIES. 37         able, but it was found that a length which would in some waters meet the case, in others   would represent a fish of a much greater weight ; so that a weight limit was ultimately   decided upon. It will be satisfactory to know that before the adoption of the condition   the views of as many fishermen and purchasers of fish as possible were ascertained by per-   sonal visits to different points in the Province and otherwise, and that no objection was   made to it, but the contrary, many remarking that if the condition were observed it would   do more to replenish and secure the perpetuation of the trout and whitefish than any other   means that could be adopted, not excepting the strict observance of the close season. To   the credit of the fishermen it may be said that the restriction has been uniformly well   observed during the past season. The significance of this condition will be apparent to   every one when he recognizes that a whitefish or trout does not spawn before she has   attained a weight of two pounds, and that the taking of a fish below that weight means   that there has been eliminated from the supply not only a fish that has not contributed   her quota to the perpetuation of her species, but that one has been placed upon the   market of practically no commercial value. The fishermen cannot be so shortsighted as   not to see that in taking the immature fish they are destroying the "goose that lays the   golden egg."

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EPISODE 202 ANDREW SKEOCH, SPORT FISHERMAN, PORT CREDIT, MARCH 2021 (story 2 Great Lakes)

EPISODE 202     ANDREW SKEOCH, SPORT FISHERMAN, PORT CREDIT, MARCH 2021 (story 2  Great Lakes)


alan skeoch
April  2021

ANDREW SKEOCH holding a Lake Trout caught offshore Port Credit, Ontario

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE GREATEST FISH BOWL ON EARTH:  THE GREAT LAKES.

“Andrew, could you send me some pictures of the fish you have caught this year?”
“Why, dad?”
“Because I cannot tell one fish from another.”
“I bet you are writing another story, dad.”
“I am.”
“About fish?”
“Andrew, this story is one of the greatest fish stories ever written.” (perhaps an overstatement)
“Your story?”
“No,  The story of Great Lakes fishing is absolutely fascinating but largely
unknown by the millions of people living on the shores  of the Great Lakes…
you know the fish.  I do not.   But I do  know the story of the Great Lakes fishery
could be a great documentary film.  Instead it remains
unknown.  I would like to change that.”
“OK, dad, here are the fish … fish caught this year just a couple of miles out of
Port Credit harbour.




1) LAKE TROUT
LAKE TROUT*

ONE OF THE MAIN ACTORS IN THIS  STORY…take a look
at the mouth…then the body.    Lake trout live for 30 years or
more and have historically been critical  predators  that have kept
fish populations in Lake Ontario healthy for thousands of years.
Up until 1960 when something went wrong in Lake Ontario and
all the Great Lakes.



2) CHINOOK OR KING SALMON
CHINOOK OR KING SALMON caught by Andrew Skeoch offshore Port Credit, Ontario

This huge Chinook (King) Salmon was caught in the 2018 Great Ontario salmon derby

CHINOOK OR KING SALMON…the largest sport fish caught in Lake Ontario
are chinook salmon.  They are a Pacific  Ocean  fish commonly found
laying eggs in rivers on the west coast of  North America.  What the hell are
they doing here … off shore Port Credit, Lake Ontario?  The answer will
startle you. Identifying feature…black gums  

3) COHO SALMON
COHO SALMON held by Andrew Skeoch…caught offshore Port Credit, Ontario


COHO SALMON  are snakier than Chinook salmon.  Are loved by sport fishermen because they put up a fight when
hooked.  A bit smaller than the Chinook Salmon.  They are natural to the west
coast rivers of North America where they breed much  like the Chinook Salmon.
Same Question:  What the hell are they doing here … offshore Port Credit, Ontario in 2021?
(Andrew Skeoch, holding coho salmon)


4) BROWN TROUT
BROWN TROUT (held by Lee Widgeon, offshore Port Credit, Ontario)


5)  ALEWIFE

ALWIFE…snagged by accident while  deep water fishing offshore
Port Credit, Ontario.  Alewives are he main diet of Lake Trout,
Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon, Brown Trout and others.
Alewives became he largest biomass in the great lakes.  Millions
of them…maybe billions. This little fish is the villain and the hero
of Great Lakes ecology.   Depends  entirely upon your point of
view.  You may be surprised to know that these little fish account
for the presence of those gigantic  Chinook and  Coho Salmon
now common in the Great Lakes.  It is not a  simple story.  And, yes,
it is controversial. (Jackson Skeoch preparing to eat the alewife.)

6) RANBOW TROUT

RAINBOW TROUT caught by Dan Devlin

This is the beginning of the story of the Great Lakes Fishery.  I thought it might be best to 
start in the present and asked Andrew Skeoch if he could loan me pictures of the great fish
he and other sport fisherman catch regularly in Lake Ontario.  Today sport fishing is encouraged
by various governments along Great Lake shorelines.   Commercial fishing still happens
but not nearly as much as sport fishing.  Why?  Simple.  Money spent.  Sport Fishermen spend
about $80 per fish landed while commercial fisherman get $1.50 per pound of fish filleted
and  sold.  Sport Fishing is good for business…provides direct employment for many and sales
for fishing gear sold by retail stores all around the Great Lakes.  The down side?  Has sport
fishing undermined the natural ecology of the Great Lakes.

This  is just the beginning of the series of stories titled  LIFE AND DEATH IN THE GREATEST 
FISH BOWL IN THE WORLD: THE GREAT LAKES.

NEXT EPISODE 204 :   LORNE JOYCE, SON OF A COMMERCIAL FISHERMAN, HISTORIAN, 

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EPISODE 300 LIFE AND DEATH IN THE LARGEST FFISH BOWL ON PLNET EARTH; the great lakes speech feb. 29, 2020


EPISODE 300: LIFE AND DEATH IN THE LARGEST FISH BOWL ON PLANET EARTH (PART ONE)

SPEECH AT STONEHOOKER BREWERY (PART 1)
FEB. 29,2020

ALAN SKEOCH
FEB. 29, 2020
 updated April 2, 2021


I HAVE NO BOAT.  I HAVE NO FISHING ROD.  I HAVE NO SPEAR. I CAN SWIM BUT POORLY SO.
 BUT I DO HAVE IMAGINATION.
TODAY WE STAND ON THE EDGE OF THE GREATEST SOURCE OF FRESH WATER IN THE WORLD.
A WORLD THAT WILL NEED  THIS WATER IN FUTURE YEARS.  FOR WE ARE ALL MADE MOSTLY OF
WATER.

Today
I STAND HERE AND MARVEL AT THE FORCES THAT GROUND OUT THIS HUGE AND  DEEP SERIES 
OF LAKES.  GREAT LAKES INDEED   IT IS  A HUMBLING EXPERIENCE.

 I WOULD LIKE TO TELL YOU MY EXPERIENCE WITH THIS LAKE.  SOME  FIRST HAND…SOME
SECOND  HAND.   EIGHT DECADES HAS  BEEN LOTS OF TIME TO WONDER.  BUT EIGHT DECADES
IS ONLY AS A GRAIN OF SAND ON THE BEACHES OF THIS LAKE.




A TITLE?    “LIFE AND DEATH IN THE LARGEST FISH BOWL ON PLANET EARTH”

THIS LAKE WAS NOT ALWAYS HERE.  BEFORE LAKE ONTARIO EMERGED  THERE WAS  A HUGE 
INLAND  SEA .   A SEA SO BIG THAT IT COVERED MOST OF THE PLANET EARTH.  BENEATH US
THAT SEA HAS LEFT REMINDERS.   FOSSILIZED CREATURES PRESSED INTO ANCIENT MUD, NOW
SHALE.

SOME OF THE  FIRST CREATURES TO LIVE ON OUR PLANET.   CREATURES SO OLD THAT EVEN
THE BEST MINDS IN THIS ROOM WILL BE BOGGLED.   CREATURES  588 MILLION YEARS OLD…CREATURES
THAT LIVED IN THIS ORDOVICIAN SEA FOR 43 MILLON YEARS AND THEN IN THE TWINKLING OF THE EYE
OF TIME WERE GONE.  MOST WERE GONE IN ONE OF THE FIVE GREAT EXTINCTIONS THAT HAVE
HAPPENED HERE.


Image result for living crinoid


Image result for crinoid anatomy

LET ME DESCRIBE ONE OF THESE CREATURES.  THE CRINOID.  AN ANIMAL  THAT LOOKED LIKE
A PLANT.    FEET THAT GRASPED  THE SEA BOTTOM.  A LONG SPINAL CHORD THAT LOOKED LIKE
A PIECE OF ROPE.  AT TOP THAT HAD MANY LONG TENTACLES THAT GRABBED PLANKTON AND
SHOVED THE FOOD  INTO A GAPING MOUTH.  AN  ANIMAL WITH MOUTH AND BUM LOCATED SIDE
BY SIDE. MOST CRINOIDS ARE SMALL BUT NOT ALL WERE SUCH. THE LARGEST WAS  140 FEET LONG.
 EXTINCT NOW?  NOT QUITE.  ONE WAS  SIGHTED IN THE BAHAMAS RECENTLY.

YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO MEET THIS GUY…NAUTILOIDS ARE CARNIVEROUS…SOME STILL EXIST DEEP IN
THE PACIFIC OCEAN…THEY ARE NOCTURNAL…NASTY.

Giant Trilobite Fossil Found on Australia
FOSSIL OF A GIANT TRILOBITE FOUND IN AUSTRALIA.  SMALLER TRILOBITES
ARE COMMON FOSSILS FOUND IN SEDIMENTARY ROCK AROUND THE GREAT LAKES.

NAUTILOIDS AND  TRILOBITES SWAM AMONG THE CRINOIDS.  STRANGE CREATURES.
PALEOZOIC ERA WHICH LASTED  FROM 542 TO 250 MILLION YEARS AGO…300 MILLION YEARS!

THE BAHAMAS.  THAT IS WHERE PORT CREDIT WAS MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO.  IN THE TROPICS.  THE EARTH
IS A LIVING THING…IT MOVES AROUND.  WE LIVE ON TOP OF THESE HUGE TECTONIC PLATES FLOATING
ON THE LIQUID MAGMA BENEATH US.

YOU CAN  FIND CRINOIDS IF YOU WANT TO.  EASY.  JUST FIND A  SHINGLE BEACH LIKE THE RATTRAY
MARSH.  THOSE SHINGLES…FLAT SLABS  OF SHALE…ARE MILLIONS  OF  YEARS OLD AND IMPRESSED
IN MANY ARE CRINOID  FOSSILS.   

ONE TINY SHINGLE BEACH STILL EXISTS IN PORT CREDIT.   BUT NOT FOR LONG.  DEVELOPERS WILL SOON
GOBBLE THAT UP.  

THE GAP BETWEEN THEN AND NOW IS MILLIONS OF YEARS WIDE.  TOO WIDE FOR MY MIND TO DO
ANYTHING BUT MARVEL.

MY  STORIES ARE MOSTLY PLACED IN THE PRESENT….THE LAST 200 YEARS.   LONG AFTER THE GLACIERS
GROUND OUT OUR LAKE BOTTOM…THEN FILLED THAT HUGE CAVITY WITH MELT WATER.

MONSTERS


MY STORIES  ARE SHORT.  

  The Port Credit Monster…July 1892, Mr. and Mrs. Park spotted a serpent near Kingston…”eyes looked like balls of fire…” attacked them he fought it off with a pole.  Repeated sightings followed.  Oshawa, Whitby, Main Duck Islands…it was heading our way…fisherman claimed it was 40 feet long, 18 inches thick…Scarborough, Toronto…kids began  making sea monsters out of logs…August 1,1892…monster sighted off Port Credit…marathon swimmers training at the time…saw the monster…10 feet long…”Get out of the water, quick!”, screamed parents to the kids of Port Credit…At dusk Ambrose Adams, park caretaker set out in a rowboat to investigate…took a crowbar with him…newspaper sent a reporter…Adams returned at dark, announced the danger had passed for he had captured the monster and tied it to the lighthouse.  Newspaper reporter went wild…got a boat and flashlight…found the monster…a wooden rocking horse with a long tail of seaweed attached….Did that end the sightings…No.  Oct. 12, 1892, Port Credit fire chief William Newman and his son-in-law reported they had seen a creature 100 feet long.  “Without a mistake”  “We were standing on the shore close to the Port Credit Lighthouse when we sighted the serpent coming toward us, and travelling at something like 30 miles an hour.  It had a large, green head, resembling that of a lion, and would be about 20 feet in length.” The Chief said it swam in a zigzag course…water foamed around it.   People crowded Port Credit beaches in 1892.  But the serpent was never seen again.  Maybe one of you will see it someday.

THAT WAS A FAKE MONSTER…FOOLED MANY.  BUT BELIEVE YOU ME THERE ARE MONSTERS IN OUR LAKE.

FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS HUMANS LIVED ALONG OUR LAKESHORE AND  UP THE CREDIT RIVER.  THEY
DEPENDED UPON THE LAKE FOR THEIR SURVIVAL AND  THE LAKE NEVER FAILED THEM.  EACH YEAR THEIR 
DRYING RACKS WERE FESTOONED  WITH ATLANTIC SALMON SPEARED  WITH EASE AT THE MOUTH OF THE
CREDIT RIVER.

SOME MONSTERS  WERE HUMAN

FIRST NATION PEOPLE’S  HISTORY ON THE CREDIT RIVER AND LAKE ONTARIO IS MUCH LONGER THAN THOSE OF EUROPEANS.  PERHAPS
THE WORST EVENT OCCURRED HERE   WHEN THE MISSISSAUGA CANOES RETURNED FROM TORONTO
WITH THE BODY OF CHIEF WABAKININE  AND HIS  WIFE.   BOTH MURDERED BY SGT McEWEN OF THE QUEEN’S 
YORK RANGERS AND A COUPLE OF WHITE SETTLERS.    MY WIFE, MARJORIE, DOES NOT LIKE ME TO TELL THIS
STORY FOR IT REFLECTS POORLY ON HUMAN BEHAVIOUR.   LAUNDERING HISTORY IS HARD TO JUSTIFY.
MCEWEN  AND  HIS FRIENDS  WERE INTENT OF RAPE…DRAGGED  CHIEF WABAKININE’S SISTER FROM BENEATH
HER CANOE ONE NIGHT.  THE CHIEF’S WIFE ALERTED THE CHIEF WHO TRIED TO INTERVENE.  HE HAD BEEN
DRINKING.  HE WAS  BEATEN SO BADLY HE DIED…AS  DID HIS WIFE.  MCEWEN WAS  ARRESTED BUT THE CASE
WENT NOWHERE.   THIS  NEARLY TRIGGERED A WAR THAT THE MISSISSAUGAS MEIGHT HAVE WON HAD NOT
JOSEPH GRANT  INTERVENED.   CAUTIONED THAT BRITISH  ARMY WAS TOO LARGE TO FIGHT.
THE CHIEF AND  HIS WIFE WERE BURIED HERE…SOMEWHERE.

firstnations.innisfillibrary.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Canise-or-Great-Sail-an-Ojibwa-Chief-Simcoe-Elizabeth-Posthuma-Gwillim-1762-1850-Picture-1794-English-226×300.jpg 226w, firstnations.innisfillibrary.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Canise-or-Great-Sail-an-Ojibwa-Chief-Simcoe-Elizabeth-Posthuma-Gwillim-1762-1850-Picture-1794-English-203×270.jpg 203w” sizes=”(max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px” apple-inline=”yes” id=”43A26E95-573E-4CF2-8D54-86410AB02E7C” src=”http://alanskeoch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Canise-or-Great-Sail-an-Ojibwa-Chief-Simcoe-Elizabeth-Posthuma-Gwillim-1762-1850-Picture-1794-English.jpg”>

 Push came to shove in an even more ghastly way.  Again water was involved.  Chief Wabikinine, his wife and sister, paddled along our waterfront en route to Fort York to trade skins and dried salmon.  Trading involved brandy.   Traders were an unscrupulous lot in general.  Get the natives drunk, makes trading easier…more one sided.  Wabakinine was to be followed by the rest of the band the next day.
He got into the brandy early.  Tottered to bed in his tent.  A soldier from Fort York, Sgt Mcuen by name, and a couple of settlers, came along and pulled Wabakinine’s sister out from under her canoe where she was sleeping.  Wabakinine and his wife tried to stop them.  He was clobbered on the head as was his wife…more than a concussion…a fatal blow.  The band found him and took him home along our waterfront…perhaps to Bronte harbour, maybe here in Port Credit…where he died.   Nearly triggered a First Nation war…which was  the last chance of a Mississauga victory for warriors were available.  But Joseph Brant cautioned against action.


AFTER A  BEWILDERING SERIES OF TREATIES AND LAND ’SURRENDERS’,…THE SURVIVORS OF EUROPEAN DISEASES AND DECEPTIONS MOVED TO THE NEW CREIDT 
RESERVE WHERE THEY LIVE TO THIS  DAY.  I SPOKE THERE A YEAR AGO AND WAS TREATED WARMLY I MIGHT ADD.

IN THOSE EARLY YEARS, LAKE ONTARIO WAS THE ONLY ROAD…A WATER ROAD. SO PLACES LIKE PORT CREDIT WITH
A NATURAL SHELTERED HARBOUR WERE IMPORTANT.  SO IMPORTANT WAS THE CREDIT RIVER THAT JOHN  GRAVES
SIMCOE CONSIDERED LOCATING HIS GOVERNMENT HERE RATHER THAN TORONTO.  THE NAVIGABLE PART OF THE
 CREDIT RIVER WAS TOO SHORT.  HAD THE REVERSE HAPPENED OUR VILLAGE WOULD HAVE BECOME  A METROPOLIS
DOMINATED BY THE CN TOWER.

THIS SEEMS A GOOD TIME TO CONSIDER THE  LAKE ITSELF.

SETTLERS FLOODED ONTARIO IN THE 19TH CENTURY.  THEIR IMPACT CHANGED THE LAKE.  THEY BUTCHERED THE FORESTS FOR BARREL STAVES, LUMBER AND  MASTS FOR THE
KING’S SHIPS.  THEY SET FIRES EVERYWHERE FOR FOR POTASH TO MAKE EXPLOSIVES AND PERFUME.  THEY KILLED THE ATLANTIC SALMON WHOSE  GILLS COULD  NOT HANDLE SAWDUST.  WORSE  
STILL WERE THE DAMS.  WATER WAS  POWER BUT ONLY IF THE RIVERS WERE DAMMED.  THE DAMS HAMPERED FISH FROM SPAWNING.   THE CONSTANT DUMPING OF RAW SEWAGE
DID NOT HELP.  WE WERE FOULING OUR OWN NEST.  FISH REPRODUCTION WAS DIFFICULT…HOW COULD  FISH  GET OVER A DAM?  

THE PROBLEM OF POLLUTANTS BECAME SO SEVERE BY 1977 THAT BOTH CANADA  AND THE UNITED STATES  PASSED THE CLEAN WATER ACT THAT MADE THE DUMPING OF
RAW SEWAGE AND  INDUSTIRAL POLLUTANTS  IN STREAMS AND RIVERS  WAS MADE A CRIMINAL OFFENCE.  THE TRIGGER FOR ACTION WAS A RIVER IN NEW  YORK STATE
THAT REGULARLY BURST INTO FIRE.    THAT DID NOT HAPPEN UNTIL LATE IN THE 20TH CENTURY.    THE CLEAN WATER ACT WAS ACCLAIMED AS LONG OVERDUE.  BUT IT WAS LIMIED
TO SEWER PIPES AND FACTORY DRAINS.  NOTHING WAS SAID ABOUT PESTICIDE RUNOFF FROM FARM FIELDS.

REMEMBER THE LAKE MONSTER…10 TO 100 FEET LONG WITH A DRAGON HEAD.  SPOTTED OFFSHORE AT PORT CREDIT IN 1893?  REMEMBER I SAID THERE WOULD BE  WORSE MONSTERS.
BY 1960 THE FISH IN LAKE  ONTARIO WERE BEING KILLED BY A REAL  MONSTER.  ONE OF THESE MONSTERS  COULD KILL 18 KILOGRAMS OF SALMON, TROUT OR STURGEON.   THE MONSTER
IS THE SEA LAMPREY.   UGLY THINGS WITH A HEAD  LIKE A SINK PLUNGER ONLY FILLED WITH HOOKS.  GRABS A SALMON AND SUCKS  ITS FLESH AND BLOOD UNTIL THE FISH DIES.  ONE LAMPRY
WAS KILLING DOZENS OF LARGE FISH IN LAKE ONTARIO BY 1960.  SO MANY THAT THE WHOLE FISHERY WAS  IN JEOPARDY.   THE  PROBLEM HAS BEEN  PARTIALLY SOLVED BY PUTTING LAMPREY
POISON IN THE HEADWATERS OF OUR  CREEKS AND RIVERS WHERE THEY BREED.   90% HAVE BEEN REMOVED.  NOT PERFECT.






BY 1960 THE LAKE ONTARIO FISHERY WAS IN JEOPARDY FOR MANY REASONS. POLLUTION AND LAMPREYS WERE ONLY TWO  OF THEM.  OVERFISHING.  NO  LIMITS.
NO PRESERVATIVES BUT BLOCKS OF ICE HARVESTED IN WINTER TIME AND STACKED IN FLIMSY ICE  SHACKS TO TRY AND STAVE OF DECOMPOSITION.   

HOW MANY FISH COLD GET THROUGH THIS FISH NET?  NOT MANY.


LITTLE MENTION IS MADE OF THIS FISHERY BY HISTORIANS.  PERHAPS  BECAUSE NO GREAT WEALTH EVER CAME FROM IT.  BUT THERE ARE SNIPPETS HERE AND
THERE SUCH AS THE 1927 NOTE IN THE BRAMPTON COMPOSITOR THAT THE LARGEST LAKE TROUT EVER CAUGHT WAS  NETTED BY A.J. JOYCE OF PORT CREDIT, A FISHERMAN.’
THAT TROUT WEIGHED 32.5 POUNDS.  BY 1917 COMMERCIAL FISHING WAS A DYING INDUSTRY.  POLLUTION, SEA LAMPREYS, OVERFISHING.  

SEE FUTURE EPISODES 

alan skeoch
Feb. 29  2020
updated  April 2, 2021


POST SCRIPT

WE ARE ENJOYING DINNER IN THE STONEHOOKER BREWERY, NAMED IN HONOUR OF PORT CREDIT’S STONEHOOKING PAST

 ON ANY GIVEN DAY IN THE 19TH CENTURY THERE WOULD
BE 25 TO 30 SCHOONERS ANCHORED IN PORT CREDIT.   FEW OF THEM FISHED FOR FISH.  MOST OF THEM FISHED FOR SLABS  OF SEDIMENTARY ROCK…SHALE.  STONEHOOKERS THEY WERE CALLED.
UNIQUE.  PECULIAR.  STONEHOOKERS USED OLD SCHOONERS…SAILING SHIPS RENDERED OBSOLETE BY STEAM POWERED SHIPS.  MOST OF THESE STONEHOOKERS WERE NOT
PRETTY TO LOOK AT.  MORE ABOUT THEM WILL COME IN LATER EPISODES.

WHY WOULD PEOPLE WANT TO ‘FISH FOR SLABS OF ROCK’?  THINK ABOUT IT.



TYPICAL  STONEHOOKING SCHOONER IN PORT CREDIT HARBOUR CIRCA 1900



heritagemississauga.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Unknown-People-Stonehookers-of-Port-Credit-300×182.jpg 300w” sizes=”(max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px” apple-inline=”yes” id=”601D5FA6-2B44-414F-B6D4-6685AA5B8795″ src=”http://alanskeoch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Unknown-People-Stonehookers-of-Port-Credit.jpeg”>

UNKNOWN PERSONS:  STONEHOOKING COUPLE IN PORT CREDIT
Posted on

EPISODE 301 SLIGHT DIVERSION INTO BEE KEEPING

EPISODE 301      SLIGHT DIVERSION INTO BEE KEEPING…

ALAN SKEOCH
APRIL 2, 2021




I was a total failure as a bee keeper.  Must have been 40 years ago that I bought a bee colony from
somewhere in the United States.  I had already bought all the support technology and had
even taken some beekeeping instruction from a man who I thought was a friend.  Those
are the two mistakes  I  made.  1) Thinking that used bee hives and used equipment was
all I needed to become  a beekeeper.  2) I thought that my instructor was a friend  Oh, yes,
he knew bees.  He had several hives but he turned out not to be a friend.  His name will not
be mentioned.

My package of live bees arrived in the mail and I turned them loose in my old beehives.
I had  never heard  of all the diseases that afflict bees and was therefore startled to discover
my bees had something that was very infectious which  I think was called Sack Brood…not sure.
The end result was that I had to set the hive on fire and  kill my bees lest they infect other hives.
This was not a  nice experience.

The worst experience was when Marjorie phoned me at school to say my bee instructor
had arrived at our house and that his intentions were not good.  In that instance I acted
fast…called his home…did not care who was  listening.  “I am  going to say this only once…
keep the hell away from my wife, my house,  my life.  Understand.  Or do you need more instruction!”

TIME LAPSE OF 40 YEARS

WE ARE NOW BEEKEEPERS…YEARS 2020 AND 2021






Our son Andrew decided to try beekeeping much in the way  I did.  Just dive into
it and see how it goes   Let the bees do their work.  Bee keeping is not that simple.
Like all farming, bee keeping involves careful care which means keeping an eye
on the bees.


WE Have two friends who are skilled bee keepers.  Brad’s bees lived  in his back
yard  quite happily until they flew off in a swarm.  One queen and as many worker
bees as she could persuade just buzzed off.   The remaining bees tried to maintain
the home hive but for various reasons  they failed  Not Brad’s fault at all.   

My other friend Russ is an active bee keeper. He cares for his bees as  intensively as
a mother duck  does with her ducklings.   He does steal their honey. Carefully.  Never
steals enough to starve the bees.  And in the winter months he even takes sugar
syrup to his bee yard.   Russ also knows how to keep bees healthy.  There are 
chemicals .. medIcines the bees must have.

“Andrew, maybe you and Russ should get together.  He Knows bees.”

They both carefully examined Andrew’s bee yard.  Andrew  built a fence around
it…wire fence…to keep the skunks away.  He made sure the bees had a
south exposure.  And nice private place on the edge of the forest.
 He checks  his bees every week and his two hives of
bees have survived the winter months.

Today he is preparing for the arrival of another bee colony.

Andrew is carrying a super of bees  into the farm kitchen.  It is not such a good picture because I was  not sure
what kind of  reception Andrew would get with his notion that the hive should be warm beside the stove when the new bees arrive.


“Mom,  my new bees are arriving and they must be kept
warm so Brought a welcoming bunch of bees from the bee yard.
You will find them in your kitchen.  Too cold  for the new 
bees.   Try not to disturb them.”

Marjorie is alway obliging.  The bees are now in the kitchen at the farm 
as I speak. 

“Here dad, take a slab of honeycomb.  The bees will never miss it. “

“Andrew I have a gift for you.  LIppincott’s Farm Manual on Bee Keeping. 
Published in 1923 as a hard cover book based on issues of his monthly magazine
copies of which  were printed from 1868 to 1914.   This is a rare book, Andrew,
some copies are available on the internet but not many…cost $60.”

“Do your want the $60 now?”

“No, your mother and I will expect a tub of honey now and then.”



Lippincott’s developed a series of manuals regarding agricultural production, including this volume on beekeeping. Among other things, it offers a historical look at apiculture, the practice of human harvesting of products from honey bee colonies, as well as its marketing methodology. Beekeeping has quite a history, dating back to at least 15,000 years ago. The story of J.B. Lippincott & Co. offers a look at the complexities of the publishing industry. J.B. Lippincott & Co. was an American publishing house established in 1836 by Joshua Ballinger Lippincott, which still exists today as Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, which itself is an imprint of the publishing conglomerate, Wolters Kluwer, and focuses on technical journals. Initially J.B. Lippincott & Co. published Bibles and other religious materials, before expanding into fiction, almanacs, medical and other books. Later, Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine was issued, from 1868-1914 and offered novels, short stories, opinion pieces and other writings. In 1978, Lippincott’s was acquired by Harper & Row, which was then acquired by Wolters Kluwer in 1990.

Posted on

Fwd: special NOTE APRIL 2, 2021



Begin forwarded message:


From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
Subject: special NOTE APRIL 2, 2021
Date: April 3, 2021 at 9:30:11 AM EDT
To: John Wardle <john.t.wardle@gmail.com>


I made a big mistake and pushed  delete…lost whole story.   
So I will begin again tonight.   I managed to find my speech  of Feb. 29,2020
which will rescue much of the story.  TiTled “LIFE AND DEATH IN THE GREATEST FISH BOWL IN OUR WORLD: THE GREAT LAKES “

Sorry about the error…trying to rush too fast…new  story will come tonight

alan


Posted on

EPISODE 298 THE OLD ICE HOUSE…PORT CREDIT FISHERY….AND A QUOTE BY ALVERT EINSEIN

EPISODE 299    THE GREAT LAKES FISHERY…and a  quote by ALBERT EINSTEIN

alan skeoch
March 2021


Where did tis fish come from?  


Andrew, Jackson and Olivia are holding large Coho salmon caught in the spring
of 2021 or the fall of 2020 about two kilometres from Port Credit.

Look at the mouth of this salmon.  Mean mouth.  This  is a top predator
feeding on something in Lake Ontario waters.  


Change is the  only sure  thing in life. Everything else cannot be  depended upon.
While these comments seem overblown when applied to the Great Lakes Fishery
just a casual  look seems to confirm that these huge bodies  of water…the largest
containers of fresh  water in the world…have undergone radical change in the short
time we human beings have had a chance to tinker with the water.  We, you and I, have tinkered
too much  with
the fish populations.  Early settlers believed Great Lakes  fish were inexhaustible.

I am not a fisherman.  One of our two sons, however, is an avid 
fisherman.  He even bought a large power  launch to get him out
to the prime fishing ground just a  mile or so off the Port Credit coast of Lake
Ontario.   He drops his spinners down a hundred feet or so and often hauls in
huge 30 pound Coho salmon.   Fish  so big even Andrew has trouble holding
some of them up for photographic  proof that these creatures who race up
the rest coast rivers  of  North America have become established in the Great Lakes.

Snaps  a picture then carefully slide the ugly monster back into the lake.
“Catch  snd  Release “ fishermen.  Sport fishermen like  Andrew motor their way out
of Port credit harbour in great numbers.  A Trawler fleet is neatly tied up along
the west bank of the Credit River renting space on board for those who will never
have money to buy a boat themselves.  Some tiny outboard motor fishermen 
work their way to the rising grounds as well. 

 “Some of these small boats
break down or run out of gas and have to towed back  to the harbour.  I’ve done
that too many times.  Lose patience especially if a fishing boat has run out of gas.
Takes ages to town a boat back to safety.  Means  I cannot fish as much I\as  I would
like.”
“Andrew, are there any commercial fishermen around?”
“Never met one.”
“Port Credit once  harboured a whole fleet of fish boats.  Are
you sure you have never seen one?”
“What do  their boats look like?
“Like a huge jelly bean with a flap like gate on the side.”
“Jelly bean?”
“Yes…the commercial fishing fleet looked like a bag of white jelly beans
as they motored out to the fishing grounds in Lake Ontario.  It was a
good business that supported many of the people living in Port Credit
through the 10th and 20th centuries.  But it is gone today.”
“What happened>”
“Answering that question is very difficult…super complicated.  Yet simple
to understand.  Too many people in the 19th and early 20th century were commercial
fishermen and there were precious few regulations.”
“Can you tell me why in short form.  I do not have time to listen to a long
lecture.”



LAKE STURGEON…A SAD STORY

“One illustration.  A fish that nobody seemed to want.  The lake sturgeon.  An ancient fish that lived
a long life under normal  circumstances.  The most ancient of the fish in the Great lakes, And also one
of the largest. Some sturgeon were ten feet long and weighed up to 190 kilograms.  And there were lots
of them.   Five million pounds of sturgeon were caught in Lake Erie in a single ear.   That is one great 
load of fish.   The sturgeon was considered a pest fish and there was no market for their meat.  But they
were caught in large numbers just to try and clear them out of Lake  Erie.  What happened to them once caught?\
GOOd question with a terrible answer.  Some were dried and  stacked  as firewood for the steamships.
Others were fed to pigs….and  others were simply used as fertilizer.  Millions of Sturgeon
were taken in the 19th century.  By 1900 they were extinct except for tiny populations in the Upper Great Lakes.
Killing big Lake Sturgeon for no good reason endangered the survival the species.   It took 14 to 33 years
for a female Lake Sturgeon to reach sexual maturity,  Males took from 12 to 17 years.  They were not 
wildly sexual.  Females only spawn once  every three to seven years.  Males are only interested in sex every
from one to four years.   Once fertilized   a female Lake Sturgeon can lay from 4,000 to 7,000 eggs for every
point of the weight  of females.  These old ladies of the lakes made up for lost time big time.  But not after
we humans got here.

Giant sturgeon caught in Fraser River, B.C.  Caught and released by Michael Snell.

Once  the biggest and oldest Lake Sturgeon were stacked as cordwood
or ground  up as fertilizer the survival of Lake Sturgeon was doomed.

NOTE:  THERE ARE 27 SPECIES OF STURGEON (ACIPENSERIDAE) which  can be traced back in fossils to the Late Cretaceous – and even more ancient in the Triassic period  some
245 million years ago.  Found in Eurasia and North  America.  The largest ever found was in the Volga estuary in 1827 which was 24 feet long, and wished 2,571 kilograms (3,463 pounds).
Overharvestng  for caviar today has put sturgeon on the edge of extinction.

Sturgeon

Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous–Holocene[1] 70.6–Present Ma 
Sturgeon.jpg
Scientific classificatione
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Acipenseriformes
Family: Acipenseridae
Bonaparte, 1831
Subfamilies
See text for genera and species.
So most Canadians  will never see a Lake Sturgeon.  

The sad tale of the Lake Sturgeon is only one of the tragic events in the aquatic history of the Great Lakes.  More are coming.


A PUZZLE THAT YOU CAN SOLVE…OR WAIT FOR ME TO SOLVE FOR YOU

Here is  a puzzle.   Perhaps you can answer.  Take a look at those salmon that Andrew and Jackson
are holding.  They were caught tis year…1021.   And they were not far off the coast of Port Credit.
But they are Coho salmon…a Pacific Ocean  fish that breeds in the rivers  of  the North American west
coast.   What are they doing in the Great Lakes?  They should not be here?   How did they get here?
In the next few Episodes I can answer that question and in the process raise a lot of other questions
whose answers  may startle you.

But first let me take you back to an historic event on Feb. 29, 2020 at the Stonehooker Brewery
in Port Credit.  The day before Covid 19 changed our world.

HOW  DID SKEOCH GET INTERESTED IN THE WATERS OF THE GREAT LAKES?



On February 29, 2020, I was asked to give a lecture on the Great Lakes Water to 100 dinner guests
at the Stonehooker Brewery in Port Credit.   I prepared the lecture for two months and figured the audience
would only be able to listen to 45 minutes  at the most.  Part of  our time at the Stonehooker Brewery
would be spent tasting beer and socializing.  Given a choice which would you prefer listening or drinking?

Marjorie Skeoch approached the lectern.  She was nervous but well prepared to introduce the speaker (her
husband).  She opened her speech with a quotation from Albert Einstein.   The quotation was found
on a wine bottle table from the Niagara district.

“Good evening, before I introduce Alan let me give you something to think about…

“THE MIND THAT OPENS TO A NEW IDEA NEVER RETURNS TO ITS  ORIGINAL  SIZE”
   (ALBERT EINSTEIN, as quoted  on the wine called OPEN, a Niagara Merlot)


When  MARJORIE gave her 20.5 minute introduction to her husband as speaker…she closed her eyes  and pushed
that wine bottle off the lectern to smash on the cement floor below.  She knew how to get attention.


Unfortunately or fortunately I never gave the lecture I had planned.  Marjorie, my wife, stole the
show because she was charged with the job of introducing the guest speaker…i.e. her husband.
Normal introductions might take 3 to 4 minutes  at the outset.  Marjorie took 20.5 minutes, “And  even then
I only got as far as 1995”.   She was great.  Made us laugh and cry. She had practiced her speech  for
two months as well.   She  got some information from the label on a wine bottle.  She took the bottle
to the lecture…read the label not attributed to Albert Einstein…and then dropped the bottle to the
cement floor of the brewery.   Shattered.   One member, Shaymus Stokes, jumped up to gather
the glass shards at Marjorie’s feet.  Was she upset?  Not in the least.  She continued to speak
about her husband in spite of the fact that her son Andrew kept tapping his watch along with other
gestures.  

So by the time I got to the lectern, I was an anticlimax.   So the speech wa never given.

Then one day later, March 1, 2020, we all became aware that millions of creatures so small
that they were invisible were sickening and killing people around the world.  Covid 19 took
centre stage.   My lecture that was never given was the last lecture in Port Credit.
We have been in lockdown  ever since.

alan skeoch
April 1, 2021