In 1952 the Cuyahoga River caught fire when a spark from a passing train dropped on to the water surface. The result was an immediate explosive fire that was so
high it almost engulfed a tug boat. The Cuyahoga River flows through the centre of Cleveland, Ohio…a city that was heavily industrialized… spewing various pollutants
including human sewage waste directly into the river. Nobody cared really. Even when the river caught fire because the water surface was covered with oil and other flammable
chemicals little was done to control the use of the river as a sewer taking the city waste directly into Lake Erie.
As far back as the 1880’s the river was a sewer. “The river was yellowish , thick, full of clay, stoking of oil and
sewage. Piles of rotting woo were heaped on either bank of the river, and it was all dirty and neglected….I was disappointed by this view of an American river,” wrote Frantisek Vicek, a recent
Czech immigrant. Cleveland was not alone. The use of rivers as a sewage and waste disposal mechanism was true for all rivers and creeks flowing from cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Nor was the Cuyahoga River the only river that caught fire. Pollution problem ho spots
included Toronto. Some places were worse than others noted a few concerned organizations. Of particular concern on he Canadian side were two ‘hot spots’…Toronto Harbour and Hamilton
Harbour.
Firemen stand on a bridge over the Cuyahoga River to spray water on the tug Arizona, after an oil slick on the river caught fire in 1952.
The waste those firms did discharge turned the river muddy and filled it with oil, solvents and other industrial products. Between 1868 and 1952, it burned nine times. The 1952 fire racked up $1.5 million in damage. But by most, occasional fires and pollution were seen as the cost of industry—a price no one was willing to dispute.
When fire broke out on the river again in 1969, it seemed like business as usual. “Most Clevelanders seemed not to care a great deal,” writeenvironmental historians David Stradling and Richard Stradling. “Far too many problems plagued the city for residents to get hung up on a little fire…The ’69 fire didn’t represent the culmination of an abusive relationship between a city and its environment. It was simply another sad chapter in the long story of a terribly polluted river.”
But attitudes toward the environment had changed since the last river fire. In the years before the fire, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, which became a bestseller and opened the eyes of many Americans to the danger of DDT and other pesticides. Congress had begun passing laws to boost air quality and protect endangered species. And a growing counterculture had begun to embrace sustainability as people experimented with back-to-the-land subsistence farming and communal living.
Another factor was at play: an enormous oil spill in Santa Barbara, California that sent 3 million gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean. Suddenly, people’s telev
Three men in a motor boat take water samples of the Cuyahoga River where the shore is lined with semi-submerged automobile wreckage in 1968.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Those same citizens soon opened their copies of Time Magazine to see a story on the Cuyahoga fire, along with a photo of the 1952 fire. The conditions it described, which included a river that “oozes rather than flows,” caught readers’ attention. (As the National Parks Services notes, many bought that issue of Time because it featured an exposé on the Chappaquiddick scandal.)
Soon, cries for regulation of water pollution became a roar. A grand jury investigation of the causes of the fire followed, as did coalition efforts to clean up the Great Lakes. It even inspired plans for a national environmental “teach-in”—an event that would become the first Earth Day. In early 1970, President Richard Nixon called for sweeping environmental reform. He created a council on environmental reform which, shortly afterward, was consolidated into the Environmental Protection Agency. In 1972, Congress overrode Nixon’s veto to pass the Clean Water Act, which created national water quality standards.
Though the Cuyahoga River fire did not directly lead to the formation of the EPA, it was an important landmark for a burgeoning environmental movement. Today, the river is no longer stagnant or filthy. Public and private efforts have diverted sewage and cleaned up its banks. According to the National Parks Service, the river still has unhealthy amounts of sewage in some areas. But in March 2019, the Ohio EPA announced that its fish are now safe to eat.
Whether or not the river ever overcomes the remainder of its environmental challenges, the memory of the 1969 fire will continue to mobilize those intent on protecting the natural world.
After The Cuyahoga caught fire in 1952 there was not much local concern because the river had caught fire nine times between 1868 and 1952. Of most concern was the $1.5 million in damage. Most city fathers
and businesses chalked the river fire as just another cost of doing business. Occasionally the Cuyahoga River would burn. As it did again in 1969. “Most Clevelanders seemed not to care a great deal,’ wrote
environmental historians David Stradling and Richar Stradling.
But a major change in public attitudes was coming. The publishing of ‘Silent Spring’, by Rachel Carson in 1962 shifted the thinking of many North Americans. Her central thesis that North America was en route to an
environmental disaster was confirmed by events like the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire…the tenths such blaze. One look at the river banks was enough to heighten concern. The bank of he
river was filled with scrap automobiles cheek to cheek as a storm break.
Concern led to action and top of the list was an attempt to clean up the Great Lakes which contained 20% of the freshwater on the planet Earth. In 1970 President Richard Nixon urged environmental
refer that led to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The first Earth Day was The result in March 2019 was that the Ohio EPA announced that fish caught in the Cuyahoga river were safe to eat.
The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970 as young and old North Americans created a counterculture with new values as expressed in a hand drawn sign on the back of a hippie bicycle.
“Pollution, brought to you by the same folks that brought you Viet Nam”
CANADIAN POLLUTION
Many of my friends were Boy Scouts in the 1950’s. We loved going on our own camping trips…i.e. without leaders.
Access to the wilderness west of Toronto was easy. One of our favourite spots was along the banks of the Etobickoe
Creek. There was an old iron bridge crossing a side spot in the Creek. We loved jumping and diving from the bridge
into the deep pool below Mostly jumping. I remember distinctly how our feet would sink to the knees in the black
muck beneath the pool.. It did not smell good but hot weather trumped any concern we had. One of the other
boys, maybe it was Good Sanford, announced that sewers emptied into the creek farther north. That did not stop
us. Today, April 15, 2021, I think a little differently.
Our two Toronto Rivers…the Humber and the Don, were certainly used for sewage, chemical waste and refuse.
No point in taking a holier than thou stand on the issue of pollution. One March camping to the nearby Etopicoke
Credk stands out because someone had dumped a dead horse in the middle of the creek.
There was so much construction waste thrown in the Humber River that I gathered enough to build a small
barn at the farm. Not pretty. Not designed properly for it collapsed after two months but it does demonstrate
our view that rivers are for garbage. At least that was the predominant view back in the 1950s and 1960’s
JUST FOR LAUGHS: The 1960’s
EVERY piece of lumber that built this barn was retrieved from Sunnyside Beach after floating down
the Humber River in springtime.
SO MUCH lumber was dumped in the Humber River in the 1960’s that I decided to collect the timbers snd planks
and build a new barn on our farm. I was naive. 1) I did not know I would need a building permit 2) I had
no knowledge of construction principles 3) I wa proud of the result for a month or two then discovered
the building had collapsed…do not know why.
The reason I have included this admission of failure is to lighten up this Episode while at the same time
illustrating the use of the Humber River as a dump for construction waste. Who knows what was in
the water.
alan skeoch
A reminder of those careless days came in today’s Toronto Star (April 12, 2021) “During the 1960’s, the paper plant
in Dryden, then owned by ReedPaper, dumped 10 tonnes of mercury, a neurotoxin, in the Wabigoon River, contaminating
fish and those who ate them.”
“Details….emerged when a retired casual mill labourer came forward out of ‘guilt’ in 2015, saying that in 1972 he was part
of a crew that dumped 50 drums of salt and mercury into a pit….tests at the site found mercury readings in the soil were
80 times natural levels….fish near Grassy Narrows remain the most contaminated in the province.” Toronto Star, page A13, April 12, 2021
Dryden factory now owned by Domtar. Previous owners dumped mercury…barrels of it…into the
regions rivers and lakes with devastating effect.
MERCURY:
Mercury pollution is a local, regional, and global environmental problem that adversely affects human and wildlife health worldwide. As the world’s largest freshwater system, the Great Lakes are a unique and extraordinary natural resource providing drinking water, food, recreation, employment, and transportation to more than 35 million people.
“Mercury is one of the most persistent and dangerous pollutants that threatens our health and environment today.” – U.S. Senator Susan Collins
June 2011 – Senator Collins Introduces Mercury Monitoring Legislation Legislation follows up on studies by Biodiversity Research Institute. Read full press release here.
The widespread loading of mercury into the Great Lakes environment is responsible for mercury-related fish consumption advisories in the eight U.S. states and the province of Ontario that border the lakes. Visit the U.S. EPA website and Ontario province’s Guide for more information.
For nearly 200 years, mercury has been released into the air and waterways of the Great Lakes region from human activities such as fossil fuel combustion, waste incineration, metal smelting, chlorine production, mining, and discharges of mercury in wastewater.
POLLUTANTS
EACH ONE OF HE POLLUTANTS BELOW COULD BECOME A FULL EPISODE
-FERILIZER FROM FARM FIELDS
-UNTREATED SEWAGE FROM TOWNS LACKING SEWAGE TREATMENT
-PHOSPHATES FROM LAUNDRY DETERGENTS
-PESTICIDES
-DDT
-MIREX
-MERCURY
-BENZOAPYRENE
-PCB’S
-ARAMITE
-CHROMIUM
-LEAD
-CARBON TETRACHLORIDE
POLLUTION HOT SPOTS ON LAKE ONTARIO identified by the INTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION
-OSWEGO RIVER
-ROCHESTER EMBAYMENT
-HAMILTON HARBOUR
-TORONTO
By the 1960’s and 1970’s increased pollution caused blooms of algae that killed fish in large numbers. Fish eating birds
such as osprey, bald eagles, and cormorants were poisoned from the contaminated fish they ate. Since those two decades
a clean up of pollutants has been underway…better sewage treatment plants, deindustrialization, public protests.
Some good
signs are happening. Walleye that are known to favour clean water have returned. The relatively new sport fishery which
supports the release of Coho and Chinook salmon has increased public awareness of the importance of he Great Lakes.
Finally there are now more bald eagles and osprey sighted around the Great Lakes. All is not lost.
ALAN SKEOCH
APRIL 2021
POST SCRIPT: Note 1: PART OF SERIES TITLED “LIFE AND DEATH IN THE BIGGEST FISH BOWL IN THE WORLD
FEATURING SO FAR 1) OVERFISHING 2) LAMPREYS 3) ALEWIVES 4) HOWARD TANNER
AND INTRODUCTION OF COHO AND CHINOOK SALMON TO THE GREAT LAKES 5) POLLUTION
NEXT WILL BE 6) INVASIVE SPECIES….ZEBRA AND QUAGGA MUSSELS…AND OTHERS
Note 2): Each pollutant has a detailed history. If I wrote that history and the concern attendant with the release
of each pollutant I could not do that and maintain my ’ story every day of Covid 19 lockdown ‘ In addition I am not sure
that readers would have the time to read the full story of pollutants in the Great Lakes. Sometimes it is apparent
that quite a few readers just look at pictures and ignore the print. Understandable since we all have personal
agendas. Having said that I have copied an abstract on MIREX below…a chemical used as a fire retardant
and pesticide. GREAT LAKES fish were considered dangerous to eat due to Mirex in their flesh. That is changing
now but even after ’35-40 years of cessation of production…mirex is considered a contaminant of concern.’
Also included below is an abstract documenting the issue of PCB’s in the Great Lakes.
MIREX Abstract
Mirex, historically used as a pesticide and fire retardant, was released to Lake Ontario during the 1960s. Even after 35–40 years of cessation of its production and bans on use during the 1970s, mirex is considered a contaminant of concern. In this study, we present a comprehensive view of long-term trends and significance of mirex/photomirex levels in fish from the Canadian waters of the Great Lakes. Majority of measurements (except for Lake Ontario) were below detection, especially in recent years. Concentrations of mirex in Lake Ontario fish decreased by approximately 90% between 1975–2010, and both mirex and photomirex decreased by 75% between 1993–2010. Half-lives of mirex and photomirex for the entire period ranged from 4–10 years, but were lower at 2.5–8 years in recent times indicating expedited recovery possibly in response to remedial actions performed in the 1990s. Simulated fish consumption advisories generated by considering only mirex and photomirex indicated that mirex/photomirex is a minor concern. We predict that within 15 years mirex/photomirex levels in Lake Ontario fish will drop to levels that will result in advisories of at least 8 meals/month. In either case, the presence of other contaminants in Lake Ontario fish contributes to more stringent advisory than generated by mirex/photomirex. It is recommended that the routine monitoring of mirex/photomirex be replaced with periodic surveillance to reduce analytical costs. Dechlorane family compounds (that mirex is a part of) need to be evaluated further for their monitoring needs once in-depth toxicological information becomes available.
PCB’S…POLYCHLORENATED BIPHENOLS
This chapter reviews the scientific understanding of the concentrations, trends, and cycling of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Great Lakes. PCBs were widely used in the Great Lakes region primarily as additives to oils and industrial fluids, such as dielectric fluids in transformers. PCBs are persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic to animals and humans. The compounds were first reported in the Great Lakes natural environment in the late 1960s. At that time, PCB production and use was near the maximum level in North America. Since then, inputs of PCBs to the Great Lakes have peaked and declined: sediment profiles and analyses of archived fish indicate that PCB concentrations have decreased markedly in the decades following the phase-out in the 1970s. Unfortunately, concentrations in some fish species remain too high for unrestricted safe consumption. PCB concentrations remain high in fish because of their persistence, tendency to bioaccumulate, and the continuing input of the compounds from uncontrolled sources. PCBs are highly bioaccumulative and many studies have shown that the complex food webs of the Great Lakes contribute to the focusing of PCBs in fish and fish-eating animals. PCB concentrations in the open waters are in the range of 100–300 pg L−1, and are near equilibrium with the regional atmosphere. PCBs are hydrophobic yet are found in the dissolved phase of the water column and in the gas phase in the atmosphere, and they continue to enter the Great Lakes environment. The atmosphere, especially near urban-industrial areas, is the major source to the open waters of the lakes. Other sources include contaminated tributaries and in-lake recycling of contaminated sediments. Until these remaining sources are controlled or contained, unsafe levels of PCBs will be found in the Great Lakes environment for decades to come.
LAST COMMENT
I think this is about all you can take as readers of these Episodes. There is some comfort in knowing that controls have been placed
on the release of these pollutants. The constant runoff of polluted water from farms is a thorny issue whose resolution seems distant…
if at all possible. Who cares? Japan just announced that treated (?) nuclear waste was about to be released into the Pacific Ocean.
It seems we are at a terrible cross roads…no matter what road we take there will be trouble.
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.
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.
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
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)
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.”
“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.
FISHINGto 1950Fishboats open and Fishboats covered
They would motor out into Lake Ontario, often heading for the waters aroundMain 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 offchunks 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."
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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