{"id":8424,"date":"2021-04-05T16:24:40","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T20:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8424"},"modified":"2021-04-15T06:46:14","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T10:46:14","slug":"episode-202-andrew-skeoch-sport-fisherman-port-credit-march-2021-story-2-great-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8424","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 202 ANDREW SKEOCH, SPORT FISHERMAN, PORT CREDIT, MARCH 2021 (story 2 Great Lakes)"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 202     ANDREW SKEOCH, SPORT FISHERMAN, PORT CREDIT, MARCH 2021 (story 2  Great Lakes)<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
April  2021<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
ANDREW SKEOCH holding a Lake Trout caught offshore Port Credit, Ontario<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
LIFE AND DEATH IN THE GREATEST FISH BOWL ON EARTH:  THE GREAT LAKES.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cAndrew, could you send me some pictures of the fish you have caught this year?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy, dad?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBecause I cannot tell one fish from another.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI bet you are writing another story, dad.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI am.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAbout fish?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAndrew, this story is one of the greatest fish stories ever written.\u201d (perhaps an overstatement)<\/div>\n
\u201cYour story?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo,  The story of Great Lakes fishing is absolutely fascinating but largely<\/div>\n
unknown by the millions of people living on the shores  of the Great Lakes\u2026<\/div>\n
you know the fish.  I do not.   But I do  know the story of the Great Lakes fishery<\/div>\n
could be a great documentary film.  Instead it remains<\/div>\n
unknown.  I would like to change that.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cOK, dad, here are the fish \u2026 fish caught this year just a couple of miles out of<\/div>\n
Port Credit harbour.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
1) LAKE TROUT<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
LAKE TROUT*<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
ONE OF THE MAIN ACTORS IN THIS  STORY\u2026take a look<\/div>\n
at the mouth\u2026then the body.    Lake trout live for 30 years or<\/div>\n
more and have historically been critical  predators  that have kept<\/div>\n
fish populations in Lake Ontario healthy for thousands of years.<\/div>\n
Up until 1960 when something went wrong in Lake Ontario and<\/div>\n
all the Great Lakes.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
2) CHINOOK OR KING SALMON<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
CHINOOK OR KING SALMON caught by Andrew Skeoch offshore Port Credit, Ontario<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This huge Chinook (King) Salmon was caught in the 2018 Great Ontario salmon derby<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
CHINOOK OR KING SALMON\u2026the largest sport fish caught in Lake Ontario<\/div>\n
are chinook salmon.  They are a Pacific  Ocean  fish commonly found<\/div>\n
laying eggs in rivers on the west coast of  North America.  What the hell are<\/div>\n
they doing here \u2026 off shore Port Credit, Lake Ontario?  The answer will<\/div>\n
startle you. Identifying feature\u2026black gums  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
3) COHO SALMON<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
COHO SALMON held by Andrew Skeoch\u2026caught offshore Port Credit, Ontario<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
COHO SALMON  are snakier than Chinook salmon.  Are loved by sport fishermen because they put up a fight when<\/div>\n
hooked.  A bit smaller than the Chinook Salmon.  They are natural to the west<\/div>\n
coast rivers of North America where they breed much  like the Chinook Salmon.<\/div>\n
Same Question:  What the hell are they doing here \u2026 offshore Port Credit, Ontario in 2021?<\/div>\n
(Andrew Skeoch, holding coho salmon)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
4) BROWN TROUT<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
BROWN TROUT (held by Lee Widgeon, offshore Port Credit, Ontario)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
5)  ALEWIFE<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
ALWIFE\u2026snagged by accident while  deep water fishing offshore<\/div>\n
Port Credit, Ontario.  Alewives are he main diet of Lake Trout,<\/div>\n
Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon, Brown Trout and others.<\/div>\n
Alewives became he largest biomass in the great lakes.  Millions<\/div>\n
of them\u2026maybe billions. This little fish is the villain and the hero<\/div>\n
of Great Lakes ecology.   Depends  entirely upon your point of<\/div>\n
view.  You may be surprised to know that these little fish account<\/div>\n
for the presence of those gigantic  Chinook and  Coho Salmon<\/div>\n
now common in the Great Lakes.  It is not a  simple story.  And, yes,<\/div>\n
it is controversial. (Jackson Skeoch preparing to eat the alewife.)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
6) RANBOW TROUT<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
RAINBOW TROUT caught by Dan Devlin<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
This is the beginning of the story of the Great Lakes Fishery.  I thought it might be best to <\/div>\n
start in the present and asked Andrew Skeoch if he could loan me pictures of the great fish<\/div>\n
he and other sport fisherman catch regularly in Lake Ontario.  Today sport fishing is encouraged<\/div>\n
by various governments along Great Lake shorelines.   Commercial fishing still happens<\/div>\n
but not nearly as much as sport fishing.  Why?  Simple.  Money spent.  Sport Fishermen spend<\/div>\n
about $80 per fish landed while commercial fisherman get $1.50 per pound of fish filleted<\/div>\n
and  sold.  Sport Fishing is good for business\u2026provides direct employment for many and sales<\/div>\n
for fishing gear sold by retail stores all around the Great Lakes.  The down side?  Has sport<\/div>\n
fishing undermined the natural ecology of the Great Lakes.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
This  is just the beginning of the series of stories titled  LIFE AND DEATH IN THE GREATEST <\/div>\n
FISH BOWL IN THE WORLD: THE GREAT LAKES.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
NEXT EPISODE 204 :   LORNE JOYCE, SON OF A COMMERCIAL FISHERMAN, HISTORIAN, <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u201cAndrew, could you send me some pictures of the fish you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}