The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and Nipissing First Nation will be working together to conduct research and collect data on Lake Nipissing next month to help manage local fish populations.
"This project will allow for the collection of important fish community information that will help manage the whole lake ecosystem as well as help in the recovery of the walleye population in Lake Nipissing," the MNRF release stated.
Over the course of two weeks in October, standardized nets will be set for 21 hours in randomly chosen locations on the lake up to the mouth of the French River. This is where the buoys come in - nets will be identified with orange and white buoys labelled ‘MNRF’ and boaters should avoid travelling between these buoys while testing is underway. Boaters shouldn’t move the buoys either – that’s an offence under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.
In total 58 nets will be set and retrieved during the survey.
Fish will be sampled for length, weight, sex, maturity, and age.
The data collected from this and other research will be used to guide fisheries management on the lake.
This marks the 22nd year that MNRF and NFN have worked together to complete this fisheries assessment.
