Fisheries committee  Thank you for that question. This was a very specific case where in a tributary to Lake Simcoe, round goby were found in about 2005. It was thought to have been placed there by bait. Lake Simcoe is a large lake just north of Toronto. It has a large population around it and is on

Fisheries committee  It is very difficult. There are success stories in the world. The key to eradication is early detection.

Fisheries committee  I actually did a study that looked at the main threats to rare species, and I think that study is a microcosm of what's actually impacting the ecosystem as a whole. Habitat degradation, I think, would be considered the greatest threat, which would include things like loss of wetl

Fisheries committee  I don't study contaminants so it's very difficult for me to be specific about whether or not we control that issue. In fact, that's covered by Environment Canada in the province. But based on our study, we concluded that the impact of contaminants on rare fishes was very low.

Fisheries committee  Absolutely.

Fisheries committee  Sure. Thank you for the question. The rainbow trout or the other trout and salmon species were introduced into the Great Lakes to replace the lake trout, which had been decimated a long time ago. They had the same sort of ecological role. The Asian carp have a completely differe

Fisheries committee  I think, undoubtedly, it's the Asian carps that are on the doorstep to Canada that are of the greatest risk to the Great Lakes right now. You did hear about the snakehead in Burnaby. That's not the closest snakehead to the Great Lakes in North America. In fact, there's a populati

Fisheries committee  They're already here, so they are having an effect. From a risk assessment point of view, we know what the risk is. The risk is high. It's certain that they'll become established and have an impact. We're looking beyond. As Ms. Cudmore mentioned, we really want the cornerstone of

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. I actually recently supervised a Ph.D. student who looked at the very issue of bait and the extent to which it is a problem in contributing to the AIS problem. The problem is not the import, because the import of bait into Canada is banned, and it se

Fisheries committee  Round goby are not targeted for use, but anglers would tolerate their use. As I mentioned, you buy the bait that has, let's say, round goby in it. We predict that round goby are found in one out of every 400 sales of bait. If you then extrapolate to the four million events, the

Fisheries committee  Well, it depends on what the anglers do with it at the end, right? If they use all of their bait, or if they don't use all of their bait and they destroy the rest of it, that's not a problem. The problem is when they actually release that bait into the wild. Why do anglers do t

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. I think we're doing a good job of communicating with all the organizations that are carrying out research specific to AIS and doing research in general that may lead to the findings of AIS in the Great Lakes. Within DFO, we have an AIS database, and

Fisheries committee  I would like to briefly discuss three topic related to AIS and the Great Lakes: pathways other than ballast water; research; and monitoring. I believe that when he sat before this committee, Dr. Ricciardi indicated that ballast water was not the only pathway for AIS to get into