You’re Invited to Lake Ontario Evenings: Beaches Edition July 19

Did you know that although Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes, its drainage basin is the most densely populated of all the Great Lakes basins?

Let’s have a look at the following interesting timeline (1960’s – 1990’s, 2011) of Lake Ontario’s ecosystem events in order to better understand how “Lake Ontario is among the most stressed ecosystems in the Great Lakes system”:

• late 1960’s
  • fish populations were decimated
  • beaches were fouled
  • chemical toxins, such as DDT, were impairing reproduction of waterfowl

• 1972
  • Canada and US adopted the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement which committed both countries to restoring and enhancing the water quality of the Great Lakes
  • aggressive programs were begun to control sea lamprey, rehabilitate lake trout and developed major hatchery supported fisheries for pacific salmon, brown trout and rainbow trout

• end of 1980’s’
  • Lake Ontario was on the road to recovery because
  • water quality inproved,
  • levels of toxic contaminants in fish decreased
  • sport fisheries were more productive than ever
  • however, unfavourable ecological changes occurred at all levels of Lake Ontario food chain, including a reduction in available nutrients, zooplankton, alewife and smelt;  alewife and smelt are the principal foods of salmon, trout and other top predators

• 1990’s
  • level of fishing stocks was higher than could be supported by the available prey
  • stocking was reduced in 1993 – 1994 with
  • a target to eventually decrease the demand on prey fish by 45 to 50 percent, and expecting a better balance in pedator demand with prey supply over the longer term

• 2011
  • Probing Lake Ontario’s Nearshore Ecosystem has found that a new aquatic invasive species, commonly known as the bloody red shrimp (a large zooplankton which can sometimes be spotted in red swarms near breakwalls, jetties and piers) has found its way from Eastern Europe (Azov, Black and Caspian seas) to the nearshore waters of Lake Ontario where it may compete with larval and juvenile fish for food
  • Department of Fisheries and Oceans’s (DFO’s) Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Science are:
  1. evaluating how nearshore areas contribute to the health and productivity of the whole lake;
  2. assessing the sensitivity of this zone to the cumulative effects of multiple stressors including human development and climate change; and
  3. predict how nearshore habitats will respond to projected future conditions.

We need to continuously and “carefully watch Lake Ontario ecosystem at all levels – from nutrients to fish to man.”

Harbourfront Centre Presents

Lake Ontario Evenings: Beaches Edition

FREE

5:45pm: Pre-Reception
in the Marilyn Brewer Community Space

6:00PM – 8:00PM: Speaker’s Series

8:00 – 10:00pm: Post-Event Reception

Studio Theatre
York Quay Centre, 235 Queens Quay West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
map

“Lake Ontario is among the most stressed ecosystems in the Great Lakes system.