Cant take nightcrawlers into Ontario?

[Mercuryguy]

A friend of mine just came back from Ontario and said he was told by some fishermen that they had to throw out thier nightcrawlers on the Minnisota side as you cant take nightcrawlers in anymore. Anyone else had this problem?

[bassdoctor]

That's news to me. We haven't gone up this year yet, but in years past we've been able to take crawlers as long as they were in a special "bedding", not soil or dirt. We've never had any problems.

[jjwJw]

we went for the opener and you CAN take crawlers

[Whit]

canada does not want any of our dirt up there. no crawlers in dirt. no taters or onions that always seem to have some residual dirt on them. perfectly understandable. it's their country and they make the rules. diseases that are relatively harmless down here can cause havoc in a new ecosystem. kind of like what the european diseases did to native americans. no biggy. get crawlers in bedding and buy the other stuff up there.

[rebelrn2001]

Crawlers have to be in the bedding. No potato's. You CAN take onions over the border. We went over last week and I specifically told the lady we 'have no potatos or onions' She said you that we could bring onions, not potatos. I also had crawlers but told her they were in the bedding and that was the end of it.

[NBound]

The nightcrawlers are allowed as long as they're in bedding and you can prove they've been in it at least 14 days. The potato and onion issue is another thing that is NOT allowed. The custom agent we had said we can't bring anything that grows under ground(carrots). The agent also said it will depend on who you get for an agent as well. Some will enforce everything, and others think some of the rules are ridiculous and they don't push the issue. It makes it real confusing with no consistency.

[Jazzy]

I spoke with two people from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as well as the spervisor at Customs in Rainy River, Ont on Tuesday (May 25) and nobody knew anything about it. An hour later the customers super called back and said the crawler memo was a "port specific" problem and was never meant to be enforced at other ports.

A few groups of fisherman (that I know of) that came up to Morson last Monday were turned back with their crawlers.

The rules read that the crawlers must be out of dirt for 15 days before entering Canada. Just make sure that there is no visible traces of dirt on your worms before you come. I was assured by the super in RR that worms were being allowed in as usual after she spoke with me and got the issue cleared up. Of course, things are subject to change at almost anytime.

It sure it hard to play by the rules when they change them almost on a whim.

I wonder how long it would have gone on if someone hadn't made a couple calls to the CFIA and customs to find out why things suddenly changed.

[retire55]

The Canadian policy directive on the importation of earthworms is D-00-04 and it can be reviewed at:
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/protect/dir/d-00-04e.shtml#scope

The pertinent section for US fishermen coming into Canada is:

3.3 Shipments from the Continental U.S.

1. A Permit to Import under the Plant Protection Regulation is not required.

2. The shipment must be free of soil unless originating from a state not regulated for soil pests. Directive D-95-26 outlines the phytosanitary requirements for soil from the U.S. For shipments originating from areas in U.S. states where soil is prohibited from entry into Canada, the worms must be subjected to a cleansing period for at least 15 days before shipment to Canada. The cleansing period may be carried out by maintaining the worms in a soil-free and pathogen free substrate (e.g. shredded paper, pasteurized vegetables).

3. Shipment to Canada must take place in clean new containers filled with fresh artificial bedding.

No government issued certificate is required.

Comments

This policy directive was enacted in 2000 and is scheduled for review in 2005. Consequently, things have not been changing on a whim as suggested by one poster. However, what does change, unfortunately, is the interpretation and implementation of this directive by line officers at border crossings.

[Jazzy]

Yes, the policy has been in place for years, but when the customs agents get a memo on a holiday morning that changes a policy effecting tourism, you can't argue it's not a whim.

The importing of leeches by those with dealer licenses has been schedules for change for the last year or so. These kinds of things should come with some notice to tourism assocations so that there will be minimal incovenience to the guests that come to Canada.

The agent I spoke with the day they turned people back with worms was an arrogant jerk that had no idea why or where the memo came from. These are things that should be looked into before you start upsetting people that are following all the rules as they know it.

In less than an hour, the supervisor in Rainy River was able to find out that the worm issue was only meant for one port in all of Ontario where they were having trouble with a particular bait dealer on the US side that took the worms from dirt and put them into bedding the day of the sale. The dirt was easily visible on the worms upon inspection.

The customs agent I talked to told me he didn't think worms could live 15 days without dirt and that they might have put the rule into force because worms eat dirt.

I don't know about you, but I like to know a little bit about what I'm talking about before I go popping off at the mouth.

The customs agents often give the first impression of Canada to first time tourists as well as long time tourists.

A little courtesy and understanding is all anyone ever asks for.

[Maxwell]

Just a question here.
Why don't you just buy your worms in ontario?

[Jazzy]

Good question, Max and this is what I told the supervisor in Rainy River when she asked me.

People have always been able to bring crawlers so it's not worth trying to stock them because anyone using them will bring up more than enough to last their stay.

When it's hard to get minnows (like it has been the last couple years) and it's not easy to get leeches (like it will be next year when importing will stop altogether) then it's even harder to track down crawlers because you aren't on anyone's priority list if they have other regular customers (like most bait dealers would.)

Worms are the least popular live bait (in the Morson area at least) and while they last longer than two weeks, they will die eventually if you can't move them. Besides, a lot of times when you ship from Winnipeg or the west, things come through the US and not around Kenora so you run into the importing problem again.

Having live bait for your guests can be one of the biggest headaches an outfitter goes through. With worms coming in, there is one less thing to worry about for those people that use them. Every little thing you don't have to worry about helps when you're trying to take good care of your people.

[retire55]

Jazzy:

For clarification purposes only:

Based on several telephone conversations with Canadian Food Inspection Agency headquarters staff as well as staff at the Central Import Service Center, the regulations regarding the importation of earthworms are intended to be applied at every port into Canada. That such regulations/policy directives are not implemented consistently across the country shouldn't be surprising given the myriad of regulations/policy directives that border crossing staff must interpret and implement.

Bottomline, American fishermen can be assured that they can bring earthworms into Canada for their fishing trips as long as such worms have been subjected to a cleansing period (maintaining the worms in a soil-free and pathogen free substrate (e.g. shredded paper, pasteurized vegetables) for at least 15 days before being brought into Canada. This cleansing period ensures that any soil ingested by the worms has worked its way through their systems and will have been deposited in their castings. And therein lies the rationale for the requirement to have such worms placed in clean new containers filled with fresh artificial bedding for shipment to Canada.

Maxwell had a simpler solution - buy crawlers in Canada.