How many fish leave Ontario each year?

[NARDA 1]

Originally Posted by teddi

they do not put out the sunset country map and guide. it is put out by northwest travel in kenora. get your facts in order.

My apologies, I have corrected the link I posted (should have been .ca not.com) I called the number that was listed on that site and got the information and they are also sending me the sunset country guide. So it would appear they are responsible for it some how.

[MrSimon]

I did more digging and found some great facts ... which I used to calculate a few more things.

Ontario has 68,000 square miles of water (lakes, rivers, streams). For fun, I'll assume only half of that holds fish (I'll assume the rest is marshy, too shallow, not fertile, etc etc etc).

It also seems (from studies done mostly in the upper midwest) that the typical per-acre walleye and pike density is about 4 fish per acre. Some places can get much higher, and I'm sure that the best walleye lakes in Ontario are up around 8 or 9. But I'll use 4.

So, since there are 640 square acres in a square mile, that means we'll assume there are almost 22 million square acres of fish filled water in Ontario. That's a lot.

Meaning there are about 87 million walleye and 87 million pike in Ontario.

If our numbers early of non-residents taking 1.75 million fish each year are correct, that means we are only taking 1.01% of Ontario's fish each year.

From that I can draw three conclusions:

1. A 1% harvest is not going to have any impact on the overall fish population.
2. Actual fishing pressure is most likely concentrated on only a FRACTION of the fishable waters, meaning that lakes with easy access and high angler traffic can most definitely be impacted by over-harvest.
3. Because of number 2, there must be VAST AMOUNTS OF FISH FILLED WATER THAT RARELY GETS FISHED!!!!!!!!

[LOW1]

I suspect that there are a lot more than 87 million walleye in Ontario, especially if you count the very young fry that don't make it very far up the food chain.

[camp chef]

Originally Posted by MrSimon

I did more digging and found some great facts ... which I used to calculate a few more things.

Ontario has 68,000 square miles of water (lakes, rivers, streams). For fun, I'll assume only half of that holds fish (I'll assume the rest is marshy, too shallow, not fertile, etc etc etc).

It also seems (from studies done mostly in the upper midwest) that the typical per-acre walleye and pike density is about 4 fish per acre. Some places can get much higher, and I'm sure that the best walleye lakes in Ontario are up around 8 or 9. But I'll use 4.

So, since there are 640 square acres in a square mile, that means we'll assume there are almost 22 million square acres of fish filled water in Ontario. That's a lot.

Meaning there are about 87 million walleye and 87 million pike in Ontario.

If our numbers early of non-residents taking 1.75 million fish each year are correct, that means we are only taking 1.01% of Ontario's fish each year.

From that I can draw three conclusions:

1. A 1% harvest is not going to have any impact on the overall fish population.
2. Actual fishing pressure is most likely concentrated on only a FRACTION of the fishable waters, meaning that lakes with easy access and high angler traffic can most definitely be impacted by over-harvest.
3. Because of number 2, there must be VAST AMOUNTS OF FISH FILLED WATER THAT RARELY GETS FISHED!!!!!!!!

Without getting into the logical falacies of making conclusions from assumptions,I think it is fair to assume that there are vast amounts of fish filled water that rarely gets fished.

[MrSimon]

Originally Posted by LOW1

I suspect that there are a lot more than 87 million walleye in Ontario, especially if you count the very young fry that don't make it very far up the food chain.

I was only "counting" adult fish.

This wasn't supposed to be a highly scientific thing .... just a "back of the napkin" way to get a idea of how many fish might be in Ontario in relation to how many get taken out.

[Mike Kansas]

Pike eat more Walleye than fisherman. That is what my 6 yr old Grandson told me!!!

[Obabikon]

Originally Posted by MrSimon

First off, this is not a thread to debate C&R vs. harvesting.

I'm just curious how many fish get taken from Ontario lakes each year.

Here are the categories and my initial assumptions. Post up what you think the numbers might be and we can tweak them accordingly. I might be completely off with my assumptions, which is why I started this thread.

Weeks per season that lodges are usually full - 16
Average number of guests at each lodge per week - 25
Average number of fish (all kinds combined) killed per guest per day - 3
Number of lodges in Ontario (this is where I'm really guessing) - 200

Total fish taken per year - 1,200,000 fish.

Am I close? Way off? Thoughts?

I think that number way low. Probably not a 10th of the fish taken. Maybe not even a 100th

Lake of the woods alone has in the range of 100 resorts. Say on average they put through 500 guests per year. That's 50,000 people who visit Lake of the Woods in Canada. I would put money that the average of a week, fish kept... between shore lunches and take home walleyes is 6 per person. There are a lot of people out there that take 14 fish in the course of a week. So, a guess of at least 300,000 walleyes taken from the water by camp guests on one lake. That's not including local populations, day trip people, campers, and cabin owners. The number of fish harvested on this lake could be 500,000+ annually.

Now, if we're talking total fish populations, including crappie, perch, northern, bass. This lake alone would pass the 1.2mil taken annually.



That number sounds like a lot, but it's only a little over 1 fish per acre taken in an entire year. Almost nothing compared to the 100's of millions of fish on this lake.

[FrankLeigh]

If you are serious about discovering information in regard to the harvest of fish in Ontario, here is a link to the MNR website. It contains a mind-numbing quantity of bar graphs, pie charts, lists, and other information directly related to your posts. It should be recognized that this report is based on angler surveys, is completed every five years, and does not include the harvest from commercial or First Nations users. To perform an actual count of fish caught and harvested would be impossible.

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business...ge/277520.html

FrankLeigh

[micropterus]

Way too much math