Conservation Initiative

[Lunker Larry]

Ottawa Riverkeeper has championed an initiative to help save the American Eel in the Ottawa River. This amazing creature has been all but wiped out as a result of damming the river over the last 60 years or more. The American Eel starts its life in the Sargasso Sea. The leaf-shaped eel larvae drift on North Atlantic currents for up to one year before reaching coastal waters. They then metamorphose into a life stage where they are transparent and are called glass eels making their way up the St Lawrence to the Ottawa River. The few that make it past the dams live in the river for 10 years or longer. ALL the eels in the Ottawa river become female and when migrating back down river to get to the Sargaso sea to spawn less than 1% survive the turbines of the Carillon Dam. The American eel has only one single breeding population. If they are declining in one area, even if declines are not evident elsewhere, the population overall will be in decline. It is of concern that the recruitment of eels in the Upper St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes in Canada has declined by over 99 percent.
The Carillon dam is slated to undergo $750 million dollars of renovations, offering a once in a lifetime chance to incorporate modifications that would give the eels a chance to move around the dam to restore their numbers. Here's a link with information about why this opportunity should not be missed: https://www.ottawariverkeeper.ca/a-ladd ... a025aaacf6

Please consider taking a few seconds to add your voice to those calling for an eel ladder to be included in the planned renovations. Follow this link to sign the petition: https://www.ottawariverkeeper.ca/what-w ... a025aaacf6

[Scott T.]

Done. Thanks for bringing this forward.

[scarkner]

Done!

[Corvus Lacus]

Done...thanks for educating...

[levitch]

Done!

[jsdx]

Signed the petition.

I recall when I was a kid, there were still eels in the Ottawa and they were big. They used to be considered vermin and I used to find dead ones tossed on shore. They used to scare the shellac out of me when you caught them but they fought like crazy.

I also did some eel searching and found this incredible story https://rivercritters.wordpress.com/201 ... eau-canal/ which is about an eel that lives in Dows lake. Unclear if its true but it had this insane reference to a monster eel.

Estimates of the size of the eel (since named Elvis) range from 10 – 14 metres. (33 – 45 ft).

anyone ever see this thing ?

[Happy Hooker]

Done.
As a child we use to fish from shore using hand lines, always caught eels and catfish. The eels were discarded, usually by leaving them on shore. If only we had known better.

Hooker

[cornplanter2]

we used to catch them in the Carp river when we were mud pout fishing, some where pretty good size.

[Daboss]

Signed the petition.

I recall when I was a kid, there were still eels in the Ottawa and they were big. They used to be considered vermin and I used to find dead ones tossed on shore. They used to scare the shellac out of me when you caught them but they fought like crazy.

I also did some eel searching and found this incredible story https://rivercritters.wordpress.com/201 ... eau-canal/ which is about an eel that lives in Dows lake. Unclear if its true but it had this insane reference to a monster eel.

Estimates of the size of the eel (since named Elvis) range from 10 – 14 metres. (33 – 45 ft).

anyone ever see this thing ?

The article also mentions the depth of Dows lake as being 10 - 15 meters, but it is actually no more than 6 meters, maybe they were using a fishermans tape measure?