One of These Things Is Not Like The
Others - Prevalence Of Non-target
Species In Commercial Baitfish In
Ontario
J. Brinsmead1, B. Koenig1, A. Drake2, N. Mandrak2, D.
Copplestone1 and C. Rusmir-Woods1
1Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources, Peterborough, ON, Canada
and Oceans Canada, Burlington, ON, Canada
2Fisheries
April 24, 2013
The Bait Industry in Ontario
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Long industry history – commercial licences since ~1925
2012 commercial bait licences
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Primarily wild caught bait
Ontario’s recreational fishery: ~ 1.3M anglers, >$2.5B
2010 Recreational Angler Survey
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Harvesters ~ 530; dealers ~ 670
69% of anglers who responded used live baitfish
Over 30% of anglers that use live baitfish report releasing
leftover bait at least some of the time
~ 4.24 million angling events per year using live bait
Risk of AIS Spread: Movement of Live Bait
AIS in bait is essentially a by-catch issue
May be spread through:
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Illegal dumping of bait buckets
Accidental release
Escape from in-water live holding boxes
‘Fellow travellers’
Use of live bait suspected in numerous range
expansions and/or introductions
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Mitigating the Risk
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Use of regulatory and awareness approaches
• Ontario Fishery Regulations, 2007
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Partnership with Ontario Federation of Anglers
and Hunters/OMNR
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List 48 species that may be used live as bait
Cannot release bait, baitfish or the contents of a bait
bucket within 30 m of any waters
Pathway approach
Promote public awareness, prevent spread of invasive
species
Track/monitor spread of AIS in Ontario
HACCP Plans for Commercial Bait Operators
(Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point)
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US Sea Grant modified approach for
use in commercial bait industry/
aquaculture
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Conduct hazard analysis
Establish & monitor control measures
Establish corrective action for when
problem occurs
Verify that HACCP plan and control
measures work
Approved HACCP plan required before
licence will be issued
Majority of harvesters/dealers trained
between Fall 2007 and Fall 2009
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Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Point (HACCP) Plan
Monitoring the Effectiveness of HACCP
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Desire to know if HACCP
has been effective
How? Empirical data was
not collected prior to
introducing HACCP
2009 - Some preliminary
assessment was done for
compliance, but no
baseline for comparison
We needed a little help!
What about Dr. Drake’s work?
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2007-2008, sampled ‘angler’ purchases and retail
tanks
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Probability of occurrence & abundance of target and
non-target fishes
48 stores in summer/fall and/or winter fishing seasons
Most purchases & tanks contained only target baitfishes
Non-target fishes (including AIS & SAR) – low
probability of occurrence and abundance
Even at low probability presents a risk when considering
4.24 million angling events/year using live bait
What are we doing?
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Coat-tails approach – sample 30 retail stores
• ‘angler’ purchases – 10 dozen minnows
Primary Question – has frequency of occurrence,
and relative abundance, of non-target species
in angler purchases changed since 2007/08?
Objectives:
• Determine if non-targets are sold to anglers with commercial baitfish
• Compare frequency of occurrence in purchases between time periods
• Use eDNA to detect species that are/were in tanks (results pending)
• Collect baseline data on:
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Invasive invertebrates found in water purchased with commercial baitfish
Preliminary Results
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Summer/Fall 2011 Sampling
$120.00
700
$118
Cost of Bait
Number of fish purchased
>120 baitfish
600
$100.00
500
400
$60.00
$9
300
$40.00
200
$20.00
100
$0.00
0
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11 12 13
14 15 16
bait shop
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17 18 19
20 21 22 23
24 25 26
27 28 29
Number of fish
Cost (Canadian)
$80.00
2007/08 (from Drake 2011)
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Of 16,886 fishes purchased, 15 non-targets (0.089%)
Of 66 purchase events, 9 contained 1+ non-targets
(13.6%)
2011/12
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Of 14,970 fishes purchased, 34 non-targets (0.23%)
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Driven by one purchase with 22 non-targets (all Brook
Silversides) of 521 fishes purchased
Without this purchase event – Of 14,449 fishes purchased,
12 non-targets (probability = 0.083%)
Of 58 purchase events, 8 contained one or more nontargets (13.8%)
Non-Target Species Purchased
2007/08
2011/12
Rainbow Smelt (4)
Brook Silverside (22)
Banded Killifish (2)
Common Carp (3)
Rock Bass (2)
Banded Killifish (2)
Brook Silverside (1)
Greenside Darter (2)
Coho Salmon (1)
Pumpkinseed (2)
Gizzard Shad (1)
Smallmouth Bass (2)
Pumpkinseed (1)
Black Bullhead (1)
River Redhorse (1)*
Round Goby (1)
Smallmouth Bass (1)
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* Species of Special Concern under ESA & SARA
Identification Challenges
Identifying differences between target species and nontarget species is difficult, especially over large volumes:
Emerald shiner = target species
Mimic shiner = target species
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Silver shiner = non-target species
Threatened under ESA & SARA
Images from: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Fellow Travellers (Summer/Fall 2011)
Number of different taxon groups detected in water
sold with commercial baitfish in Sept./Oct. 2011.
Expressed as a percentage of bait shops with
the number of taxon groups present.
Taxon groups detected as fellow travellers in water sold with
commercial baitfish in Sept./Oct. 2011. Expressed as
percentage of bait shops with the taxon group present.
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Fellow Travellers (Winter 2012)
Number of different taxon groups detected in water
sold with commercial baitfish in February 2012.
Expressed as a percentage of bait shops with
Taxon groups detected as fellow travellers in water sold with
the number of taxon groups present.
commercial baitfish in February 2012. Expressed as
percentage of bait shops with the taxon group present.
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Conclusions
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Current results are consistent with Drake (2011)
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Non-targets occur in very low abundances, with low purchase
prevalence
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Most harvesters/retailers doing good job of selective
fishing/sorting (i.e. 99.91% of individuals purchased are
targets)
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However, >10% of purchase events contained 1+ non-target
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Low-likelihood activities may contribute to species
introductions given 4.24 million live baitfish events per
year
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>30% of anglers using live bait report releasing it
sometimes
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Larger lakes near large angling populations most atrisk
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Acknowledgements
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Brenda Koenig, David Copplestone, Lauretta Dunford, Camelia
Rusmir-Woods, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
Matt Smith, Fraser Smith, Sophie Bull, Alison Kirkpatrick, Robert
McGowan, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters
Andrew Drake, Nicholas Mandrak, Mike Parna, Fisheries and
Oceans Canada
Shelley Arnott, Liudmila Aleaga, Queen’s University
Funding provided by the Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the
Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem