©Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
More about American Eel here
It’s a request from Chris Kennedy of the LakeWatchers program sent to Karen Robinson of the Sandy Lake Conservation Association who forwarded it to me.
Says Karen R: “Chris Kennedy sent a request that we keep an eye out for possible dead eels in Sandy Lake and other lakes. He is finding them in the Shubenacadie water system as reported in the news, but wants to make sure it is not more widespread. I am alerting our park walkers to keep an eye out just in case.”
More Info about the eels
Marine scientist asks for help tracking dead eels found in Shubie canal, Dartmouth lakes
BY YVETTE D’ENTREMONT in the Halifax Examiner, Sep 15, 2023. Subscription required for access to full article. “After finding numerous dead eels floating in Dartmouth lakes, a marine scientist is asking for help tracking and logging them online. In recent weeks, Dr. Christine Ward-Paige began hearing reports of multiple dead American eels in the Shubie Canal. “A few of my neighbours kept telling me that they saw a bunch of dead eels. And then last Friday, one of them said, ‘Christine, I’m going to take you,’” Ward-Paige said in an interview on the shoreline of Lake Banook near Paddlers Cove. “She drove me to Shubie Canal with the kids to show me where they had found a bunch of dead eels. She’d said six or seven. As soon as we got down there, we counted 36 in a very short time.” While onsite, Ward-Paige said many passersby told her they’d seen many dead eels. She was told “they’re everywhere.”
Is arsenic killing eels in Dartmouth lakes?
Tim Bousquet in the Halifax Examiner Morning File Sep 15, 2023/ “After finding numerous dead eels floating in Dartmouth lakes, a marine scientist is asking for help tracking and logging them online,” reports Yvette d’Entremont: In recent weeks, Dr. Christine Ward-Paige began hearing reports of multiple dead American eels in the Shubie Canal. It didn’t take long to discover that dead eels weren’t just showing up along the Shubie Canal. They were found elsewhere too, including in lakes Banook, Fletchers, Miller, MicMac, and Charles. Ward-Paige also learned that people had been seeing the dead eels since mid-August. During a trip to Lake Banook on Tuesday night, she found another 36 dead eels. Click here to read “Marine scientist asks for help tracking dead eels found in Shubie canal, Dartmouth lakes.” Ward-Paige thinks the eels might be dying off due to blue-green algae related to recent mowing of seagrass in Lake Banook, but the lake’s been mowed before and there wasn’t a similar die-off. Hey, Ward-Paige is the scientist, and DFO is investigating, so hopefully we’ll get an answer soon. But I’ll throw out another possibility: arsenic….In August, during one of the heavy summer rainfalls, I went and hiked around the abandoned Montague gold mine to see the state of the toxic tailings. It wasn’t pretty..”
DFO investigating after almost 100 dead eels found floating in Dartmouth lakes
Heidi Petracek, CTV Atlantic News, Sep 15, 2023. “Marine biologist Christine Ward-Paige is on a mission to find out why dozens of dead American eels are now floating in several Dartmouth lakes…Ward-Paige is helping collect information on sightings of dead eels using an app she herself created several years ago. eOceans allows citizen scientists around the world to upload data and report sightings. The app geotags the information and can organize it in specific ways, a unique and easily-accessible way to crowdsource information. “And then, we pass (that data) off to local experts and species experts, so that they can do their job, with the knowledge that they have,” she explains.She encourages residents will use the eOceans app to record any further sightings of dead eels in the hopes of collecting data the DFO could potential use to try to determine the cause.”
About the LakeWatchers Program
– Update on LakeWatchers – Presentation – October 13, 2022
On halifax.ca
LakeWatchers
On halifax.ca, Jul 26, 2023