microplastics

Researchers have discovered microplastics across the bottom of the St. Lawrence River, the first time these pollutants have been found in freshwater sediment.Scientists from McGill University and the province of Quebec published their discovery this month in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.The microbeads they found usually come from personal care or cleaning products that wash down the drain and pass through sewage and treatment plants right into bodies of water.“We were surprised to find such concentrations at the bottom of a river,” McGill professor Anthony Ricciardi, who supervised the study, told the National Research Council. “It was previously assumed that floating microplastics are flushed through rivers to the sea. Now we have evidence that rivers can act as a sink for this pollution.”
While the environmental effects of microplastics are not well known, the surfaces of these plastics attract chemicals that can be transferred to animals that eat them.

Muskellunge Release program

Releasing a larger proportion of bass caught by anglers is an approach that can be used to reduce mortality of adult fish and allow more bass to survive. The bass population in the River will benefit if anglers restrict their take of fish to only those, which they will consume that day, while releasing the rest. A shore dinner of fresh cooked St Lawrence River bass remains one of the signature dining experiences of the 1000 Islands. Fishermen are being encouraged to release the larger bass since they are the most prolific breeders in the fishery. Save The River, the Upper St. Lawrence River’s environmental organization which has run a successful Muskellunge Release program since 1987, was challenged a couple of years ago by two of its donors to develop a similar Bass Catch and Release(C&R) Program.

Bassmaster Tournament Trail

After a summer hiatus, the Elites are back in action on the St. Lawrence River, July 30-Aug. 2, out of Waddington, N.Y. The St. Lawrence has been a frequent stop on the Bassmaster Tournament Trail, hosting 16 previous tournaments, including the 1980 Bassmaster Classic and an Elite contest. In 2013, the Waddington event broke the Elite Series attendance record set months earlier in Orange, Texas, with more than 34,000 fans participating over the four-day event.
The St. Lawrence is a world-class smallmouth fishery and ranked 11th among the 100 best fisheries in America. Brandon Palaniuk earned his blue Elite trophy in 2013 with 88 pounds, 12 ounces of smallmouth bass, an average of 4.4 pounds per fish.