Untitled - Haliburton County Community Cooperative Inc

problem as flooding of land can add increased concentrations of mercury to the aquatic ecosystem(Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, N.D). Conditions present within reservoir lakes and flooded areasof land are ideal for increasing the mobility of organic and inorganic matter. These conditions stimulatethe transformation of inorganic natural and anthropogenic mercury into toxic methylmercury (Silk &Ciruna, 2004).As mercury is the leading cause of fish consumption advisories for boreal lakes in centralCanada, advisories specific to species or area would deter anglers primarily fishing for consumption(Johnston et. al 2009). 2005 saw an estimated 7.1 million fish caught within zone 15 and of those, 1.2million fish were harvested and kept for consumption (Hogg et al, 2005). This represents roughly 17% ofall fish caught equating to $13.79 million dollars. Therefore, in a worst case scenario where all southernCanadian Shield lakes issued mercury advisories for all species, the fishing industry could be missing outon a potential $13.79 million dollars. However this is an extreme figure and is highly unrealistic. Lookingtowards Lake Muskoka as an example, advisories have been in place for mercury contamination for LakeTrout, Rock Bass and Smallmouth Bass with the suggestion that lake trout larger than 45 cm and smallmouth bass larger than 35 cm should not be eaten (International Lake Environment Committee, 2008).These three species represent 52% of all fish harvested within Zone 15, or 660,000 individual fish(Hogg et al, 2005).With 1.2 million fish having a worth of an estimated $13.9 million, this would translate intoapproximately each harvested fish being attributed to $11.58. As increased mercury from dams is to anextent area specific, it would be necessary to obtain creel surveys from areas where advisoriesare/aren't present to determine how an advisory could potential result in an economic loss for the area.This would be determined by multiplying $11.58 by the amount of advised fish caught for consumption.As these figures would be hypothetically lower when an advisory has been issued, it may be ideal tocompare findings with past creel surveys in order to fully asses potential losses. However it is easy to see13