What is happening to Grand River’s brown trout?

Fish population facing increased stress ‘in time of massive change’

GRAND RIVER WATERSHED — Rumours are swimming around that the brown trout population in the Upper Grand River is declining.

The Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry stocks about 20,000 to 25,000 brown trout each year in a portion of the river cold enough to support brown trout. This area, the Grand River tailwater, is below the Shand Dam, and is a well-known destination for trout fishing.

Stocking has been very successful since the late 1980s, says Jack Imhof, biologist and director of conservation with Trout Unlimited Canada. “It’s generated a very robust population of fish for anglers to capture and harvest. It’s generated some economic value to the towns of Fergus and Elora.”

Up until recently, it was doing very well.

Now fishers are reporting to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Trout Unlimited Canada, a freshwater conservation organization, that the fish population seems to be getting smaller.

Imhof says the stories from the fishermen have been coming primarily in the past two years. “We’re being told, it’s not doing very well. Temperatures seem to be OK, so we don’t know what’s going on. Until we collect the data, we won’t know for sure.”

Brian Burechail has been fishing in the Grand for over three decades. He believes the stocked brown trout are not living past their first year in the river. “The brown trout fishery is finished,” says Burechail, “but no one seems to be doing anything about it.”

Burechail worries that once the current cohort of larger sized trout, or those that have lived past six years, die, there will be no large brown trout left, particularly in the Upper Grand.

The Grand River tailwater starts at the Shand Dam northeast of Fergus. It continues 28 kilometres downstream until about Westmont Rose.

Much of the land surrounding the Grand River has been so altered, the river is no longer adequately replenished by ground water and tributary flow. Before the dam was built, the river would be mostly dry in the summer, and flood uncontrollably in the spring.

The Grand River Conservation Authority manages the river’s flow with the Belwood Lake Reservoir, a 12-kilometre lake created by the dam. Water is stored in the spring, and released over the summer.

The conservation authority’s system of dams and reservoirs supplies enough flow to dilute treated wastewater downstream, while at the same time providing enough water for Waterloo Region, Brantford and Six Nations of the Grand River to source drinking water.

The water is released from the bottom of the reservoir, so it is cold enough to allow certain kinds of trout to survive. Fish have been stocked on and off below the Shand dam since it was built in 1942. The current brown trout fishery in the Grand River tailwater began in 1989.

“The flow augmentation is so needed. I mean if that reservoir wasn’t there, in Kitchener you’d be able to walk across (the river) in your running shoes.”

Conservation authority staff estimate that in the summer months, 80 per cent of the river’s volume coming through Kitchener is supplied by the reservoir system, rather than natural recharge or other contributing tributaries.

But during storm or heavy melt events, water can still flow at extremely high rates, and this can wreak havoc on fish populations and their habitat, says Collins.

For example, during an unprecedented rain event in June 2017, conservation authority staff released a flow of 319 cubic metres per second (cms). At the event’s peak, 507 cms of water was recorded flowing in West Montrose. One cubic metre per second is the equivalent of a thousand litres. At this point of the year, the river typically flows at five cms.

“There was not a single thing left in the river. Even rocks the size of half a Volkswagen car door were being moved. So when you see things like that happen, that is impossible. You have to start (the fishery) all over again,” says Collins.

Flood events are not the only factor effecting brown trout in the river. The truth about what is happening to the brown trout population in the tailwaters of the Upper Grand is a little more slippery.

“The Grand River is still a world-class fishery today, no matter what anyone tells you,” says Rob Voisin, chair of the Friends of the Grand River, a conservation group made mostly of locals who fish on the Grand.

Voisin says he and other members of Friends of the Grand River have also noticed the missing middle of the brown trout population. Voisin believes there are common-sense reasons why the brown trout population might be smaller, including that the river is still stocked at similar rates to the 1990s, yet there are more people in the area and more fishing pressure. Urbanization, increased numbers of birds of prey, lower water levels, more landowners on the river, and more landowners clearing their banks increases erosion and decreases water quality, he says.

Although the ministry is hearing about declining trout populations, without evidence these reports cannot be confirmed, says Jolanta Kowalski, a spokesperson for the ministry.

Chris Bunt is a fishery scientist with his research firm, Biotactic, out of Kitchener. He says the number of fishing licences in Ontario have increased by 20 per cent since the pandemic began. All these factors add more stress to the fish.

As well, the pandemic over the past year and a half has had a toll on the care usually given to the river and the brown trout population, says Collins. Volunteers haven’t been able to gather in groups to stock the river or for cleanup events, so these activities have been more sporadic. Meanwhile, the general population is spending more time on the river, says Collins. For example, he saw a sharp increase in the number of people tubing on the river this year.

All these factors are adding more stress to the brown trout.

More research is needed to determine the actual state of the brown trout population, says Bunt, but he feels that focusing on brown trout specifically misses the bigger picture of the river.

“I love the river, it’s a beautiful, beautiful river, says Bunt. “We’ve got some really cool fish in there, they’re just not the ones people care about.”

The Grand River is home to about 90 species of fish, including rare ones like the silver shiner and the river redhorse, both species at risk.

Rather than focus on a single species of fish, Bunt worries more about larger-scale issues like the variety of chemicals that end up in the water and disrupt fish reproduction and health, like prescription and non-prescription drugs, insecticides, herbicides, salt, wastewater pollutants or even dog feces to name a few.

“Everybody’s got to realize that everything goes into the river. Everything,” says Bunt. “I mean everything in Shoppers Drug Mart pretty much just ends up going in the Grand River, you know? All the shampoos, all the soaps, all the lotions, all the makeup, all the drugs, anything you put on your skin, you know all the foot creams — all the fungicides, lice cream, lice lotion is insecticide, all that stuff.”

Agricultural and residential insecticides and herbicides, road salt and softener salt, are also important contaminants, he says. Climate change is also playing havoc on the Grand River, says Bunt. Large storm events like the flood of June 2017 could become more common. A warming climate is also changing how much snow is accumulated in the winter, how and when this snow and ice melts, and amount and timing of precipitation in general.

These changes mean that water levels are unpredictable and may not provide enough flow for fish to move around, or line up with the narrow window of opportunity for when fish are breeding.

Bunt says that fish populations in the Grand River, both their numbers and the types of fish in the river are changing. This means some species are doing well, while others are declining. For example, walleye are succeeding, while Bunt is seeing serious declines in sucker populations. “We’re living in a time of massive change.”

But is the trout fishery dying? Collins doesn’t think so, not yet. He believes the fish are facing increased stress, and mismanagement of the river could lead to their decline, but that point has not yet been reached.

“Is the river something of worth? It’s a gem,” says Collins. “We’re less than an hour and a half away from seven million people. And we’re still doing this? We’re still supporting this type of pressure? This type of angling? This is a gold mine.

“To lose it would be the absolutely biggest crime in the world.”