Something fishy on Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a bit of a bonanza for Joanna.  In recent weeks we have broken a cell phone, our digital camera, and our iPod.  Joanna got new models of all three.  However, the highlight of Mother's Day was our walk to the Royal Botanical Garden's Fishway.  The Fishway is a structure that separates the Cootes Paradise wildlife sanctuary from Hamilton Harbour and Lake Ontario.  Cootes Parasides was naturally separated from Lake Ontario until the construction of the Desjardins Canal.  With construction of the canal, carp were able to invade Cootes Paradise and set about disturbing the natural habitat such that native species could no longer successfully use it as a fish nursery.  The Cootes Paradise is one of the important nursery sites for native fish and the introduction of carp did great damage to Lake Ontario populations.  The Fishway is a man-made barrier that captures fish both entering and exiting Cootes Paradise.  On Sunday, we walked down to watch the emptying of the cages.  Of the fish attempting to enter Cootes Paradise, all were allowed except for carp and goldfish, which were tossed back into Hamilton Harbor.  Yes, goldfish from fishtanks.  When dumped into Hamilton Harbor they do quite well and since they are carp they are not wanted in Cootes Paradise.  Nearly all of the outgoing fish were white suckers, which just finished their spawn in Cootes Paradise.  That and one lovely rainbow trout on its way back to Lake Ontario.  View all of the pictures here.