ARE THE M.O.E. LYING TO US (AGAIN)?

Maybe it's just a misunderstanding. Maybe they have simply goofed in their Fish Advisory Tables. Perhaps the thoughtful M.O.E. simply don't want to disturb our local Mennonite population who enjoy catching and eating northern Pike. Or perhaps not.

We seem to have conflicting information between two different documents both purporting to be discussing contaminants in fish in the Grand River watershed. The first is authored by the Ministry of Environment and is titled "Eating Fish from Canagagigue Creek". It was handed out to the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) this past May (2016). The second is titled Report No.: WMPPT-2013-13 "Water Management Plan: Technical Memorandum". It was written by staff from the Grand River Conservation Authority.

The first report claims that the only fish in the Canagagigue Creek (Gig) that have a consumption advisory due to Dioxins are White Suckers. Now they do admit that they did not test the top predator, pike, for Dioxins allegedly because mercury "is known to drive advisories". I believe that comment from them is worth about a seven on the drivel scale. Other fish with advisories in the creek are Common Carp, Redhorse Sucker and Rock Bass although their advisories are solely due to either mercury, PCBs or both. Odd that the White Sucker has advisories for all three and the others don't.

Then we look carefully at the document from the Grand River Consrvation Authority. Lo and behold they do actually finger Uniroyal Chemical as THE source for Dioxins in the Canagagigue Creek (Gig) and in the Grand River. In fact they appear to give credit to Uniroyal for putting Dioxins into Common Carp from the Belwood Dam upstream of the mouth of the Gig all the way downstream through Waterloo and Kitchener to the Mannheim weir across the Grand River. Oh and not only do they add Common Carp to the list of contaminated fish with eating restrictions due to Dioxins but they also include Rock Bass as well.

Considering that pike are the top fish predator in the Gig it seems odd that they are not mentioned in either report as having restrictions due to Dioxins. Afterall Dioxins are both bio-accumulative and bio-magnified. It couldn't be that pike are far more targeted for eating by non-ethnic minorities (ie.WASPS) could it?