As heard on Outdoor Journal Radio Federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier announced a significant expansion of the Indigenous commercial striped bass fishery in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence last week. The quota will more than triple, increasing by 125,000 fish in addition to the existing 50,000 fish caught annually by the Natuagenag community in ..read more

William Shatner may be best known for his role as Captain Kirk in StarTrek, but he is also not shy about speaking up for the Canadian environment. In the latest rendition of this, Shatner teamed up with Pacific Wild and Ryan Reynolds production company to send a message to the province’s decision-makers after BC’s salmon farm phase-out date was moved from 2025 to 2029 ..read more

As heard on Outdoor Journal Radio A new study has revealed that common soft plastic baits used in fishing release harmful phthalates and endocrine disruptors, raising significant environmental and health concerns. Soft plastic lures have become increasingly popular in recreational fishing worldwide. However, their prevalence and subsequent loss in the environment have alarmed anglers and environmentalists alike. Lake Trout Found with 12 Soft-Plastic Baits in Stomach Published in Science of The Total Environment, the study was conducted by scientists from the German federal Thünen Institute ..read more

As heard on Outdoor Journal Radio We here at Fish’n Canada cover lots of hatchery stories, but this was definitely a first… As reported by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, around 6:30 p.m., a deputy patrolling the area observed a male walking south along Highway 101 near milepost 210. A short time later the deputy walked into the Salmon Trout Enhancement Program hatchery and observed that same male behind the locked gate and no trespassing signs. The male, identified as 20-year-old Gardiner resident Joshua Alexander Heckathorn, was contacted and interviewed by ..read more

As heard on Outdoor Journal Radio As reported by CTV Calgary, Alberta middle schoolers are preparing to release their classroom-raised rainbow trout into the province’s streams. One of the programs heading this project is Fish in Schools by the Bow Habitat Station. According to their website, students spend January to May raising trout from egg to fry and then release them into provincially-approved waterbodies to continue their lifecycle journey. Since its inception, the program has engaged over 45,000 students in over 30 communities across the province – from Hines Creek in the north to Pi ..read more

As heard on Outdoor Journal Radio The intelligence of Orcas, and other marine mammals, has been long known, but can they really learn to sink a ship? As heard on Outdoor Journal Radio, a pod of killer whales recently attacked and sunk a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco. The nearly 50-foot yacht, named The Alboran Cognac, was 15 miles from Cabo Espartel in Morocco when an unknown number of orcas began ramming it. Everyone on board was reduced, but the boat eventually sank. Perhaps this would make fewer headlines if it was a one-off event, but, according to according ..read more

As heard on Outdoor Journal Radio While those of us immersed in recreational fishing tend to lose touch with the sustenance component of our hobby, a new study shows just how significant the food value of rod and reel fishing still is. The study found that around 280 million recreational anglers catch roughly 1.3 million tons of freshwater fish every year. This means that recreational fishing contributes significantly to the total fish yield of inland fisheries worldwide with 11.3% of the reported 11.5 million tons of freshwater fish being caught by anglers.  Of these numbers, Canada is ..read more

As heard on Outdoor Journal Radio In one of our favourite quotes from A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold wrote, “A man may not care for golf and still be human, but the man who does not like to see, hunt, photograph, or otherwise outwit birds or animals is hardly normal. He is supercivilized, and I for one do not know how to deal with him.” Last year, U.S Senior Open golfer Rusty Strawn showed that not all golfers are supercivilized when he hooked and landed a “nearly 50-inch pike” from the shores of Sentry World Golf Club’s twelfth-hole pond! “I went over there, I didn’t have any tackle ..read more

As heard on Outdoor Journal Radio New research from Simon Fraser University (SFU) has discovered an interesting relationship between ants and ticks, one that could help us combat the spread of Lyme Disease. A paper published this year in Royal Society Open Science, looked at what insect predators black-legged ticks (Deer Ticks) have adapted to avoid. “We decided to look at ants because they are social insects and use a huge range of pheromones to communicate with one another,” says Claire Gooding, the lead author on the project. “They’re chemically noisy. And for something that perceives ..read more

As heard on the Outdoor Journal Radio podcast News from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that approximately 265,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen fertilizer were discharged into a drainage ditch, which then trickled into the East Nishnabotna River and affected 49.8 miles of the Nishnabotna.  One might justifiably ask how this could happen. Well, apparently a valve was “left open” on a storage tank (above ground) for a full weekend.   The carnage numbers are quite alarming: Species Number of Fish Minnow Shiner Dace Chub 707,871 Suckers 1,542 Goldeye 201 Comm ..read more