FRESHWATER FISHES
E. J. Crossman and E. Holm
THE IMPORTANCE OF MONITORING
Olver et al. (1995) reported that the COSEWIC summary for 1993 indicated that "35 wild species, subspecies, or separate populations of fish were designated as Vulnerable, 11 as Threatened, and three as Endangered" for Canada as a whole. The Mixedwood Plains Ecozone contains a significant 54% of these Vulnerable species, and 82% of the Threatened species. Of the four Extinct species included in the 1993 list, three once occurred in the Ecozone.
Those authors ended by saying that "routine monitoring of ecosystem status is critical to measuring or understanding the status of conservation efforts. For those resources that undergo harvest, stocks must be assessed occasionally, harvest must be determined periodically as a check against sustainable levels, and compliance must be assured. Stock assessment is expensive, but we see no alternative to a judicious and modest program of routine monitoring."
A good case in point, in regard to the reality of their concern, is the ongoing and steady increase in harvest of wild populations of selected species (mostly those cyprinids most tolerant to captivity and transport) for bait in the recreational fishery.