Credit River Salmon

The Credit River south of Streetsville resembles Canada's west coast as Chinook salmon up to three-feet long thrash and struggle up river from Lake Ontario to spawn.

A family trip to the banks of the Credit River at Riverwood or Erindale Park promises visitors the delight of watching this fall ritual unfold.

Chinook salmon were first successfully imported to Lake Ontario, along with Coho salmon, from the Pacific beginning in the late 1960s. Chinook and Coho will nest, spawn and die before winter. Their offspring will hatch and swim downstream to Lake Ontario in spring, returning to the Credit River four years later, as adults, to continue the cycle.

While the hulking Chinook are a fall spectacle, those who look closely will spot a similar, almost indistinguishable species with a much longer history in the Credit River: the Atlantic salmon.

Early settlers along the river claimed that Atlantic salmon were once so plentiful that, "two persons in a canoe with a spear and a torch will sometimes kill...10 barrels (200 pounds each) of salmon in one night."

Other settlers reported streams with so many Atlantic salmon that people could cross from bank to bank by walking on their backs (this was reported near Georgetown, in 1843). Farms were bought and houses built from the sale of salmon. The village of Terra Cotta was even once known as Salmonville.

By the end of the 1800s, the Credit River's Atlantic salmon were gone. A combination of overfishing, damming and water pollution caused the population to collapse across Lake Ontario. They didn't return for over 100 years.

Today, along with the spawning salmon, the Credit River is home to another 79 species of fish and is one of the most popular rivers in Ontario for fishing, generating millions for the local economy. Native Atlantic salmon are once again running up the Credit River to spawn, alongside their imported west coast neighbours, and eggs from the salmon are collected and raised in fish hatcheries for stocking in other rivers across Lake Ontario.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Credit River
• Mississauga
• Salmon
• Wild Salmon
• Canada
• fishing
• water

[zoomimage]

very nice