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iiiiiiiiiiitoilf911)1118iiiiiii ERRATUM Activities of the Resource Development Branch Newfoundland Region March - September, 1974 p 16. fifth line from bottom of page should read Four of these were tagged in 1971, , four salmon were recaptured on the south coast of Insular Newfound- land; one was recaptured in Salmonier Arm, Rex Porter Activities of the Resource Development Branch Newfoundland Region January-February, 1974 , On Friday, March 1, 1974, the Branch Executive met at 3:00 p.m. Attending were V.R. Taylor, B.R. Bauld, R.J. Wiseman, W.J. Walsh, J. D. Pratt, L.G. Riche, and C.A. Whalen. General: Discussion of the 1974-75 budget took up almost all the meeting time. Generally speaking, the Branch budget for 1974-75 is not substantially greater than that of the past fiscal year. The general concensus expressed was that some "belt-tightening" would be required by all Groups if we are to keep our operations within budgetory limits. Meetings! On January 3, 1974 an informal meeting was held in Building 302 between representatives of the Branch and H. Lear and R. Payne of the St. John's Biological Station to discuss the agenda and format of the forthcoming Program Working Party on Atlantic Anadromous Fish to be tentatively held during April 23-25 in St. John's. Representing the Branch were V.R. Taylor, J.D. Pratt, R.J. Wiseman, and D. Waldron. R.J. Wiseman, C.A. Whalen, M. Farwell, and L. Coady of the Branch attended the 27th Annual Meeting of the C.C.F.F.R. held in Ottawa during January 7-8, 1974. Larry Coady attended the twenty-seventh annual meeting of the C.C.F.F.R. in Ottawa, January 7 and 8. Following the conference, Mr. Coady traielled to Winnipeg for discussions with personnel of the Freshwater Institute on aspects of Arctic char research in the North- west Territories. On January 11, 1974 V.R. Taylor, J.D. Pratt, R.J. Wiseman, and G. Hare of the Branch met informally with J. Pippy of the St. John's Biological Station to provide input from the Branch into a workshop being attended by Mr. Pippy on the control of fish diseases in Canada. The workshop is being held later in the month at Nanaimo, B.C. On January 14, 1974, C.A. Whalen and C. Morry met with Hal Mills and John Mercer of Inland Waters Management, and Jim Swiss of E.P.S. concerning progress on the sub-task report of the Come-by-Chance Environmental Design Criteria Study. R.J. Wiseman of the Branch, and L. Dominy of Environmental Pro- tection Service held discussions with representatives of Montreal Engineering (Consulting Services) on January 21, 1974 in Building 310, Pleasantville. The consultants are presently preparing a document for Environment Canada, Water Management Service, on Economic Damages Resulting from Pollution in Canada. They are presently seeking Branch input on the value of recreational and commercial fisheries affectd by pollution. From January 21-25, C.A. Whalen and Drs. N. Campbell and J. Kingham (F & M Service, Ottawa) met with various Provincial government departments in the Atlantic region and Quebec, concerning proposed Federal legislation on ocean dumping practices. C.A. Whalen and C. Morry attended a meeting at the Bedford Institute, Halifax, January 29-30, called for the Establishment of Deep Water Oil Port Ecological Inpact Index. Representing R.D., Halifax were W. Watt and W. White; H. Power represented F & M S Maritimes; D. Scarratt attended from F.R.B. St. Andrews, and D. Dobson represented B.I.O. R.J. Wiseman addressed a general meeting of the St. John's Rod and Gun Club, held at the National Film Board in Pleasantville on January 30, 1974. The subject of the talk concerned Branch programs in general and Metro-Area trout programs in particular. On February 1, 1974, R.J. Wiseman met with J. Pippy of the St. John's Biological Station to draft a revision of the Salmonidae Import Regulations for presentation, on behalf of the Region, to Headquarters staff, Ottawa. During the week of February 18, Don Waldron was in St. Andrews, N.B. at the Biological Station. He was conferring with the resident Biostatician, Shreedharan, concerning the use of Biostatistics in Fisheries Research. On February 26, C.A. Whalen met with Mr. J. Kirch of the con- sulting firm of R.L. Walker and Partners. The purpose of the meeting was to survey and identify specific water quality data users require- ments, to evaluate these in terms of the practical aspects of monitoring and data collection. The survey is being undertaken for the Inland Waters Directorate. Rex Porter attended a meeting with the Conservation & Protection personnel in Grand Falls on February 26 and in Corner Brook on February 27 and 28. At both meetings discussions centred around the proposed new weekly salmon angling report form, and inter-related activities for the coming field season. DEVELOPMENT GROUP January & February 1974 During January and February, the Group's activities were primarily confined to writing reports and planning for the 1974 field season. The following reports were completed: "River Investigations on the Southwest Coast of Insular Newfoundland", and "A Report of Biological Investigations at Sand Hill River, 1972". A summary of tagging data was forwarded to Dr. H. Lear. Benefit:Cost was calculated for the proposed developments of Gilbert River, White Bear River and Canairiktok River in Labrador and Terra Nova River, Torrent River and Humber River, in insular Newfoundland. The two spawning channels were periodically checked with no incuba- tion problems arising due to the annual freese-up of the rivers. Further discussions with Ottawa Headquarters and Senior Regional Personnel on the proposed commercial fishery restrictions occurred which resulted in amending the original submission. The restrictions are now proposed only for the Bay of Exploits. There was optimism that Head- quarter's approval for these restrictions would be available by early March. J.D. Pratt, Leader Development Group RECREATIONAL FISHERIES GROUP January, 1974 Lake and Reservoir Fish Stocks Management - W.J. Bruce R.F. Parsons During the month of January this Unit's activities were divided between the field and office. In the field, attempts were made to collect a winter sample of landlocked smelt at Black River Pond, near St. Catherine's, during the second week of the month. Using the prairie ice-jigger technique, smelt gill nets were set under the ice at varied depths. Although no luck was encountered at this time, plans call for attempts again within several weeks. An oxygen-temperature profile was also obtained at the time of the netting experiment. In the office work continued on the smelt data collected during 1973. Fecundity study on a sample of 100 smelt from Clarks Pond, Placentia was completed, and the average number of eggs per female was approximately 2,500. It was determined that smelt first spawn at the end of their second year of life (age 1 4), and they rarely spawn more than twice in their short life span. Age and size composition of the + samples were also analysed. The I age group constitutes between 69- + 80 percent of the samples; the II group between 18 - 27 percent; and the III age class only occlIrs infrequently, with only 5 fish of this age encountered in the whole sample. Landlocked smelt sampled ranged in length from 76 to 126 millimeters and there is no significant difference in the size or growth rate between the sexes. Also during the month considerable attention was paid to analysis of data collected on the fish populations of Jacopie Lake, Labrador. Work consisted of the completion of the scale interpreta- tion analysis done on the fish samples and the subsequent back- calculation of growth rates. Preliminary results indicate that northern pike were the fastest growing fish in the lake and they + attained greatest longevity - XIV years. Brook trout demonstrated the second fastest growth rate, followed by lake whitefish and long- nose sucker respectively. These were the only species having sufficient sample size number to calculate growth rates. Calculation of the morphometric parameters from the bathymetric map of Jacopie Lake was also started. Most of the final two weeks of the month was spent preparing a draft submission for the 103 Annual Report. Term Technician C. Walters continues to be extremely busy con- ducting repairs and maintenance to field gear at the Bishop's Falls workshop, and this work is expected to require considerable effort for the next couple of months. Sport Fishery Management (Metro-Area Lakes) - W.G. Whelan Most all activities of the Unit were confined to the office during the month, however some assistance was provided the Lake and Reservoir Fish Stock Management Unit in conducting their smelt investi- gation field work. Considerable time was spent during the month examining topo- graphic maps and determining the amount of sport fish producing water in insular Newfoundland. This data, together with a water quality atlas being produced by the Water Resources Group, should permit the production of sport fish productivity and yield matricies for any given geographic area of the Island. This data will be of immense value particularly in estimating the extent of the resource base and its economic value for the island in general and for regions or areas in particular. Analysis of data collected from Metro-area studies during 1973 continued and was particularly intensive during the latter part of the month in preparation for Annual Report write-up. Significant effort was expended in conducting a task for the Come-by-Chance Environmental Design Criteria Study. The Group was asked to prepare a brief on the existing and potential sport fish resource, and its value, in the zone of influence of the new refinery.