Major die-off of alewives in Quebec

[Wallyandre (Andre)]

They are thousands of alewives floating in Mississiquoi Bay.
Cold water is probably the cause.

http://www.lapresse.ca/environnement/20 ... psburg.php

[Matt]

Like mini versions of salmon on the Salmon River in October!

[digitroll (ron)]

Very interesting stuff Andre. Thanks for letting us know south of the border. Those are big alewives!

[raz]

They say

"The recent spread TFM in Lake Champlain by U.S. authorities, however, could have played a role"

I seriously doubt that.

[Wallyandre (Andre)]

I clarified that statement!

[Matt]

Very interesting stuff Andre. Thanks for letting us know south of the border. Those are big alewives!

Last year in the Colchester area during the die-off I was seeing monstrous alewives floating under the ice. Some were I'd say around 10-12". Can't imagine there wasn't a huge feeding frenzy when they began to die.

[Reelax]

Are the older alwives more icline to die during a temp change? Seem like these are mostly big alwives.

[fishhuntadventure]

Are the older alwives more icline to die during a temp change? Seem like these are mostly big alwives.

OK - the die-off actually occurred in December probably due to a temp change. These alewives were unable to escape it quick enough in the shallow area they were in- and alewives are not temp change tolerant as we know.

The biologists say that these dead alewives were showing up due to ice breaking up under the strong south winds over an extended period that were recorded just before this report. What couldn't be seen is now visible according to one biologist I talked with.

To report something without all the facts and then point at TFM application is a pretty bozo political miscue IMHO. (I meant the reporters, not andre)

The most likely explanation of the size is that this is mostly single spawn generation. Different age alewives have varying typical behaviors to a point. All these big ones probably just happened to have done all the same things at the same time and place and thereby got caught in a relatively shallow bay area all together and were killed before an escape was made.

[Wallyandre (Andre)]

To report something without all the facts and then point at TFM application is a pretty bozo political miscue IMHO. (I meant the reporters, not andre)

That's what I point to the journalist that wrote the article