The Fort Frances Times Online reported this week that a study of the sturgeon population in Quetico Provinical Park has received funding from Canada’s Ministry of Natural Resources.
The sturgeon study will join one already underway by MNR and Voyeageurs National Park in Minnesota (covered HERE by Wilderness News). Both seek to understand the current health of the sturgeon population, which was once a major food source for the First Nations in the area. The sturgeon is now considered a “species at risk” as a result of overharvesting and damming.
Staff writer Peggy Revell reports that the study will focus first on Quetico’s Sturgeon Lake. Read the full article HERE, in which Arthur Saunders, chairman of the scientific advisory committee for the Quetico Foundation, expounds upon the study and its significance in understanding the health of the region’s ecosystem and creating much needed jobs in the area, including the First Nations of Lac la Croix.