Environmentalists and the federal government are trying to figure out why hundreds of fish turned up dead in a section of the Saint-Lawrence River near Montreal.
A local organization called La Vigile Verte says water levels in the La Prairie Bassin between Montreal and Brossard suddenly dropped lower than they’ve seen in decades, leaving countless marine animals high and dry.
A few weeks ago Vigile Verte director Gina Philie was walking the shores of river looking for trash to pick up when she says she had a terrible realization. She was stepping on hundreds of dead fish.
“There were big fish, little fish, all kinds of different varieties were dead,” she told Global News. “I said to myself, ‘It’s not normal that there are so many dead animals on the shore.'”
After some steady rain, the water is higher now. Standing on the shore, Philie says says that day it was so low she could have walked to an island a few hundred meters away that she’d usually need to swim to.
“There was no water at all here,” she pointed.
Dr. Philippe Blais, a biologist and founder of Vigile Verte, called the situation “completely abnormal.”
He said many fish got caught out of the water, both in the La Prairie Basin and in other nearby bodies of water.
He believes waste and a lack of oxygen in the water could have also contributed to the deaths. Some also got stuck in small pools.
“A few weeks back it was like minus ten, (the water) froze over, so any fish that might have made it into these little pools probably died there,” he said.
Other creatures like crustaceans, mussels, insects and turtles were left totally exposed.
“There’s a massacre every year,” said Blais. “This is not normal.”
According to Blais, die-offs are an annual occurrence.
The scientist says the Saint-Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation lowers the water at the Côte Ste Catherine Lock during the winter months. He accused them of lowering it even more this year.
“We’d like to know exactly what the reason is for doing so,” he said.
The Seaway Authority says it controls water levels during the winter period of non-navigation for infrastructure maintenance purposes.
“We can remind ourselves that we had the warmest year on record in North America,” said St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation external relations vice president Jean Aubry-Morin.
“Reduced ice cover, water evaporation from the basin related to warmer weather conditions combined with the other factors related to climate change would all have contributed to the observed situation,” Aubry-Morin added.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) told Global News in a statement it received a report about the low waters and dead fish on March 1st.
“DFO will be in contact with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation for further information,” said Fisheries and Oceans Canada spokesperson Tomie White.
The environmentalists say they hope the DFO conducts a meaningful investigation into the issue so it can be prevented in the future.
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