Catch & Release on the Humber River

Nov. 23, 2020

Any given day, there are a number of anglers fishing on the Humber. One of them, who has been fishing for 5 years, says that the river quality is improving and, with it, the fish population. Besides salmon in the fall there is pike, trout, catfish and perch. Apparently, there is now less pollution and fertilizer runoff from farms and golf courses.

In early September, the TRCA Toronto and Region Conservation Authority set up nets in the Humber to monitor the fish population.https://data.trca.ca/dataset/trca-waterfront-fish-data.

Obviously, the increase in wildlife is commensurate with the fish population. In 1997, salmon were seeded for the first time in a long time in the Humber and there is now a large population with the annual salmon run in the fall. While called the Atlantic salmon, they never reach the Atlantic, but stay in Lake Ontario for the 4 year lifecycle.

While the river is muddy most of the spring and summer and one cannot see the bottom, there was more transparency last month to even show the decaying salmon that did not make it all the way to the spawning ground upstream.