BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Drone could soon be picking up debris off Lake Simcoe's surface,' published Sept. 15.
I just read your article on the water surface drones used around Barrie.
I hate being a wet blanket, especially when this is an obvious step toward trying to do the right thing.
However, as a fisheries biologist who has worked on Lake Simcoe, I hope the operators understand they could suck up larval whitefish and larval lake trout if they do this in the spring when these species hatch out.
There may be other species at other times this might impact as well.
I would hope Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources staff at the Lake Simcoe Fisheries Assessment Unit could be consulted on this before the drone becomes an accidental larval trawl.
Pam Fulford
Wyevale
