Latest News

Are you interested in Lake Huron and its water quality? Do you want to know what is happening to protect this beautiful and unique ecosystem and what you can do to help? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you may want to check out the 2022-2026 Draft Lake Huron Lakewide Action and ...

MODIS satellite image from February 12th, 2023 showing below-average ice cover for this time of year on the Great Lakes. Credit: NOAA GLERL / NOAA Great Lakes CoastWatch Node. What a weird winter! This is something you have probably heard said a few times over the past few months. Large fluctuations in air temperatures, severe lake ...

Ontario’s catch-and-release regulations may be changing! A bulletin posted on February 17, 2023 on the Environmental Registry of Ontario introduces proposed changes to the Ontario Fishery Regulations, 2007, an annex of the Fisheries Act. These changes would allow anglers more leeway in photographing, measuring, and weighing their catch before releasing it. What are the current regulations? Under ...

Birds, bats, and insects present unique challenges for researchers due to their ability to travel long distances at heights that make them difficult to detect. So how are researchers able to determine if an individual observed in Canada one summer is the same as the one observed in Mexico the following winter? Although there are ...

While the snow continues to fall in the biosphere region, many of us find ourselves dreaming about summer days spent on the water. For some, this time on the water means getting out to the best fishing spot early in the morning, for others it’s taking the kids out for an afternoon tube or ski, ...

Ever since the 1950s, Canadians have been applying 5-7 million tonnes of salt every winter to make our roads, parking lots, driveways, and other public areas safer for cars and pedestrians. When the snow begins to melt and the rain falls, all that salt leaches into the soil or washes into waterways and accumulates in ...

Amphibians – like other cold-blooded animals – endure the harshest winter conditions without an internal source of body heat. They have evolved some extraordinary mechanisms to survive. Amphibians brumate over the winter months. Similar to hibernation, brumating animals slow their metabolism and allow their body temperature to drop. Although the Biosphere’s amphibians all face similar ...

We’ve learned about invasive zebra and quagga mussels in the biosphere before (see Zebra and Quagga Mussels: Georgian Bay’s Filter-Feeding Invaders). Now the question is, what is being done to control them? Zebra and quagga mussels belong to the genus Dreissena and are collectively referred to as Dreissenids. While they first arrived in the Great Lakes ...

The State of the Great Lakes 2022 report, jointly prepared by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, is now available! The report provides a comprehensive update on how each of the five lakes is addressing current and emerging water quality and ecosystem challenges. Readers can flip through the highlights ...

You see them everywhere. Dragonflies landing on fingers, mosquitoes buzzing in ears, moths swarming porch lights, and beetles crawling up legs. You can’t step foot anywhere in the Georgian Bay Biosphere during the summer without seeing or hearing an insect. What may surprise you is that this is also true for the water! Every time ...

Gardeners, hunters, and anglers alike know that there is something special about eating food that you have harvested yourself. Knowing where your food comes from, and being a part of the process of getting it to the table can be a rewarding experience that deeply connects you to your environment. Freshly caught Ontario sportfish can be ...

Canada is home to a unique variety of species, over 9,000 of which are species of beetles. The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) is an invasive beetle with a growing population in Ontario, including the Georgian Bay Biosphere region. Originating in Asia, this beetle likely made its way to North America in wood packaging or ...

You never forget a great fireworks display. You might have been quite young, sitting on the shoulders of a loved one, looking up towards the stars, and then suddenly those stars were gone, replaced by bright lights and brilliant colours. As summer in the biosphere unfolds, plans are being made for summer celebrations. This may ...

Fishing topwater as the sun comes up. Casting toward a weed line, anticipating a big hit. Jigging in your favourite (top secret) fishing hole until there’s barely enough light left to see the tip of your rod. Just thinking about these kinds of moments makes anglers giddy with excitement, eager for the open water season. The ...

The last two articles shared the importance of biodiversity and how selecting native plants can enhance biodiversity on one’s property. We hope we have inspired individuals and families in the biosphere region to rethink their garden and landscaping choices with native plants and wildlife in mind. But let’s face it, not everyone has the time, ...

Last month, in Homegrown Biodiversity: It’s Time to Get Growing!, we talked about how important native plants are for supporting biodiversity and healthy food webs. By planting or encouraging the growth of native plants to attract local insects and birds, you can help play an important role in maintaining local ecosystems. Choosing native plants that ...

As we continue to hear news stories about species extinctions and habitat loss around the world, it can be tempting to throw up our hands and claim that there’s no way any one individual can make a difference. But that’s simply, and fortunately, not true. If you have access to, or care for, land that can ...

It is impossible to overstate the importance of phosphorus in the aquatic food web, as it forms the foundation of life in these waters. Everything from the tiniest phytoplankton all the way up to top predators like lake trout and loons rely on phosphorus. You may have heard the terms “nutrient-rich” and “nutrient-poor”. In the context ...

Clusters of a sticky zooplankton (Holopedium glacialis) are crowding out a previously abundant and ecologically important species (Daphnia spp.) in many Ontario inland lakes. The name for this phenomenon is “jellification,” and it’s an apt description for the masses of clear jelly spheres afloat in many provincial waters. To be clear, Holopedium is not an intruder; it’s ...

The Parry Sound 33 (PS33) wildfire burned over 11,000 hectares of the eastern Georgian Bay landscape between mid July and the end of October 2018. In the years since the fire, researchers from the McMaster University Ecohydrology Lab have been measuring burn severity and tracking ecosystem recovery at several sites in the Georgian Bay Biosphere, including ...

Think of the last time you went for a swim. Before walking away from the shore, you probably gathered up all your things: your towel, sandals, sunglasses, hat, sunscreen, and perhaps a book or magazine. Yet despite your careful attention there was still something you left behind. Did you know you left some of your ...

Georgian Bay and the surrounding inland lakes and rivers are full of wonderful surprises. Every summer we receive emails from residents and visitors with questions about the interesting things they see in the water. For this month’s blog post, we have compiled a list of some of the water wonders that we are most commonly ...

Here at the Biosphere, we love hearing uplifting stories about sightings of species at risk! Lots of Biosphere residents see turtles on a regular basis during the summer months. There are six species of turtles found in the Georgian Bay Biosphere. Sadly, all six species are listed as “species at risk” by the Federal Species at ...

Georgian Bay is well known for producing trophy-sized fish, but the smaller inhabitants of the waters are often overlooked. Zooplankton are small aquatic animals that make up part of what is referred to as the lower food web of Georgian Bay. This month we take a closer look at one zooplankton in particular, the spiny ...

If you have been outside recently exploring the trails in your area or just getting out in your yard, you have probably encountered numerous caterpillars and their handiwork. These are LDD caterpillars, also called gypsy moth caterpillars. LDD moth caterpillars defoliating trees The LDD moth (whose acronym arises from its Latin name Lymantria dispar dispar) originates in ...

With air temperatures on the rise, it won’t be long before maple sap isn’t the only thing running. Each spring, as the ice on our lakes and rivers goes out, a number of fish species begin their spawning runs. Many people in the region are familiar with the spawning runs of rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) ...

Whether you skate on it, ice fish through it, or you simply take in its sights and sounds, ice is worth celebrating. For those who live in the Georgian Bay Biosphere, ice cover is important to our economy, recreation, as well as to native species and their habitats. But what happens if we start to ...

Have you ever wondered how far a lake sturgeon travels in a year? Where lake trout spend their winters? Or where lake whitefish go to spawn? If you have, you are not alone. Researchers across the Great Lakes basin have been asking similar questions for decades. More recently, they have had the help of some ...

Last month we introduced you to lake sturgeon, the gentle giants of the Great Lakes. Although they have been around for a long time (think more than 200 million years!), there is still a lot to be learned about lake sturgeon habitat preferences, movements, behaviour, and much more. This month we’ll explore some examples of ...

If you have been lucky enough to see a lake sturgeon in the flesh, you have had the privilege of laying eyes on Ontario’s largest and longest-lived freshwater fish. These gentle giants were once abundant in the Great Lakes. Today, their populations are only a fraction of what they used to be. In fact, the ...

Most of us have heard of the Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus). Some of us might also know it’s an invasive species. Beyond that, however, your knowledge of the Round Goby may be a little like your knowledge of quarks: they’re something you’ve heard of, you know they’re important, but you couldn’t write more than a ...

Whether you are an avid hiker or just enjoy getting outdoors for some fresh air every now and then, you have probably been advised to “do a tick check” after spending time outdoors. Chances are you have a general idea of what ticks are and why you wouldn’t want any on your body, but in ...

Imagine: it’s a beautiful sunny day to go boating. You hop in, start the engine, and begin cruising through the still water. Suddenly, large, thrashing silver fish are throwing themselves from the water. Fish are flying everywhere! They land in your boat, flop madly around and turn a relaxing ride into a dangerous situation for ...

One of the most efficient marine predators is found right here in the Georgian Bay Biosphere region, as well as in lakes and waterways across Ontario. This animal has eyes perfectly developed for seeing its prey underwater. Unlike our human eyes, which have inflexible lenses that simply cannot change shape well enough to make a ...

Using fire as land management has been a practice for many Indigenous groups across the world. The Anishinaabe use fire (shkode) as a way of influencing the land and restoring ecosystems. Blueberries and other species thrive after fire burns competing vegetation and releases nutrients, creating better growing conditions and abundant harvests.  However, there has been a ...

Zebra and quagga mussels can seem less like an invasive species and more like an invasive surface. The two mussels, sometimes collectively referred to as dreissenid mussels, are famous for coating lake bottoms, rocks, docks, and boats in sharp, pointed clusters. In this blog post, we’re taking a closer look at zebra and quagga mussels, ...

When we think of invasive species in the Great Lakes basin, aquatic animals often jump to mind: zebra mussels coating a lake bottom, sea lamprey boring holes in fish, Asian carp leaping out of the water in droves as boats travel through waterways. Invasive plant species, however, can be just as impactful on ecosystems as ...

On November 19, 2019 GBBR held its first State of the Bay Conference at the Charles W. Stockey Centre in Parry Sound. Approximately 100 people were in attendance to hear about the latest research and monitoring findings on water quality, the lower food web, and fish communities. Attendees heard from knowledgeable presenters representing various government ...

In last month’s blog post, we dove into how the invasive sea lamprey entered the Great Lakes System, and the catastrophic effect they had on fish populations. While we touched on how rigorous control methods have reduced sea lamprey populations by up to 90 percent, going into exactly how sea lamprey control is done is ...

In 1919, improvements were made to the Welland Canal, a waterway that connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The improvements widened the canal and allowed large ships to travel between the two; a feat that until then had been made impossible by Niagara Falls. With an effective connection between Lake Ontario and the rest of ...

The Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve invites you to attend the State of the Bay Conference being held on November 19, 2019 at the Charles W. Stockey Centre in Parry Sound! This conference presents the latest research and monitoring findings on water quality, lower food web, and fish communities. The objectives of the conference are to inform ...

We are currently in a climate crisis. The world’s leading scientists have determined that greenhouse gases from human activity are causing the global climate to change and environmental changes are evident all the way to the local level. More on this at: https://www.stateofthebay.ca/the-ripple-effects-of-climate-change/ While the environmental issues caused by a changing climate are of great concern, ...

We all know what algae is. We see it every summer in our lakes and rivers, whether it be as floating mats, delicate strands, or something to slip on getting into the water. Algae may seem like a nuisance to some, but these microorganisms are vitally important. They are at the base of our food ...

Last summer the Parry Sound 33 (PS33) forest fire swept the northern coast of the biosphere region, starting at Henvey Inlet First Nation and spreading to surrounding areas. Reaching almost 12,000 hectares, it was a force that left people worried for not only their homes, but for the plants and animals that also inhabit those ...

Algae is a summer constant, and a constant source of worry for many cottagers. The presence of algae in the Georgian Bay area is often seen as a sign that something is wrong. Whether it be a faulty septic system, or phosphorus pollution, people worry that the algae they are seeing are the result of ...

You’ve probably heard of the legacy of DDT and its effects on species such as the bald eagle. When this chemical was being produced and actively used in the mid 1900s, the eagles were poisoned when they consumed the contaminated fish. In turn, this chemical interfered with the birds’ ability to produce strong eggshells. As a result, their eggs had ...

When salt from our roads makes its way into the Bay or inland lakes, the salt dissolves into two separate ions – sodium and chloride. Chloride is a greater threat to aquatic ecosystem health.

With our cold Northern Ontario winters comes icy roads and consequently, road salt. Trucks travel up and down the highways spitting out these pellets of sodium and magnesium chloride hoping to melt some of the ice build-up. But what are the effects of this salty solution on our ecosystems? Are there any alternatives?

The world’s leading scientists have stated that humans are causing the climate to change. By increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, we have raised the global temperature by 1°C since the industrial revolution. The new IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report released earlier this year urges us to keep global warming ...

Georgian Bay is a nearly 15,000 square kilometers, making it almost the same size of Lake Ontario! Consequently, it is hard to study the Bay as one whole body of water. To understand water quality we use two regions of focus: the nearshore and the offshore.