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P'AGE 24, WIIITBY FREE PRSS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1987 With services, sportfishing coutl boost Durham tourism The following is the text of a presentation to the Tourist Association of Durham Regioei (TADR) on Oct. 8 on behaif of the Port Wbitb~y Sportfishing Association. Sportfishing - is it economically worthwhile pursuing? Yes. Studies done for St. Catherines, Owen Sound, Mississauga, Scarborough and others in Ontario and for various Great Lakes municipalities along Lakes Ontario, Erie and Mfichigan in the United States during the past decade have ail reached the same conclusion - a resounding yes. There is no reason why the sportfishing tourist cannot be encouraged to,leave $20 million a year in Durham Region. To see for yourself what this industry can do for a community I suggest you go 32 miles due south to Alcott Beach. It was a stagnant backwater 10 years ago. Today it is thriving. The only difference - sportflshing on Lake Ontario. What does Durham Region need to support sportfishing9 1.-A fishable body of water: we are blessed with almost 50 miles of mainly accessible shoreline. While Lake Ontario does get rough on occasion, on most summer- days it is safe enough for 14-foot boats for a good part of the day. It does not blow up quicldy like Lake Simcoe. While there are continuing concerns about pollution, if one believes government publications, such pollution is declining and rnost species of game fish in the lake are edible. In any event, Our Min,-Statc iclevisnn antcnna looks like a iiodesct. iastcfully designed uifle fly- ing saucer. Il s only 21 " in diarneter and weighsjust 6 lk. But when il is cornparahly ~ located it perfornis as wcll as that big. cum- bersone. convcntional monster you are' used tm With is reniote tuner, you can 7cro in on precise TV recep- lion on any UIIF or VIIF channel. l'hc Mini State i% CSA approwed. It cornes comiiplete and is as ecasy tvt install as your sterco speakers We provide 60 fret of co- axial cable plus three wirc rotattor cahle, and cotnplete instructions. You can stand the Mini-State (in your rouf. attach il tu the chiminey. mount il outside ynur windvw, or suspend it front a rafler in the atie. You can even perch il atop a lagpole and you'll still get terrifie reception. l'iete iniStatc is built bo last. The entire antenna. amplifier. and the rotator ntechanisrn are conpletely encased in a durable space-age style radomie. The radomne il highly itupervious to wind, dust. vmin. ice. snow and industrial gases. The Mini-State couts $259 ...a fraction tf the arnount youu lwould espect to pay for a convenional TV antenna. Were so sure youlil bc pleased with the Mlini-State that we oFfer a 30 day ntoney-hack guarantec if yuu are not Cottpltely satisfied. Order your Mini-State today. Send $259. plus $10 for shipping and handling and 7% sales tax hy cheque. rnoney order. VISA or Matercharge. made pabale to Station Farth. RR4 Fergus, Ontario NIM 2W5. Immediate delivery. PS If y, itha laPii riffltvvt a olrn na rotr'lin gostd tssyr&tvtg contditionv, ask alsîuli our ail vint, SP2000 ...yotî nay lbc ;ila"tavlly sovpqri.sel Dealer inquiries invited. most sportflishermen keep little of Iheir catch. (How many 30-lb. salmon can you eat?). What is not kept is released to provide another fisherman's thrill. The pollution that does eit does not appear to have affected the growtb of the fish. A significant number of 30-lb. plus chinook were boated in Durham this summer. 2. - A substantial number of fish: 'God Bless America' - New York State bas been stocking from 1.5 to 3 million fish in Lake Ontario every year for at least the past 12 years. Ontario bas been throwing in a few hundred thousand or so in some of the more recent years. In addition, there is ample evidence to show that the fish themselves are reproducing. So there are plenty of fish. That's the good part. The bad part is that tbey are not always where we want them - on our doorstep. The American salmon just visit us for 10,weeks in the summer to pillage our bait fish. They have a homing instinct that keeps tbem on the south side for most of the rest of the year. We have been planting rainbow trout for years locally and have started planting brown trout. These fish currently guarantee a longer fishing. season here but it is the Icing' - the tackle mangling, beart-stopping chinook salmon - that is the main attraction. Because of it, many other Durham resident sportsfishermen became tourists in Niagara-on-the-Lake, St. Catherines, Jordan Station, Grimsby, Bronte, Wilson, Alcott, and Oak Orchard (the latter three being in New york State) in the spring and the faîl. To remedy Cross country club to meet The Pine Ridge Cross Country Ski Club, wbich includes many Whitby members, will hold a general meeting on Monday, Dec. 7, 7:3Q p.m., at the Fernbill Park clubhouse in Oshawa. The club bas about 80 members and holds weekend outings, mostly at Long Sault trails, for an annual cost of $15 per family. Members of the club will bring cameras to the Dec. 7 meeting as professional photographer Kevin Dougherty will discuss bis craft. tbis situation we need to convince the Ministiy of Lands and Forests to plant salmon in our feeder streams. It also means that we must encourage CLOCA to keep up its efforts to preserve our rivers and streams from contamination including that caused by silting from runoifs in developments along the watersbeds. Fish ladders sbould also be constructed wbere necessary. One such example is the collaboration between the ministry, the Bowmanville Creek Anglers Association and Goodyear for a ladder on Bowmanville Creek. 3. - Support services: This is the area in which we have serious shortfalls wbich must be addressed by TADR, by regional and local governments and by private enterprise. To understand the needs of the Lake Ontario sportfisberman, it is necessary to examine the where, wby, how and what of this addict. He may arrive by land or by lake. If be and bis tbree friends (fishermen generally travel in scbools), corne by land, tbey may not have a boat; tbey will ba availing themselves of one of the approximately 50 charter boat operators running out of our barbors. It is important therefore that we encourage an active charter boat operation. In planning barbor and marina activity, special attention should be paid to their needs. For example, a 10-ft. higb barbed wire topped gate blocking public access to the charter boat docks until 8 a.m. doesn't help our tourist catch bis 6 a.m. charter. At noon, ha and bis buddies are baek in with a cooler full of fisb. If they land in Alcott or in Port Credit, there is a proper place to dlean their catch. If bey land anywhere in Durham Region, they'1l get escorted off the property if they try. Summer heat and fish rernains quickly result in what bas to rank in the top ten of the world's worst smells. In Port Credit, the industrial garbage bins are replaced twice a day. In Alcott, the municipality runs wbat we feel is the ideal solution - an industrial grade garborator whicb cbews up the remains and flushes tbem immediately into the sewer - no fuss, no muss. Since this party of four caime by land, they have a vebicle a-nd can travel to restaurants aind accommodations. We need to survey the availability of accommodation. We are woefully short of hotel accommodation. inm not sure with regard to motels. In areas such as Alcott, motels advertise "Fishermen Welcome." They may put special packages together. They place ads in fishing publications. One other thing you find in Alcott is large older homes offering rooms and beds by the night. Our municipalities migbt consider a special rooming bouse designation for residences in harbor areas. Another party of tourists may corne by land but in a truck camper or R. V. There was a hundred of them in Alcott on the Labor Day weekend. Where in al Durhami Region would we put a bundred of them? We have to provide camping areas. Whitby bas plenty of room along the waterfront from the harbor to Heydenshore and inm sure space can be found in Ajax, Oshawa and Bowrnanville. Many others will corne traileririg their boats behind them. We already regularly see people wbo are trailering down from Orillia, Peterborough, Ottawa, and Belleville. In addition to the support services we have already mentioned, this group of tourists need launching ramps and dock space. Wayne County on the southern shore boasts that there are public launch facilities at no more than every five miles along its lakefront. How many do we bave? The launcb facilities I have seen are well constructed and maintained. The family sedan bas no problem pulling a 25-foot cruiser out. On that Labor Day weekend that I was last in Alcott, the public municipal marina launched over 350 boats on Sunday. Can y ou imagine trying to launch S50 boats at Whitby in a single morning? How about the whole of the Region? Alcott bas double wide launch ramps and park personnel to keep traffic moving. The only similar operation rve seen in Ontario is at Scarborough's Bluffers Park. Take a look at it. These numbers, of course, require large parking areas for the tourist's vehicles and trailers. The other requirement which is common to this group of tourists, as well as those who arrive by water, is dock space. Alcott has a problemn in this regard and a petition is circulating advocating the construction of a breakwater out into the lake to the east of the harbor entrance. This breakwater would enclose several bundred new slips. I noted a similar proposai. for an area west of Lakeview Park in Oshawa, in a recent study. The same could be done at Ajax, Whitby currently bas plenty of roomn for expansion within the barbor but, if necessary, in the future the area immediately to the west of the breakwater could easily be enclosed. Those arriving by boat need easy access to restaurants and otber facilities as they have no vehicles at their disposaI . There is currently very little dockage and facilities for the transient boater at the marinas in Durham Region. To sum up then, for a successfuil sportfishery, we need to: 1. ensure the water qualty of the lake and its feeder streams is ehanced; 2. encourage the stocking of SEE PAGE 27 Or RR 4. FERGUS. ONT N1M 2W5 PHONE (519) THE.DISH