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Marsh boardwalk at Point Pelee National Park, Lake Erie. |
At the southern tip of Ontario, you’ll find Lake Erie, the shallowest and smallest (by volume) of our Great Lakes. But don’t let its size fool you—Lake Erie is more productive than any of the other Great Lakes, by far.
Between Lake Huron and Lake Erie lies Lake St. Clair. This shallow lake is part of the Great Lakes system, but is not considered one of the "Great Lakes". At the northeast corner, where Lake St. Clair meets the St. Clair River, is a broad river delta, the largest within the Great Lakes system and home to Walpole Island First Nation.
About 12 million people, Canadian and American, live within the Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair basins, in one of the nine major metropolitan centres or in the many surrounding farming towns and hamlets. With only one large urban centre — Windsor — on the Canadian side, the character of "our" Lake Erie is shaped by its many smaller lakeside and fishing communities, such as Kingsville, Leamington, Port Stanley, Port Dover and Port Colborne.
In any given year, Lake Erie's commercial fishing industry counts for about 80 per cent of the total value of Ontario's Great Lakes commercial fishery. Most of the fish are caught in the western and central parts of the Lake area and processed in Wheatley Harbour and Kingsville. More than 10,000 metric tonnes (22 million pounds) of high quality fish — especially yellow perch and walleye — are shipped to markets in Ontario, the U.S. and Europe each year.
Of all the Great Lakes, Lake Erie faces some of the greatest pressures, from human activity and from aquatic invading species, which can alter or destroy habitat and have a negative effect on fish health and abundance. In the 1960s, in fact, Lake Erie's water quality problems — fouled shorelines, rotting algae, dying fish — sparked an environmental movement that led to the signing of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the U.S., in 1972.
The agreement has results. Lake Erie is much healthier today than it was then. The water quality has improved and now supports a wide variety of economically important fish species and other aquatic life.
Photography
Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation
fish community objectives, environmental objectives, state of the lake report, Lake Erie Committee
