The 2015 Ontario Fishing Regulations have been released by the MNR

[OldTimer]

Here:

A few changes.........

https://www.ontario.ca/travel-and-recrea...ns-summary

Cheers,

OldTimer

[Fossil Fish]

As I was bored at work this morning, I looked over the regs. Can someone please explain to me why, in Zone 8, there is an open season on sturgeon but for both sport and conservation licenses, the possession limit is 0. Kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it, or does it mean you're allowed to target them, but they must be released immediately if caught?

[Eli]

(01-08-2015 01:59 PM)Fossil Fish Wrote:  As I was bored at work this morning, I looked over the regs. Can someone please explain to me why, in Zone 8, there is an open season on sturgeon but for both sport and conservation licenses, the possession limit is 0. Kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it, or does it mean you're allowed to target them, but they must be released immediately if caught?

That is exactly what it means.

[OldTimer]

(01-08-2015 02:37 PM)Eli Wrote:  

(01-08-2015 01:59 PM)Fossil Fish Wrote:  As I was bored at work this morning, I looked over the regs. Can someone please explain to me why, in Zone 8, there is an open season on sturgeon but for both sport and conservation licenses, the possession limit is 0. Kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it, or does it mean you're allowed to target them, but they must be released immediately if caught?

That is exactly what it means.

Yep.

The conservation licence in the local Zone 16 is the same situation re: musky..... its open - but zero possession limit on a conservation level licence.

[tweedwolfscream]

Yep, same is true for muskie and atlantic salmon on a conservation license in most of the province I believe. There are also individual local waters where certain trout species, or in a few cases walleye, have a 0/0 limit but still have a season. It means C&R only during the open season, don't even target them the rest of the year.

In the case of sturgeon, the reason for the geographic differences is that the Northwestern Ontario and Great Lakes (ie watershed) populations of lake sturgeon are classified as an endangered species, while the Hudson Bay population is not endangered but is still too rare to sustain a harvest. The endangered populations must be protected from all threats, which includes deliberate fishing even if it's C&R, so their season is closed year round throughout the Great Lakes watershed and northwestern Ontario.

[Eli]

Am I the only one disappointed with the lame-ass design (lack thereof) of the 2015 outdoor card?...and the random $2 fee that they decided to tack on to license renewal.
Ontario is insane. No other province, territory, or state that I've fished in requires you to have an outdoor card and a separate ticket thing which passes as your license.

[tweedwolfscream]

(01-09-2015 06:04 PM)Eli Wrote:  Am I the only one disappointed with the lame-ass design (lack thereof) of the 2015 outdoor card?...and the random $2 fee that they decided to tack on to license renewal.
Ontario is insane. No other province, territory, or state that I've fished in requires you to have an outdoor card and a separate ticket thing which passes as your license.

The new non-decorative cards have been in place since the new system was set up through the American company (the same system that issues licenses as yellow slips instead of stickers), so it's been a couple of years already. Guess this is the first time since then you've had to renew.

Personally I don't understand why going to the new system means abolishing the pictures on the cards. After all the card design is still customized for Ontario.

But you're definitely not the only one, people have been complaining about the new cards eagerly since they were implemented. Personally I don't care what the card looks like since it lives in my wallet, not in a frame on the mantle... there are other things I don't like about the new system, like the paper slips instead of stickers (not an issue if you renew your fishing/small game license for 3 years with your outdoors card renewal).

The other day I had to phone in an address change for an outdoors card. You used to be able to do this online with your drivers license and health card address update, but now with the new system you can only do it by phone for the outdoors card. So I called and I had to sit on the phone listening to a long recording explaining and justifying the $2 fee, even though I wasn't even calling to do anything that would require the fee. So those wasted minutes listening to that rant are my top complaint with both the new system and the fee.

[OldTimer]

With our technology - I'm still puzzled why we need so many "Ontario" cards (drivers, health, outdoors). One would suit me just fine.

Same goes for debit and credit cards from same bank........... why?

.......... and .... why do they need to be embossed?

I'm for anything that would reduce the clutter in my wallet and lighten the load,.........................

I could really care less what they look like. Perhaps plain might be cheaper?

Plus - sending jobs south of the border should upset all.

Rant complete.

smile.......

Cheers,

OldTimer

[MuskieBait]

Agreed OT. Too many cards that technology should address in very simple ways...

[zippyFX]

Privacy legislation is the likley driver for each provincial/national identification at this time. Nothing is technologically speaking is preventing a single card for multiple purposes.