A controversial program to use a pesticide to get rid of invasive smallmouth bass in New Brunswick’s Miramichi watershed is being abandoned.
A group working to eradicate the non-native species says it has stopped its rotenone program after its members weren’t able to convince the provincial government to take the lead in the project.
The group says a rotenone treatment in Lake Brook and a section of the Southwest Miramichi River in September 2022 killed hundreds of fish, including 514 salmon and 32 smallmouth bass.
Group spokesman Neville Crabbe, of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, says the results showed the presence of smallmouth bass across the area, adding that more salmon were killed because they are more established than the invasive species.
The group, composed of Indigenous and non-governmental organizations, had been trying to use rotenone in nearby Miramichi Lake since the summer of 2021.
However, their efforts were blocked by some Wolastoqey women who protested by paddling on the lake, and by a group of cottagers who took legal action.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2023.
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