Fish communities in the Far North of Ontario are among the most unaltered in North America and their habitat is, for the most part, still pristine. Subsistence, commercial, and recreational fisheries are known to exert considerable exploitation pressure, but these situations are generally quite localized, often adjacent to First Nation communities. Waterbodies across vast portions of the region are lightly fished, if at all.

We chose not to repeat the work of Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (Brown 2007), but to build on it. Our primary goal was to provide a current and comprehensive state of knowledge report regarding the aquatic resources of the entire Far North planning area.

The report is organized into the following sections: 
1. The aquatic landscape: its climate, its ecozones, and its drainage systems.
2. Inventory, assessment and knowledge: previous work and the types of data collected.
3. Fish communities: species occurrence and distribution.
4. Users of the resource: who harvests the f fish are and how much do they take.
5. Threats to aquatic ecosystems: overfishing, invasive species and habitat alterations.
6. Information needs and recommendations: what we need to know to better manage.

Appendices to the report include maps of fish species distribution along with data tables containing historic fish collection records, Patricia Inventory catch data, aquatic habitat inventory data, commercial fishery quota information and locations of tourist facilities.

Collaborators and Participants:
Northern Bioscience
OMNR Northeast Science and Information

Links: Far North Ontario