Community rescues stranded fish, at first to ministry’s dismay
Hundreds of carp in Pointe-Calumet liberated via common nets, garbage pails
Marc-Antoine Maillé was out fishing on the Rivière des Mille Îles Saturday morning when he received a message from a fellow fisherman — there were hundreds of carp stranded in a flooded field in Pointe-Calumet, at risk of dying as the water receded.
Equipped with a fishing net and a plastic bin, Maillé and a friend made their way over as quickly as possible, hoping to return the fish to the river. Approaching the field, they could see the fins of dozens of carp peaking out from what seemed like about a foot of water.
Around 20 minutes later, while holding a bin filled with water and containing two carp — roughly 15 and 20 pounds each — the two men were interrupted by Quebec wildlife officers.
In what Quebec’s Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks is now calling a misunderstanding, they were told to dump the fish back in the field and summoned to court to face fines for using a fishnet to capture fish, an activity that’s outlawed by the ministry. They were also told moving live fish from one body of water to another, regardless of the circumstances, is also banned.
Maillé, an avid fisherman who has a carp tattooed on his right calf, said he couldn’t believe it.
“We did it for the love of the fish,” the 21-year-old said. “We knew we couldn’t save them all but if we could save 10, 15 or 20 then it would have all been worth it.”
News of the incident spread online to different carp fishing communities. The same day, as water continued to recede in flooded areas, a similar situation was taking shape in Deux-Montagnes.
Guillaume Ouimet, who had already seen two carp swim by on 14th Ave., noticed about 50 carp stranded in a local soccer field.
When he first noticed the carp on Saturday, Ouimet said the entire park “looked like a lake.” But the water was quickly receding. He reached out to the carp fishing community online and asked for help. On Sunday morning, a handful of people — including local firemen — had gathered to capture the fish in garbage pails and drive them back to the river. The park was dry by 5 p.m.
“There was no time to wait,” Ouimet said. “Had we not acted, those fish would all be dead right now.”
Simon Gosselin, founder of the Association des carpistes du Québec, started contacting the ministry to warn officials of the situation over the weekend.
By Monday, an agreement had been worked out: the tickets handed out in Pointe-Calumet have been nullified and the ministry will allow people to rescue stranded fish without consequences for as long as the current floods continue.
“We understand they have to enforce the laws and we’re not encouraging civil disobedience,” Gosselin said, thanking the ministry for its cooperation.
In the future, Gosselin said, he hopes regulations can be established that allow more leniency during flooding season.
A spokesperson for the ministry, Jacques Nadeau, said the tickets handed out in Pointe-Calumet were a misunderstanding: an internal memo had already been sent out advising wildlife officers to show tolerance toward citizens trying to rescue fish during the floods, but the officers in question hadn’t seen it.
“We’re not recommending that people do it themselves,” Nadeau said of relocating fish, adding that he’d prefer people called the ministry to help. “But we understand everyone’s good intentions.”