Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg calls for safe passage for American eels on the Ottawa River

A western Quebec First Nation is urging the provincial and federal governments to protect American eels from dangerous practices at dams in the upper St. Lawrence River watershed that have severely curtailed their population.

Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg (KZA) wants safety improvements to start at the Carillon Generating Station — a dam on the Ottawa River east of Hawkesbury, Ont., near the Ontario-Quebec border — which is in the midst of a refurbishment project.

KZA's band council passed a resolution on Nov. 26 calling on the CAQ government and Fisheries and Oceans Canada to take action there and to give American eels protected status.

"We're losing a little bit of who we are," said former chief Gilbert Whiteduck in a French-language interview with Radio-Canada.

The American eel, Whiteduck said, is a sacred fish with "spiritual significance for us."

"We want our population, which continues to grow, to also go back to [catching] the eel, to use it as food and medicine ... to remake that connection."

99 percent fewer American eels

Nicolas Lapointe, senior conservation biologist for freshwater ecology at the Canadian Wildlife Federation, explained that American eels are migratory and that moving between fresh water and salt water is essential for their life cycle.

But dams and other human-made barriers have devastating consequences, he said, noting that dam turbines can kill 20 to 50 per cent of eels that try to migrate past them.

Hydro-Québec told Radio-Canada in a statement that it transfers 400 eels upstream annually past the Carillon Generating Station.

But Lapointe doesn't think that's enough. Larissa Holman, science and policy director for the Ottawa Riverkeeper, agrees. 

"We've seen a reduction of 99 per cent of the population," said Holman, noting that eels once made up 50 per cent of the Ottawa River's fish biomass. "[It's] so problematic in terms of biodiversity protection."

Further biodiversity loss is what KZA's band council is trying to prevent, said Patrick Gravel, a biodiversity consultant for its environmental protection project Kidjīmāninān.

Gravel described it as a "one minute to midnight" situation.

WATCH | Ottawa Riverkeeper pushed in 2021 to restore the American eel population:

Conservation group aims to restore eel population in Ottawa River

3 years ago

Duration 0:56

Matthew Brocklehurst, communications director for the Ottawa Riverkeeper, says the American eel population in the Ottawa River has declined by over 99 per cent, a blow to the area’s biodiversity.

Deaths are preventable

Experts say eel deaths are preventable, as special turbines can be installed which are safer for fish to swim through — as well as "fish ladders," which allow them to bypass dams altogether.

The KZA's resolution said these steps should be taken at the Carillon Generating Station as part of its refurbishment.

It argues that endangering the American eel — and moving forward at the dam without consulting KZA — goes against Algonquins' legal rights to harvest the species and to participate in government decisions that affect them.

"We're not talking about removing a dam, but putting in different turbines that will have less impact," Whiteduck said.

Hydro-Québec 'evaluating possible solutions'

Hydro-Québec told Radio-Canada in a written statement it is "aware of the concerns.".

It wrote that it is "evaluating possible solutions with [its] partners" and will "evaluate the measures to be implemented to better address the community's concerns."

The Ministry of the Environment told Radio-Canada that the American eel is on the list of species likely to be designated as threatened or vulnerable, and its status was evaluated in the past year and a half.

The ministry said while it found the American eel's population did drop significantly between 1990 and 2010, it believes the situation is stable and no further decline is expected.

It said it is continuously monitoring the situation.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not respond to Radio-Canada's request for comment by deadline.

Read the resolution