Recovery Strategy for the Eastern Sand Darter (Ammocrypta pellucida) in Canada: Ontario Populations 2012


Eastern Sand Darter

(PROPOSED)

2012

What is the Species at Risk Act (SARA)?
SARA is the Act developed by the federal government as a key contribution to the common national effort to protect and conserve species at risk in Canada. SARA came into force in 2003 and one of its purposes is “to provide for the recovery of wildlife species that are extirpated, endangered or threatened as a result of human activity.”

What is recovery?
In the context of species at risk conservation, recovery is the process by which the decline of an endangered, threatened, or extirpated species is arrested or reversed and threats are removed or reduced to improve the likelihood of the species' persistence in the wild. A species will be considered recovered when its long-term persistence in the wild has been secured.

What is a recovery strategy?
A recovery strategy is a planning document that identifies what needs to be done to arrest or reverse the decline of a species. It sets goals and objectives and identifies the main areas of activities to be undertaken. Detailed planning is done at the action plan stage.

Recovery strategy development is a commitment of all provinces and territories and of three federal agencies — Environment Canada, Parks Canada Agency, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) — under the Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk. Sections 37–46 of the Species at Risk Act (SARA) outline both the required content and the process for developing recovery strategies published in this series.

Depending on the status of the species and when it was assessed, a recovery strategy has to be developed within one to two years after the species is added to the List of Wildlife Species at Risk. Three to four years is allowed for those species that were automatically listed when SARA came into force.

What's next?
In most cases, one or more action plans will be developed to define and guide implementation of the recovery strategy. Nevertheless, directions set in the recovery strategy are sufficient to begin involving communities, land users, and conservationists in recovery implementation. Cost-effective measures to prevent the reduction or loss of the species should not be postponed for lack of full scientific certainty.

The series
This series presents the recovery strategies prepared or adopted by the federal government under SARA. New documents will be added regularly as species get listed and as strategies are updated.

To learn more
To learn more about the Species at Risk Act and recovery initiatives, please consult the SARA Public Registry.

Recommended citation:
Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 2012. Recovery strategy for the Eastern Sand Darter (Ammocrypta pellucida) in Canada: Ontario Populations. Species at Risk Act Recovery Strategy Series, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ottawa. vii + 56 pp.

Additional copies:
You can download additional copies from the SARA Public Registry

Cover illustration: Alan Dextrase, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

Également disponible en français sous le titre : «Programme de rétablissement du dard de sable (Ammocrypta pellucida) au Canada [proposition] : populations de l'Ontario»

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, 2012. All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-1-100-19673-2
Cat. no. En3-4/122-2011E-PDF

Content (excluding the cover illustration) may be used without permission, with appropriate credit to the source.

A proposed recovery strategy for this species was posted on the SARA Public Registry in July 2007, but did not include the identification of critical habitat; the current document includes critical habitat identification to the extent possible based on the best available information. Additionally, COSEWIC has determined the Ontario and Quebec populations to be separate Designatable Units. Due to the differences between the Designatable Units, each will have a separate recovery strategy.

The Eastern Sand Darter is a freshwater fish and is under the responsibility of the federal government. The Species at Risk Act (SARA, Section 37) requires the competent minister to prepare recovery strategies for listed Extirpated, Endangered and Threatened species. The Eastern Sand Darter was listed as Threatened under SARA in June 2003. The development of this recovery strategy was led by Fisheries and Oceans Canada – Central and Arctic region, in cooperation and consultation with many individuals, organizations and government agencies, as indicated below. The strategy meets SARA requirements in terms of content and process (Sections 39-41).

Success in the recovery of this species depends on the commitment and cooperation of many different constituencies that will be involved in implementing the directions set out in this strategy and will not be achieved by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, or any other party, alone. This strategy provides advice to jurisdictions and organizations that may be involved, or wish to become involved, in the recovery of the species. In the spirit of the National Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans invites all responsible jurisdictions and Canadians to join Fisheries and Oceans Canada in supporting and implementing this strategy for the benefit of the Eastern Sand Darter and Canadian society as a whole. Fisheries and Oceans Canada will support implementation of this strategy to the extent possible, given available resources and its overall responsibility for species at risk conservation.

The goals, objectives and recovery approaches identified in the strategy are based on the best existing knowledge and are subject to modifications resulting from new information. The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans will report on progress within 5 years.

This strategy will be complemented by one or more action plans that will provide details on specific recovery measures to be taken to support conservation of the species. The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans will take steps to ensure that, to the extent possible, Canadians interested in or affected by these measures will be consulted.

Under the Species at Risk Act, the responsible jurisdiction for Eastern Sand Darter is Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). The Ontario government and Environment Canada (Canadian Wildlife Service) also cooperated in the production of this recovery strategy.

This document was prepared by Amy Boyko (DFO), Becky Cudmore (DFO) and Andrea Doherty (DFO) on behalf of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada would like to thank the following organizations for their support in the development of the Eastern Sand Darter Ontario population recovery strategy: Ontario Freshwater Fish Recovery Team, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, St. Clair Region Conservation Authority, Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority, Grand River Conservation Authority, University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto.

Maps were developed by Carolyn Bakelaar (DFO), Alan Dextrase (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources [OMNR]), Shady Abbas (DFO) and Andrew Doolittle (DFO).

In accordance with the Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals, the purpose of a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is to incorporate environmental considerations into the development of public policies, plans, and program proposals to support environmentally-sound decision making.

Recovery planning is intended to benefit species at risk and biodiversity in general. However, it is recognized that strategies may also inadvertently lead to environmental effects beyond the intended benefits. The planning process based on national guidelines directly incorporates consideration of all environmental effects, with a particular focus on possible impacts on non-target species or habitats.

This recovery strategy will clearly benefit the environment by promoting the recovery of the Eastern Sand Darter. The potential for the strategy to inadvertently lead to adverse effects on other species was considered. The Eastern Sand Darter is a small benthic and translucent fish whose North American range is discontinuous and composed of two disjunct areas. One element occurs in the Great Lakes and Ohio River drainage, while the other occurs in Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River. In Ontario, it has been recently collected in Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, the Grand, Sydenham and Thames rivers, and Big Creek.

There are limited data available on the Eastern Sand Darter throughout its Canadian range. Nevertheless, the data that are available suggest that Eastern Sand Darter populations are declining throughout their entire range. In Canada, total numbers have been declining since 1950. The silting of sandy habitats represents the main cause for the decline in abundance and range of Eastern Sand Darter. Threats to Canadian populations include: sediment loading, nutrient loading and pollution resulting from agricultural and urban development. Barriers to movement (e.g. dams and impoundments) and alterations in flow regimes and coastal processes negatively affect the Eastern Sand Darter. Invasive species, such as the Round Goby, may also be negatively impacting the species.

In cases where critical habitats of multiple species occur, an ecosystem approach to the management of habitat is required to maximize benefit to co-occurring species at risk (of all taxa, including fishes, birds, reptiles, etc). Such an approach recognizes that negative impacts to some species and their habitats may result from habitat management practices aimed at achieving an overall net benefit to the ecosystem and the species at risk that it supports. The SEA concluded that such an ecosystem approach in the implementation of this strategy will benefit the environment and will minimize any adverse effects. Refer to the following sections of the document in particular: Description of the species' habitat and biological needs, ecological role and limiting factors (1.4); Recovery Feasibility (2.1); Approaches Recommended to Meet Recovery Objectives (2.5); Critical Habitat (2.7) and, Effects on Other Species (2.10).

SARA defines residence as: “a dwelling-place, such as a den, nest or other similar area or place, that is occupied or habitually occupied by one or more individuals during all or part of their life cycles, including breeding, rearing, staging, wintering, feeding or hibernating” [SARA S2(1)].

In this context, Eastern Sand Darter do not construct residences during their life cycle and therefore the concept does not apply (Bouvier and Mandrak, 2010).

This recovery strategy defines the goal, objectives and recommended approaches considered necessary for the protection and recovery of the Eastern Sand Darter in Ontario.

The population and distribution objective for Eastern Sand Darter is to ensure the survival of self-sustaining population(s) at the six extant locations (Sydenham River, Thames River, Lake St. Clair, Big Creek, Grand River, Lake Erie [Long Point Bay]) and restore self-sustaining population(s) at the following locations; Ausable River, Lake Erie (Rondeau Bay and Pelee Island), Catfish Creek and Big Otter Creek, where feasible.

Short-term recovery objectives (5 - 10 years)
In support of the long-term goal, the following short-term recovery objectives will be addressed over the next 5 -10 years:

  1. Refine population and distribution objectives;
  2. Ensure the protection of critical habitat;
  3. Determine long-term population and habitat trends;
  4. Evaluate and minimize threats to the species and its habitat;
  5. Investigate the feasibility of population supplementation or repatriation for populations that may be extirpated or reduced;
  6. Enhance efficiency of recovery efforts through coordination with aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem recovery teams and other relevant or complementary groups/initiatives; and,
  7. Improve overall awareness of the Eastern Sand Darter and the role of healthy aquatic ecosystems, and their importance to humans.

Using best available information, the area in which critical habitat is found has been identified to the extent possible for extant Eastern Sand Darter locations in the Sydenham River, Thames River, Grand River, Big Creek (Norfolk County) and Lake Erie (Long Point Bay). A schedule of studies has been developed that outlines necessary steps to obtain the information to refine these critical habitat descriptions.

Some measures have already been implemented for the recovery of the Eastern Sand Darter in Ontario. Several Eastern Sand Darter surveys have been conducted from 1997 to 2010 in historically and/or currently occupied waterbodies. Also, five ecosystem or multi-species recovery strategies that include Eastern Sand Darter recovery have been initiated in Ontario.

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