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reports of fish attack have not scared swimmers away from doré beach
a month after a young boy was injured while swimming at jean-doré beach, authorities still haven't ruled out an attack by a muskie fish.
aug 2 2024
9 minute read
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more than a month has passed since an eight-year-old boy suffered lacerations and puncture wounds requiring stitches while playing in the water at jean-doré beach on île notre-dame.
media reports at the time quoted fishing experts who suggested the wounds were consistent with an encounter with a muskellunge, or muskie for short. the muskie is a large, predatory, freshwater fish native to the st. lawrence river.
the lake at jean-doré beach, including the floating structure on which the boy was playing, has remained open to the public since shortly after the june 26, incident. but the authority that runs the beach and park, the société du parc jean-drapeau, has given no definitive explanation as to what may have caused the boy’s injuries nor what measures have been taken to lessen the risk of such an event happening again.
experts claim there are few documented cases of muskies biting humans, and when it does happen, it’s usually during the struggle to land and unhook the fish, which has a large jaw and very sharp teeth. the muskie is nicknamed “the fish of a thousand casts” because it is so difficult to catch. its size is also a reason it is prized: a typical adult muskie is between 40 and 50 inches long, while the largest recorded muskie caught in canada was 58 inches long and weighed 65 pounds.
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george mandl and his eight-year-old son, max, were visiting montreal from california on june 26 when they decided to visit the beach. they were playing hide-and-seek on an inflatable structure anchored in the middle of the lake. “he was in the water, next to the raft, and just instantly started screaming, kicking, thrashing around,” george mandl told ctv news at the time. when lifeguards pulled the boy out of the water by his life-jacket, his leg was bleeding from gashes on his knee and lacerations on his calf and thigh.
a couple swim out to the aquazilla inflated zone at jean-doré beach on tuesday.
john mahoney
/
montreal gazette
jean-drapeau park being a municipal facility, the gazette tried to get an update from laurence lavigne-lalonde, the city’s executive committee member responsible for large parks. her press attaché referred the gazette to the city’s corporate communications office, which in turn passed the request along to the société du parc jean-drapeau (spjd), a para-municipal agency that runs the park at arm’s length from the city administration.
after several days, the communications team at the spjd provided the following statement in response to a request to know whether the investigation has yielded any answers and whether it is safe to swim at jean-doré beach:
“for the société du parc jean-drapeau (spjd), the safety of users and employees is an absolute priority. as the analysis of the june 26 event is ongoing, the spjd is collaborating with many stakeholders to analyze the situation in the specific context of large beaches. various avenues are being studied, as much to determine the causes as to deploy potential actions, in order to guarantee an optimal experience for our visitors.
“our staff carefully inspected the inflatable structure to ensure that injuries were not caused by other elements, such as zebra mussels. no element likely to have caused the incident was found. in collaboration with the ministry of environment, the fight against climate change, wildlife and parks, we took samples with a view of refining the hypotheses. as the results are currently being analyzed, we will not comment further.”
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the statement made no mention of fish nor did it explain what kind of “samples” were being analyzed. a gazette request for more information was ignored.
according to the parc jean-drapeau website, the artificial lake has a surface area of 122,000 square metres, including the swimming area, which is about 15,000 square metres. the beach is 600 metres long and 25 metres wide.
it has a natural filtration system: “the water, drawn from the saint lawrence river, is filtered by 120,000 water plants (bulrushes, reeds, multicoloured irises, watercress, pectinated pondweed, etc.) situation in marshes and spread out into a set of three ponds. with different water levels, the ponds ensure the water trickles slowly over the course of more than two days. there are also sand filters and an ultraviolet treatment that complete the filtration process, thereby providing quality water.”
the lake is a complete ecosystem, the site notes, although there is no mention of fish.
“in addition to welcoming swimmers from all walks of life, this area of île notre-dame is an ecosystem that accommodates a broad biodiversity. along with numerous plant species, there’s an impressive array of ducks, birds, groundhogs, and even foxes!”
a mother and her son play in the beach sand on tuesday.
john mahoney
/
montreal gazette
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but of course, there are fish in the artificial lake and there are very likely muskies, said nicolas perrier, president of the montreal chapter of muskies canada, a non-profit organization that works to preserve the muskie and its habitat.
he said fishing was allowed on île notre-dame until 1990, when the artificial beach was created and the lake opened to the public for swimming.
perrier theorized that muskies have been thriving in the lake since its creation, when it would have been filled with water from the river.
“ when they built it, they probably had open water for a month or so and then the whole habitat of the st. lawrence just repeated itself in that lake. when they flooded it, there was a time when there was free travel for nature between this artificial lake and the real ecosystem of the st. lawrence and the same food chain has established itself there. “
the population of muskies in the st. lawrence and its tributaries seems to be diminishing, according to records kept by muskies canada, because fishing enthusiasts come from all over the world come to catch this prized fish.
but in the doré beach lake, with no fishing pressure and no predators, the muskies have probably been multiplying and growing in size, perrier said. muskies grow about an inch per year and can live up to 30 years, he said.
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“so there is a full ecosystem there. there’s small fry, there’s bass and there’s muskie at the top of the food chain. and there’s not just one.”
perrier said swimmers should be no more afraid of swimming in that lake than they should in any other natural body of water in north america. he is aware of only three incidents where humans have been bitten by muskies in canada — and never when the human was swimming.
“they never attack humans unless they mistake them for an opportunity for a snack,” he said. “being a top predator they hunt for large prey, like perch, bass, or sucker fish, which are like small carp. so they are chasing fish that are 10 inches and longer and they can eat a 20-inch fish if they have an opportunity. they have a very small window to get that meal so when they are stationed and waiting for an opportunity, anything that wiggles and splashes in the water, could be another fish trying to eat and not paying attention to its surroundings. the muskie is going to strike at whatever makes that commotion.
“if you are wading or walking in the water, or swimming, they will see a human shape, and they will be scared like any animal, like a squirrel or anything else. but it can mistake your hand in the water or a foot in the water for a snack and it has sharp teeth so it’s going to just jab at it … it’s not trying to eat you.”
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he said muskie often wait in the shade for prey. “they often put themselves under a log or a place where they have shade, like those kid structures at jean drapeau park. that’s a good place to wait for a (chance to) ambush.”
he said muskies are commonly found under docks at cottages, but do not typically bite people.
on a recent visit to the beach, the gazette spoke with beach employees to find out what they were telling patrons as well as visitors to gauge their awareness of and reaction to the incident.
a paddle board sits by a lifeguard chair at jean-doré beach.
john mahoney
/
montreal gazette
five different beach employees, working at the two entrances to the beach, gave five different answers to a reporter’s questions about the june 26 incident. the responses: “i didn’t hear about it,” “the fish has been caught and it’s safe to swim now,” “there was no fish; the problem has been resolved,” “i bet the kid cut himself on a cable under the structure or something” and “if it wasn’t safe, we wouldn’t be open.”
one man, whose two young children were playing happily in the water a few metres from shore, said he hadn’t heard about the supposed fish attack, but he seemed nonplussed when told about it. he declined to give his name.
carli harris, a tourist from new zealand, was standing at the waters’ edge with her husband, as their 18-month-old son splashed in the shallow water.
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she said she had heard about the incident, but she laughed when asked if it worried her.
“in new zealand, there are plenty of scarier things in the water; sharks, stingrays, jellyfish. so one fish is not a concern. i think people would have known by now. i saw the pictures, i read a little bit. not being from here, i don’t know too much about it. maybe there was a rogue fish. who knows?”
she said she likes jean-doré beach because it’s so much quieter than public pools, including the aquatic complex on neighbouring île ste-hélène.
kyra konig of verdun was standing waist-deep in the lake, chatting with her mother, when a reporter approached and asked if she had heard about the incident.
“i didn’t know about it and i don’t think it changes anything, because personally i don’t believe a fish would attack somebody,” konig said. “also i would be curious to know if that sort of fish ever attacked somebody in the past to make it more credible. but for me it’s not something that would stop me from coming, (especially since) well, i don’t believe it.”
her mother, who declined to give her name, chimed in to say she finds it hard to believe any fish would be swimming so close to the inflatable structure when there were dozens of kids jumping off it.
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but perrier said muskie actually don’t get frightened off by commotion in the water. in fact, they often follow boats.
“muskies are pretty hard to scare off,” he said. “they can follow boats because boats create a wake and wakes create movement that disturbs their prey. so small fish are startled out of their protection zone in the weeds … we fish muskies at very close proximity to our boats. they are not afraid of our boats … if kids are jumping on the structure and a muskie is three feet below it, it could be happy just staying there and would not be afraid. it doesn’t mean it’s going to strike. i grew up as a kid at a cottage where i discovered a muskie under a dock, and i would swim up to it, and it wouldn’t move. i would try everything to catch it. i always loved fishing. but it didn’t bother me and i didn’t bother it. it just stayed there.”
perrier has offered the help of his club, which has 120 members, to conduct a fishing expedition in the lake this fall, with the goal of catching as many muskie as possible and releasing them into the st. lawrence river. he said he contacted the park’s administration on july 7 and july 17 and was told they would get back to him.
he said he would not recommend the lake be closed to the swimming public. for one thing, he said, the muskie are well-fed because the water is clean and probably teeming with smaller fish. he would have no fear to swim there himself.
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“i don’t recommend they shut it down because the risk is extremely low, and i would go swimming in it. but i would maybe have an eye open around the structure. if i were to go this afternoon, i would bring my mask and my (snorkel) tube and take a peak around and see if i see anything and if i see one, i would tell lifeguard to close the structure for today.”
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