He said the working group is finalizing an application to Fisheries and Oceans Canada to use the plant-based pesticide in Miramichi Lake and part of the Southwest Miramichi River.
"We're really looking for a positive decision ... on the application to eradicate in just the next few months in order for this to be done in 2020," Crabbe said Wednesday.
"Time is truly of the essence."
Smallmouth bass were spotted in the Southwest Miramichi on Aug. 22 near the mouth of McKiel Brook by Allen Curry, a researcher at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.
The salmon federation, which is based in Saint Andrews, and other conservationists immediately sounded alarm bells about the invasive species' potential impacts on the river's dwindling wild Atlantic salmon runs.
The smallmouths were illegally introduced in 2008 to Miramichi Lake -which forms part of the Southwest Miramichi River's headwaters.
Read the rest of the story in the Miramichi Leader here: https://www.asf.ca/news-and-magazine/sa ... mouth-bass
Advertising