Petrie Island Environment
Help keep Petrie Island clean for generations to come!
Every January the bay behind the Oziles Baitshop turns into a village of ice fishing huts in many styles and configurations. Some huts are merely plastic sheets on a wood frame, some are square boxes made of plywood, while others go all out and construct mini model homes. Every ice hut is unique in its own way, and that's what makes this place so special.
Each season, the ice fishing community at Petrie Island seems to get a 
little larger with more people and more huts and the local environment suffers. We all must do our part to keep this beautiful place perfect for generations to come. Below are a few tips to help you do your part to keep the Petrie Island environment safe and clean.
- Keep your area clean! Always keep a garbage can in or around your hut and empty it every day. Clean the area around your hut before you leave for the day, pay close attention to the small things like cigarette butts and bottle caps. If you leave garbage on the ice and it snows overnight, it's gone until the spring. This trash sinks to the bottom of the bay or washes up on shore after the ice melts and leaves an unsightly mess.
- Always have a portable toilet in your cabin. Imagine if only 100 of us peed once a week behind our hut for 2 months? That would be about 800 liters of pee in the bay when everything melts in April! Now, how many of us have peed 3 or 4 times a day behind our hut?
- Avoid using lead sinkers. These are very bad for the environment everywhere. If you can not find lead-free sinkers, try making your own. Here's an easy project to do when you're not out fishing: first buy a roll of lead free solder at your local hardware store. Drill a few holes in an old piece of wood, but do not drill all the way through. These holes will be the size and shape of your sinkers. Twist up a piece of copper wire to use for the attachment. Now heat up the lead-free solder with a soldering iron and drip it into your drilled holes while holding your copper wire attachment in place at the top. Let the solder cool down for 5 minutes and remove them from the holes. Et Voila! Now you have your own home-made lead-free sinkers! By making your own lead-free sinkers, you'll save money and you will not be poisoning the Petrie Island environment with lead!
- Practice catch and release fishing. Unless you plan to eat them, let them go. If you are fishing in a derby, keep your fish in a clean bucket and change the water regularly to keep them alive. Above all: Never keep a muskie!
