Send your masterpiece to the Kids’ Fish Art Contest
Calling all kids! Grab your paints and pencil crayons. The Kids’ Fish Art Contest is back.
This annual contest, sponsored by the Ministry of Natural Resources, asks budding Rembrandts to picture what it’s like to be a fish – literally! What do they look like? Where do they live? What do they eat, and what eats them?
Every year, the ministry picks two species living in Ontario lakes and rivers. This year’s contest focuses on the largemouth bass, an olive green fish with a spiky dorsal fin, and the bloater, which swells up when taken from its deep-water habitat.
All artwork should depict one of these two species in its natural habitat. The art will be judged on its quality and attention to detail. Students must also prepare a one-page composition.
Judges will choose winning entries in three age groups – Grades 4 to 6, Grades 7 to 9 and Grades 10 to 12 – one of which will win the grand prize. The three winning designs will appear on the 2014 Young Angler’s Licence and proceed to the international division of the State-Fish Art Contest sponsored by Wildlife Forever in the United States.
Winners also take home great prizes. They include Staedtler-Mars art supplies and fishing gear, with a trip to Pine Portage Lodge and a day of fishing with Italo Labignan, host of the Canadian Sportfishing Television Show, for the grand prize winner.
The contest is open to Ontario students in Grades 4 to 12. Participants must submit their original, hand-drawn creation to the Ministry of Natural Resources before the contest closes on November 29, 2013. Students may enter only once.
“The Ministry of Natural Resources is proud to sponsor the Kids’ Fish Art Contest,” says Natural Resources Minister David Orazietti. “It opens young people’s eyes to the rich biodiversity in Ontario’s lakes and rivers. We hope this outlet for their creative abilities inspires a long and rewarding interest in protecting our natural resources.”
More information is available at ontario.ca/fishartcontest.