Lake Ontario is the easternmost of North America’s Great Lakes. The lake is surrounded by New York USA and the Canadian province of Ontario.
At its western end, Lake Ontario is fed by the Niagara River with water from Lake Erie. Other major tributaries include the Genesee, Oswego, and Black Rivers. At its eastern end, the outflow of Lake Ontario exits through the St. Lawrence River.
The Welland Canal connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie through a series of eight locks, allowing large ships to bypass the Niagara Falls.
The New York State Canal system connects Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, the Hudson River, and other destinations. Along the Niagara River, the Erie Canal provides a shallow water connection to Lake Ontario.
Near the eastern end of Lake Ontario, the Oswego Canal follows the Oswego River from the Erie Canal for 23 miles. The canal system is part of the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor.
The eastern end of Lake Ontario also part of the Triangle Loop. The popular boating route consists of 3 connected waterways: the Hudson River, St. Lawrence River, and Lake Ontario.
The cities of Rochester and New York are located along the New York Shoreline. Along the Canadian Shoreline are the major urban industrial centers of Hamilton and Toronto. Other Canadian cities along the lake shore include Oshawa, and Kingston.
Recreational anglers fish for non-native chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead, and brown trout, along with native lake trout and Atlantic salmon.
The Atlantic salmon is native to Lake Ontario but was not historically found in the other Great Lakes. Native salmon were absent in the lake by the late 1800s.
More recently, fish stocking programs have attempted to re-establish Atlantic salmon in Lake Ontario and its tributaries. In 2014, researchers found evidence of natural reproduction of Atlantic salmon in the Salmon River for the first time in over a century.
Lake Ontario has the smallest commercial fishery of the Lakes, accounting for approximately 1 percent of commercial landings in Great Lakes waters.
In 2024, Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary was designated as America’s 16th national marine sanctuary. Adjacent to New York’s Jefferson, Oswego, Cayuga and Wayne counties, the 1,722-square-mile sanctuary aims to protect maritime assets and provide new opportunities for research, education, recreation, and maritime heritage-related tourism in local coastal communities along Lake Ontario.