SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - It'll be some time before the public will be allowed to fish again on a pair of lakes a few kilometres northeast of Prosperous Lake, according to an official with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Noel Cockney, working for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, weighs a small northern pike on Lake 3 -- a small body of water between Drygeese and Baptiste lakes, during a water withdrawal study in August, 2005. Drygees and Baptiste are part of the A, B, C, D group of lakes, which include Alexie and Chitty lakes. - photo courtesy of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Alexie and Chitty lakes have been closed to recreational fishing for the last five years while the department continues its studies of fish populations in these somewhat small but deep and productive bodies of water.

Both lakes -- about the size of Kam Lake -- are joined by a narrow channel that often dries up in summer. The chain of lakes are accessible only by snowmobile or float plane.

When the government shut down the lakes to fishing in 2004, a fisheries official said they would be "closed for at least a year" while researchers studied fish implanted with transmitters, but different projects have begun since then, which means they will remain off-limits for the foreseeable future.

"Right now, Chitty and Alexie have been closed to fishing and I don't know of any plans to change that," said Pete Cott, the biologist heading Alexie and Chitty lakes study projects for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Cott said the lakes, which were also closed to sport fishing in the 1970s, are the best research lakes available to study phenomena found in smaller Canadian Shield lakes.

"There's no rivers flowing in and out of them. The fish that are there are the fish that have been there since the last ice age," said Cott.

"The lakes are really good because unlike other lakes in the North ­ pretty much all lakes in the North ­ we have a lot of long-term data on these lakes. We have an idea of how they operate."

Research has been undertaken in these lakes since 1969, when Fisheries declared the area that encompasses the "A, B, C, D" lakes ­ Alexie, Baptiste, Chitty, and Drygeese ­ a scientific reserve.

"They're a contained system, so they're good for doing scientific study on, to control external variables," said Cott.

Some of the original research done in the 1970s helped the scientific community gather information on how much fishing pressure Northern shield lakes can handle.

The lakes were simply monitored for a period since then, and were again open to the fishing public for several years until research began anew in 2004.

The study examined the migration of different fish species, including lake trout, whitefish and northern pike.

"We wanted to protect the integrity of that study by not having those fish caught, and the radio tags are quite expensive," said Cott.

The lakes were used to study how water removed from small bodies of water for the construction of winter roads impacted their ecosystems.

"We actually suggested they could take a little bit more water than previously allowed," said Cott, of the study's outcome. "It worked in favour of industry."

Research is currently being conducted on the lakes to gather information for environmental assessments in industry.

"When companies are putting out their environmental impact statements, the only information that's available on different fish species and their habitat requirements and what have you, are fish in the southern areas," said Cott.

"Up here you've got eight months of ice cover and the fish behave differently, and may have different life history requirements."

There are other possible moves afoot that may also impact recreational anglers in the area.

The department and the territorial government held a public meeting Oct. 21 to discuss a variety of topics, the two main issues being Baker Creek and the creation of an Ingraham Trail Integrated Fisheries Management Plan.

James Boraski, district manager of Western Arctic South for the fisheries department, said officials are currently considering whether to ban fishing on Baker Creek during the spring to help improve spawning numbers for Arctic grayling.

Grayling in Baker Creek are currently listed as catch and release only, but that might not be enough, said Boraski.

"If those fish are caught and released a number of times they may not spawn," said Boraski.

He said of 90 grayling found in a survey of the creek last spring only 25 fish attempted to spawn.

The department is also in the early stages of developing a plan for some of the lakes along the Ingraham Trail, specifically Prelude and Prosperous, two of the most heavily harvested fished lakes in the area.

Regulations imposing the need for special tags for possessing certain types of fish may be introduced in the near future.

Boraski said another public meeting will be held to gather feedback once research is complete and reports have been submitted.