HAY RIVER - Commercial fishers on Great Slave Lake will have a bit more paperwork to do beginning next summer.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) will require them to fill out mandatory logbooks to record information such as what species are caught, what is thrown away as by-catches and where exactly they are fishing on the lake.

Deanna Leonard, a fisheries management biologist with DFO in Yellowknife, said the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation is already keeping records on fish processed at its Hay River plant.

"We need to fill the gaps," she said.

Leonard said the additional information will be used for a number of things, including to help manage closure zones - such as the one at Buffalo River - to help depressed stocks of inconnu.

She also said the information might one day be used to get the whitefish fishery declared eco-certified as a sustainable industry.

Leonard said many stores in Europe, including Wal-Mart, will not sell fish unless it is eco-certified.

A few fishers have already tried a sample logbook, and have recommended some changes to make it easier to fill out.

"We actually co-operated with local fishermen," Leonard said. "They had a lot of input into what the logbook is going to look like."

DFO also made a presentation about the new logbooks at the NWT Fishermen's Federation annual general meeting on Nov. 10 in Hay River.

Federation president Alex Richardson said the logbooks are a good idea to help DFO gather information about the lake.

As for whether the fishers might not be too happy about the extra paperwork, Richardson said, "We have no choice. It's going to be mandatory."