Summer angler's survey
Stats will be gathered on fishing in the East Arm

Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 12/99) - The Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Lutsel K'e Dene Band are conducting an angler survey for the East Arm of Great Slave Lake this summer.

According to Fisheries management biologist George Low, the two parties are hoping the survey results will provide some useful information on how many sports fishermen visit the East Arm and how many fish are taken over the course of the season.

"The purpose of the survey is for the future management of the fishery," Low said. "We spent a lot of time in the '70s concentrating on the lodge industry and this year, as we did in 1986 and 1994, we are looking at the fishermen that make their way into the East Arm on their own.

"We want to maintain a high-quality sports fishery in the area. Everybody is interested in that."

Two seasonal technicians with the Lutsel K'e band have been hired to conduct the survey. They will be visiting fishing camps, predominately in the Christie Bay and upper Hearne Channel area.

"The major difference between the 1994 survey and this year is that we will be going to the camps as opposed to flagging down boats," Low said.

"We don't expect to get everybody, but we'll have an idea of how many people are out there.

"The survey will be practically the same as in 1994 because we want the data to be relatively comparable."

The 1986 survey found that 1,859 lake trout had been caught out of the 57 per cent of the surveys returned by anglers -- 403 of those trout were harvested. In 1994, 27 per cent of anglers returned surveys, showing 1,961 trout had been caught with 337 of those trout harvested. In total, there were 274 anglers surveyed in 1986 and 587 in 1994 -- lake trout comprised 75 per cent of all fish caught in the East Arm. Over 82 per cent of anglers surveyed were from the NWT.

Raymond Marlowe, one of the two East Arm monitors conducting the survey out of Lutsel K'e, says the purpose of the monitoring program is twofold.

"With the survey, we are also giving fisherman a pamphlet asking them to show respect for the land," Marlowe said. "If they have any garbage, they should pick it up and take it back with them."

"So far things are good, but if too many people come it could damage the land."

The pamphlet given with the survey asks East Arm visitors to not disturb any grave sites or artifacts and to avoid camping on Dene traditional-use areas.