Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 14/99) - Local commercial fisherman, David Giroux, says that his chosen profession is a difficult one to break into.

Giroux took up the commercial fishing trade last year -- in the footsteps of his father -- but for now, remains grounded, unable to come up with money necessary to get back out into the water.

"I fished last summer and didn't make a lot of money," Giroux said. "My father fished for over 30 years and he never made much money either."

Giroux argues that it is not a lack of experience that keeps his fishing boat out of the water, but rather, a lack of initiative from the territorial government and the federally- controlled Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation that makes commercial fishing such a difficult industry to survive in.

"If it is true that Winnipeg head office (FFMC) is controlling fishing, then it's time for a change," Giroux said.

"It's time for the GNWT to develop some sort of marketing strategy.

"They talk a lot about sustainable development but all I see is them concentrating on non-renewable resources."

According to John Colford, co-ordinator for Agriculture and Fisheries GNWT, the difficulties associated with trying to make a living commercial fishing on the Great Slave in recent years is heavily influenced by world market prices.

"Prices have a lot to do with it," Colford said.

"It's just the economics of it. Whitefish prices are down and it's predominantly a whitefish lake. You can't change that dynamic.

"It has nothing to do with the quality of the product. It's about market influences -- you may have cheaper imports coming from outside of the country, you have great competition coming from the Great Lakes. There are any number of factors at play."

Dave Bergunder, of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation in Hay River, offered his views as to why fewer commercial fisherman are fishing Great Slave Lake.

"What I see happening is a lot of the large groups of mature, older fisherman who are retiring and not being replaced," Bergunder said. "We don't have that young influx coming in.

"I guess it's like farming. The numbers of actual farmers are down, too. We're not recruiting enough younger fisherman to replace the old-timers."

Fish harvesting production has not reached overall quotas for the Great Slave in years and has been steadily declining since the late-'80s. Out of the available commercial fishing certificates for the summer season, only 18 out of 28 class A certificates (vessels more than 30 feet) and 43 out of 61 class B certificates (vessels under 30 feet) are being used.

"Operating costs in the North are a lot higher than in the south," Bergunder said. "At the end of the day we're just trying to maximize the returns of fisherman as much as possible, and that's difficult to do."

As for now, Dave Giroux's fishing boat remains high and dry.

"At the end of the day there are just too many expenses taken off the 70 cents per pound of whitefish they give you and that's the reason why fishing is a hard way to make a living," Giroux said.