Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 11/02) - Prominent biologists in Canada say the country's recreational sports fishery will go the way of the cod unless some form of intervention takes place quickly.

Walleye, like this one caught by Mike Marykuca, are easy to fish out of small lakes, but rebound quickly. - Merle Robillard/NNSL photo

And although fish stocks in the NWT appear to be in good shape, one of the authors of a new report says the North needs to learn from lessons in the South.

According to an article published last January in the North American Journal of Fisheries, 'Canada's Recreational Fisheries: The Invisible Collapse,' freshwater fish stocks have declined by 80 per cent or more since the continent was first settled.

While pollution and habitat deterioration from human encroachment are still considered prime factors in the decline of many fish populations, overfishing is labelled as the culprit for still many others.

"Even though we limit the individual angler, nowhere (in Canada) do we limit the number of anglers," says John Post, a biology professor at the University of Calgary, and one of nine authors of the report.

Sports fishing is a $4.5 billion industry in Canada, which draws nearly a million visitors to the country every year.

Yet, obtaining data is difficult, says Post. Resource dollars for fisheries tend to go to researching saltwater species and their habitat.

Nonetheless, information available for 14 recreational fish species and four continental drainage basins seems to suggest overfishing has had a devastating effect across the country.

Twenty-one of 27 walleye populations surveyed in Alberta show serious collapse do to overfishing, while in southeast Ontario 60 per cent of lake trout stocks are now sustained through hatcheries.

Post says Northern jurisdictions should take note of the eroding quality of sports fishing in southern Canada.

"The Northern populations are much more susceptible to overfishing," says Post. "The data suggests that lake trout don't mature until they're 10-to-12-years-old in the NWT and Yukon."

Colder water means fish take much longer to grow, and spawn less frequently.

There is little information in the recreational fisheries report on the effects angling has had on Northern Canada, though a table in it shows Arctic populations of lake trout, walleye, pike, whitefish, and Arctic grayling are all in decline.

Northern stocks in 'good shape'

North Slave fisheries management biologist George Low, however, disputes any suggestion that Northern stocks are dwindling.

"I think we're in fairly good shape, except for certain areas like along the Ingraham Trail," says Low. "I don't think we have too many problems with lake trout at all."

Reports from fishing lodges on Great Slave Lake suggest that lake populations are thriving, says Low.

Many contribute their good health to the closure of the East Arm to commercial fishing during the 1970s.

Low says there is even a possibility that Mosquito Creek -- one of the main spawning streams for walleye populations in Great Slave Lake's North Arm -- may reopen to limited spring fishing in the near future.

It has remained closed from May 1 to June 30 every year since the early 1980s.

"We have found the stock at the North Arm that supports Mosquito Creek has not been beaten down," says Low. "Walleye are pretty prolific breeders."

Ragnar Wesstrom, owner of Trout Rock Lodge on the North Arm, says the lunker Northern pike fishery has been getting better there every year.

"In June, it's guaranteed," says Wesstrom, of angler's chance at catching a world-class Northern pike.

Wesstrom estimates that 1,200 pike over 100 centimetres are caught at the lodge every year.

Management important

Maintaining healthy stocks of large fish is matter of good management practices, says Wesstrom.

"The way we operate is mandatory barbless hooks, and because we use the cradle (when capturing fish) the fish is seldom out of the water," says Wesstrom.

Keith Hickling, manager of fish and wildlife for the Sahtu region, points to the almost yearly world records broken for lake trout out of Great Bear Lake as a sign of NWT's fishery's good health.

The current record is 78.8 pounds, caught in 2000.

"Look at the proof," says Hickling. "It just keeps increasing."

Regardless, scenarios like the state of Ingraham Trail's fishery seem to indicate that where there is heavy fishing pressure, the quality and abundance of fish drops dramatically.

"I'd say the Ingraham Trail is chronically over-fished," says Low. "It's a matter of easy access. If you go along the highway, don't expect to catch more than a little pike."

In the summer of 1999, 5,000 people used the Ingraham Trail's two campgrounds.

Last summer, a study conducted by the Northern Metis Alliance suggested that a fish hatchery may have to be built or a moratorium on fishing imposed if Prelude Lake's fishery was to survive.

Starting a fish hatchery would be enormously expensive, says Low. In addition, hatchery fish tend to push out native stocks.

"Once you're stocking like that, you can't stop," says Low.

While the Department of Fisheries and Oceans maintains that the NWT's fishery is still in good shape, Low says there are still lessons that can be learned from worsening conditions in the south.

"I don't think we should down our guard just because stocks are good," says Low. "History has a tendency to repeat itself."