Hay River (Mar 28/05) - Great Slave Lake fishermen hope to leave the strict control of Canada's fish marketing agency behind for bigger rewards in the U.S. following a visit there earlier this month.

Jerry Morin, a member of the Great Slave Lake Fishery Task Force Group, says a delegation found possible markets in the U.S. for three times the amount of whitefish, trout, northern pike and other species currently being sold from the lake.

The group was in Boston attending a seafood show, where delegates expressed interest in purchasing fish from Great Slave Lake, said Morin.

"That's the interest out there," Morin says. "There's a market out there."

The task force is considering opting out of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation (FFMC), a federal agency which buys catches for export outside the NWT.

Many fishermen are dissatisfied with FFMC's marketing efforts.

"We have been told for many years there wasn't a market for our fish," Morin notes. "Now we know otherwise."

He says the next step is determining what the fish buyers are willing to pay.

Actual sales would be over a year away, depending on whether the fishermen withdraw from the FFMC.

Three fish buyers from the U.S. are being invited to visit the NWT.

Beatrice Lepine, a GNWT employee acting as a special advisor to the task force, says they are hoping the fish buyers will visit on April 28 for the annual general meeting of the NWT Fishermen's Federation.

She says they will be taken onto the lake to see how the fishery operates.

Results of the trip were discussed at a fishermen's workshop in Hay River on March 23. They also discussed the task force's report, which will be presented at the federation's AGM.

While in Boston, the delegation also discussed having Great Slave Lake certified as a sustainable fishery by an international body, the Marine Stewardship Council.

"It's where the industry is going," Lepine says, noting many consumers prefer to buy fish locations designated as sustainable fisheries.

The Great Slave Lake fishery would have to be audited by an independent third party before the designation is granted.