Yellowknife (Mar 10/06) - What better way to get wealthy tourists hooked on the North than a fishing lure studded with diamonds?

NWT Tourism, the territorial government and Polar Diamonds presented a diamond-embedded lure to the members of Trout Unlimited to use as a draw prize at their annual dinner in Calgary last night.

The U.S.-based fishing and conservation organization has more than 100,000 members in 450 chapters.

The estimated value of the framed art piece is $5,000.

Designed by Scott Martin of MFS Manufacturing and Wholesale, the lure features an original signed painting by Yellowknife artist Dawn Oman.

The hook is finished with a tuft of polar bear fur.

The diamonds accenting Oman's Arctic scene are tops left over from larger diamonds processed by the Polar Bear Diamond Factory, formerly Arslanian Diamonds.

Usually, diamond tops are exported to China and India where labour is paid less, making the small pieces more economically-viable to process and profit from. The lure was an idea developed by Rare in Nature, an umbrella initiative supported by the government, Polar Bear Diamond, Polar Ice Diamond, Aurora College and other stakeholders in the diamond industry.

Their campaign is an effort to promote government certified Canadian diamonds and diamond tourism in the North.