SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A call is going out to commercial fishers outside the NWT in an effort to revive the flagging fishery on Great Slave Lake.

Fisheries officer Craig Schwartz and Gerry Gaudon, a worker at the Wool Bay fish plant, chat during the summer of 2006. The fish plant closed last summer after years of declining catches. - NNSL file photo

An advertisement posted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation website - the entity tasked with marketing fish from Great Slave Lake - reports that there are 10 commercial fishing vessel and vehicle certificates available to non-residents of the NWT.

It was unwelcome news to Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington, who blamed the fishery's decline in recent years on the lack of specific marketing of whitefish caught in Great Slave Lake, which are lumped in with fish caught elsewhere in Western Canada. He said fish caught in the North carry a certain cache with southern buyers, and should thus be sold at a higher price.

"There should be a premium on whitefish from Great Slave Lake," said Bevington. "They're undervalued when they're being sent to Winnipeg for processing."

He said it's a shame Fisheries and Oceans is trying recruit fishers from elsewhere after a years of heavy investment by governments to try and develop the Great Slave fishery.

The fishery has been in steady decline for several years as older fishers retire and younger people choose careers in mining and other higher-paying professions.

Only 296,011 kilograms of fish were processed through the one remaining plant on Great Slave last summer - down from 705,600 kilograms caught in 2003.

Last year, there were 50 commercial fishers in the NWT, down from 72 in 2006.

The Wool Bay fish plant, the processing plant closest to Yellowknife, closed last July because of the lack fishing boats bringing catches for processing.

Marc Lange, acting area director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said without an infusion of fishers from outside the NWT, the Great Slave fishery will likely perish.

He said the decision to invite out-of-territory fishers was made after a motion was passed by the Great Slave Lake Advisory Committee, a group made up of local fishers, aboriginal groups and sport lodges.

"They requested that the present two-year NWT residency criteria be removed from a few classes of commercial fishing certificates," said Lange.

Lange said while local interest is declining in the Great Slave fishery, there is lots coming from outside of the NWT.

Dettah resident David Giroux, who has taken part in the commercial fishery in the past, said it used to be that people had to have a family legacy in the fishing industry in order to get a commercial licence for Great Slave Lake.

"I know a lot of people in Yellowknife who wanted to to fish but they couldn't get it because they didn't have residency," said Giroux. "But things change."