SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
"It's the worst kept secret on Great Slave Lake," said John Colford, GNWT manager of Traditional Economies, Agriculture and Fisheries.

Tawna Brown takes a moment to recall the details of her tomato basil whitefish recipe on Jan. 24 at the Yellowknife Co-op grocery store. Brown was taking part in a GNWT initiative to raise the profile of NWT fresh fish on store shelves and restaurant menus. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo

"Great Slave Lake has great fish."

Poorly kept secret or not, the GNWT has determined the Great Slave Lake fishery could use a boost. A new program rolled out last weekend in Yellowknife and Hay River is meant to raise the profile of Great Slave fish in the consumer market, connecting wharf to kitchen.

"NWT Fresh Fish" is a branding concept developed over the past year by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Along with the launch of a new website, nwtfreshfish.ca, the government has designed a logo so that grocery stores and restaurants can call attention to local fresh fish offerings.

"We did a study on the domestic market in the NWT for fish," Colford said. "We determined this market could probably absorb a great deal of fish from Great Slave Lake and other sources."

Several grocery stores and restaurants in Yellowknife and Hay River have already signed onto the program meaning it should soon be easier to identify fish caught locally when you walk into the fish section of, for example, Luluz Market or the Yellowknife Co-op.

This past weekend shoppers at the Co-op were able to trade a favourite fresh fish recipe for a free whitefish fillet, courtesy of the GNWT. Recipes collected this weekend in Yellowknife and Hay River will be pulled together to make a Northern fish recipe book.

Perhaps surprisingly, Colford said the local fish market is dominated by non-local product, whether on the grocery store shelf or restaurant menu.

"Most of the fish on the market is brought in from southern Canada or elsewhere," Colford said.

Fish from southern Canada often means fish from as unlikely a source such as Kazakhstan, as came to light in a recent Yellowknifer article.

Local restaurateurs will tell you it's a matter of economics. Fresh, local fish can be a more costly option than portion controlled frozen imports that arrive on a regular schedule by trucks.

The Great Slave Lake fishery has been in a decline for more than a decade. Active class A commercial fishing licences stand at a third of what they did prior to 2000.

But Colford said some resilient entrepreneurs have created something of a turn around in the local fish market.

"A number of the fisherman have gone out and made investments to develop and sculpt a domestic commercial market for themselves," Colford said.

"What they've done is diversified their markets. They've diversified their product offerings."

This means offering cleaned and processed pan-ready fish fillets, and small retail portions.

Great Slave Lake Fish Products, with a fish processing plan in Yellowknife Bay is a perfect example of this, Colford said.

Brian Abbott and Henry Jewer, co-owners of Great Slave fish products, do a large part of their business with the local Co-op, but they also offer direct retail sales either from their floating fish plant or on the Old Town government dock, year round.

Colford said it is this local push to get fresh fish to market that the GNWT wants to support and expand on with NWT Fresh Fish. It should be an easy sell.

"Fresh, local fish is the best bang for the buck, both from the producers perspective and the consumers perspective," Colford said.

"If you can shorten the distance between net and plate, that's where quality and value really comes into place. If you're waiting ten or fifteen days between net and plate, you're loosing a lot of value."

"Our fishermen here, what they catch in the morning is very often available on shelves or in the restaurant in the evening," Colford added.

"You're getting the freshest product."