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Renewed optimism government will hear anglers' concerns

A northeastern Alberta lobby group is taking advantage of the new UCP government to push its agenda for increased fishing opportunities in northeastern Alberta.
walleye
2019 Alberta Fishing Guide

A northeastern Alberta lobby group is taking advantage of the new UCP government to push its agenda for increased fishing opportunities in northeastern Alberta.

A meeting with Alberta Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon July 18 is providing some renewed optimism the government is hearing public concerns about Alberta’s approach to fisheries management, according to Ray Makowecki, spokesperson for the Next Step Team. Representing a number of organizations, municipalities, businesses and non-government biologists, the Next Step Team is leading the charge to challenge the methodology used by Alberta Environment in recent years to increasingly curtail fishing opportunities in the region’s lakes.

“We’ve talked to the minister about a system where the user is the priority. We own it but we want to sustain it. We, as anglers, don’t want to diminish it for crying out loud, but these guys, the (government) biologists, push conservation totally. If there’s any kind of risk, their approach is to close it. That’s the kind of attitude,” Makowecki said.

However, he said there seems to be an interest on behalf of the new Environment minister to consider what the public is saying and revisit management practices.

“That’s where the big difference is. They see some things here that could be changed, so I’m hopeful.”

An initial step is the move by the minister to establish an MLA committee to review fisheries management in Alberta. Bonnyville-Cold Lake- St. Paul UCP MLA Dave Hanson has been named to the committee.

“There seems to be a bit of conflict between some biologists and the biologists that work for the provincial government that consider most of our lakes up here collapsed and yet what we are hearing from people running guiding operations, and just everyday weekend anglers, is that there are plenty of fish, especially walleye,” Hanson said.

A decline in revenue of $1.5 million in fishing license sales in 2018 compared to figures from 2015, is startling, according to Hanson.

“I got data from Saskatchewan and in 2018, 27,000 Albertans bought licenses in Saskatchewan. So, we are losing revenue, we’re losing tourism. The biologists, after all the town hall meetings we had in 2016-2017, when the regulations came out in 2018/2019 they actually put more restrictions on and closed more lakes, so it is very frustrating.”

Hanson said he’s been hearing for years from anglers in the region that the restrictions are excessive and don’t make sense given their fishing experience on many lakes throughout the area.

“If you go up to Lac La Biche and talk to the folks up there, you can go out and catch 30 walleye in an afternoon but you can’t keep any. So, it’s not for a lack of fish, it’s not for a lack of opportunity. Most people, from what I hear, they want to take their kids or their grandkids out and have a fish fry they don’t need to go out and catch 30 walleye. If we look at the mortality rate, we’re probably better off letting those folks catch one or two fish and cook them rather than catch 30 and have five or six perish because of the fishing activity.”

The Next Step Team has identified what Makowecki referred to in a recent press release as problems that must be addressed to bring some sense of balance to fishing in Alberta both from a user and conservation perspective. These are:

  • Angler dissatisfaction with sportfishing regulations; under harvest of walleye; and declining pike, perch, lake whitefish populations, as well as the resulting ecological imbalance.
  • Restrictive and complicated regulations
  • How science is done and applied
  • Communications with the public
  • Declining interest in angling, declining tourism and declining economic opportunities.

The group has offered up the following "policy and priority changes" to government as ways to "improve the future management of fisheries in Alberta."

  1. The first priority for fish management should be to “manage Alberta fish resources for use by Albertans in a sustainable manner that conserves the fish for future generations”. Current management practices that have eliminated harvest on many water bodies have been overly precautionary and have discouraged many anglers from fishing in the province. A policy change that allows a limited harvest while conserving the resource will ensure government managers seek ways of using the fish resources in a sustainable manner.

(The 1982 Fish and Wildlife Policy for Alberta states “The fisheries resource, as a Crown resource, will be utilized in a manner which contributes the most benefit to the citizens of Alberta.)

  1. The Alberta Government should adopt the “No net loss of fish habitat policy”. Fish habitat is crucial to the survival of fish populations. A no-net-loss policy would ensure that fish resources are sustained for future generations. It would allow for limited industrial and economic development, while requiring that fish habitat be protected, developed or restored for future generations.

  1. Fish stocking should be used as a tool to increase fishing opportunities in water bodies with suitable fish habitats. In the future changing environments may require a variety of fish resources for fish stocks to survive.

  1. Sportfishing regulations should be simplified to encourage anglers to participate with low-risk harvesting options that will sustain fish stocks. Such changes should encourage tourism near fish-bearing lakes in support of municipal business and industry.

  1. Fisheries biologists and managers should be involving the public in decision-making, especially with regard to regulations. Clear and transparent biological information must be readily available for the interested people to assess what they’re being told.
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