Fishers, Government At Odds Over Fish Stocks

Fishers, Government At Odds Over Fish Stocks

Thursday, January 12, 2006 at 14:32

 

 

Fishers on Peter Pond Lake near Buffalo Narrows are upset that limits weren’t increased this year.

 

A meeting was held last month involving local fishers and representatives of Saskatchewan Environment about possibly allowing the fishers to harvest more walleye.

 

But Buffalo Narrows fishing co-op president Ken Larsen says all the department did was transfer some of the allowable quota from Little Peter Pond to Big Peter Pond — resulting in no gains for local fishers.

 

Larsen argues there’s plenty of evidence that fish stocks are healthy in that lake, and it’s time fishers were rewarded for buying into a fish management plan.

 

But Saskatchewan Environment fisheries biologist John Weir says the limit on walleye has risen from 44,000 kilograms to 80,000 over the last couple of years.

 

Weir says after all that went into bringing the fish populations up over the last couple of decades, the department doesn’t want to see fish stocks collapse again.

 

Despite the 80,000-kg limit, Weir says fishers pulled 88,000 kgs of walleye off the lake last week.

 

Weir also notes the department plans to allow fishers a separate period for fishers to pull whitefish out of the lake in February.

 

Larsen says given the price of whitefish compared to walleye, that isn’t much of a benefit for fishers.