Tough Summer for Northern Commercial Fishers

Tough Summer for Northern Commercial Fishers

Friday, September 17, 2004 at 13:32

Numbers released by the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation indicate commercial fishers in northern Saskatchewan saw decreasing returns for their fish this summer.

Payments made to northern fishers from May to the end of July were down 24 per cent from the same period last year — due to lower initial prices and reduced deliveries.

FFMC spokesman Stephen Kendall blames a wildly-fluctuating Canadian dollar for the lower prices, and cool weather this spring and summer for the reduced deliveries.

Kendall says he got a first-hand look at how the cool weather forced a late start for many fisheries during a visit to Wollaston Lake this summer.

He was in the community for a meeting on June 21st and there was still ice on the lake.

Pickerel, whitefish and lake trout deliveries from the North were all down from May 1st to July 31st this year compared to the same period last year.

In fact, lake trout was down 32 per cent, but Kendall says northern fishers made up a lot of the lost ground over the month of August.