There was something intentionally fishy going on at the Bold Center as Alberta’ s Environment and Parks division held a public meeting on Jan. 22 to discuss proposed changes for recreational fishing in 2018.
There was something intentionally fishy going on at the Bold Center as Alberta’ s Environment and Parks division held a public meeting on Jan. 22 to discuss proposed changes for recreational fishing in 2018.
The meeting included a presentation by AEP, a question and answer period and AEP had area-specific biologists who the public could talk with after the presentation.
Most of the discussion swam around the demand from area residents for AEP to remove fishing restrictions on walleye populations in area lakes.
Dr. Steven Spencer and Miles Brown, two senior fisheries biologists with AEP, led the presentation and said there are many factors to consider before lifting restrictions.
They spoke to the nature of the Northern Albertan climate and how it can take up to 20 years for Walleye to grow.
“Alberta can be a challenging place,” said Brown. “It takes longer for fish to mature.”
With approximately 300 anglers per lake in 800 fish-bearing lakes in Alberta, Spencer said it is important to make sure they are picking the right approach when it comes to fisheries management.
“We understand that in some areas walleye are doing well,” said Brown. “We also recognize there may be other variables at play.”
The government is proposing the use of tags or a catch and release system. Lac La Biche County Mayor Omer Moghrabi is not happy with that plan.
“It is devastating for this County,” he said. “We don’ t agree. We’ re going to be lobbying, we’ re going to be talking to the Minister, we’ re going to be talking to the Premier.”
Historically, the fishing industry has been a large part of the Lac La Biche Region has an impact on the County’ s economy.
“Tourism is an 8.1 billion dollar industry in Alberta,” said Moghrabi. “All our presentations for diversification was about tourism, clean industry. Lac La Biche was built on fishing, it’ s waterways.”
Ray Makowecki, a biologist from St. Paul who worked in the province’ s Fish and Wildlife for 30 years, attended the meeting and asked about the possibility of a shorter fishing season.
“We have a supply and demand problem,” said Spencer. “We tried that and we had people unhappy with that.”
Makowecki posed the question to the members of the public. There were no hands raised for catch and release or tags, but the majority of those present were in favour of a shorter season.
Lac La Biche - St. Paul - Two Hills MLA David Hanson was in attendance and said he was frustrated with what was presented.
“We’ ve got a fantastic provincial facility that’ s not being utilized for what it was designed for,” he said. “My understanding is $100,000 a year would pretty much cover a restocking program to keep Lac La Biche as a viable fishery and it frustrates me that we’ re not doing that.”
Hanson said that he understands the frustration that is felt not only in Lac La Biche, but also around the province.
“People just want to go out and have fun and have a fish fry with their kids and I don’ t think there’ s anything wrong with that,” he said. “As MLA we’ ll be definitely looking into this program.”
Lac La Biche was one of five public information sessions the government department has held across Alberta over the past two weeks. New regulations for the 2018 fishing season are expected to be unveiled soon.
