The Rainy River District Trappers Council wants trappers to understand the Ministry of Natural Resources of Fort Frances District will not limit the number of possession permits issued for incidentally-caught over-quota fishers.
Council president Mike Gurski noted the last time a fisher study was done was in 1952 or 1956—more than 50 years ago.
“There’s more and more animals in the bush,” he stressed. “These animals are very adaptable creatures. They are one of the only animals that can kill a porcupine.”
The fisher trapping season runs from the end of October to the end of February.
“We’re told as trappers we have to trap 75 percent of our beaver quota but for fishers, we’re limited on,” said Gurski, who has been president of the council for the past five years.
“For me, I have a quota of four fishers,” he noted, adding he’s already met his quota for the season.
“As trappers, we’re covered under the incidental catch policy, meaning if we’re trapping marten and we catch fisher, we’re not trying to catch fisher,” Gurski explained.
“There’s getting to be so many of them [fisher] in the area that people in the country are seeing them,” he noted. “And when you actually see the animal running down the road or in a tree in your back yard, you basically know that there’s a lot more [fishers] than you think.
“They basically come out at night to hunt. They spend a lot of time in trees so you normally don’t see them.”
The fisher’s fur is used in coats, collars, jackets, and mitts.
Gurski said his father was a trapper after the Second World War and that he trapped to make a living. He also said he feeds the fisher carcasses to the wild animals.
“There’s nothing that goes to waste,” he stressed.
The main topics that where addressed during recent discussions with the Ontario Fur Managers’ Federation (OFMF) are something the public should be aware of. The following was taken directly from a letter from Gurski and W.R. (Bill) Darby, MNR district manager of the Fort Frances District:
•Due to what appears to be an increase in the fisher population locally, the MNR Fort Frances office will not limit the number of possession permits issued for incidentally-caught over-quota fisher.
The management of incidental catch may be a topic of discussion between the OFMF and MNR provincially in the future.
•MNR staff may ask some questions of the trapper to understand the circumstances around the incidental catch.
Trappers are reminded they should try to minimize such incidental catch where and when they can (e.g., pulling marten boxes from certain areas where fisher are being caught, or refraining from setting marten boxes if the catch of marten is declining and the catch of fisher is increasing).
•There is a mutual desire to understand how the age and sex ratio of the fisher harvest changes through the season, and how it relates to the fisher population, by getting a better sample of fisher heads through the 2007-08 trapping season.
The sample size required is 50 heads from Mine Centre west in the Fort Frances District.
This fall, Gurski personally will undertake to collect, freeze, and label fisher heads from trappers and gather a standard set of data for each labelled head (e.g., date of catch, trapline number, trapper name, and sex of fisher).
•We will continue to jointly discuss and consider ways that trappers might reduce the incidental catch of fisher in future, recognizing that such ways need to be practical and reasonably economical for the trapper.
•The Treaty #3 trapping agreement signed with MNR in May, 2005, provides that a First Nation family that presents evidence of an ancestral connection to a trapline, and wishes to recover such trapline, shall be given first right of refusal when the trapline comes up for transfer.
MNR districts within the Treaty #3 area will be implementing this provision.
•MNR will take further steps to ensure that all traplines are actively managed and trapped, and encourage inactive trappers, especially those who no longer hold a licence, to become active again or make their line available to new trappers.
The ministry is worried about the marten population because the it has started to come down.
Trapping the fisher must meet humane standards,” said Gurski, noting that means the fisher must die in a certain amount of time.
According to Wikipedia, the fisher is a North American marten (similar to that of a weasel), a medium-sized mustelid. The fisher is agile in trees and has a slender body that allows it to pursue prey into hollow trees or burrows in the ground.
Fishers are solitary hunters. Their primary prey include hares, rabbits, squirrels, mice, shrews, and porcupines.
While fishers and mountain lions are the only regular predators of porcupines, the fisher is the only one to have a specialized a killing technique. By repeatedly biting and scratching at the porcupine’s face, they cause it to bleed to death.
Because most of the porcupine is covered in quills, the fisher then eats the porcupine by flipping the dead animal over.
Adults weigh between two and seven kg (four-15 pounds) and are between 65 and 125 cm (29-47 inches) in length. Males are about twice the size of females, with females having been recorded being as small as 1.4 kg (3.1 pounds) and males at as much as nine kg (20 pounds).
Their coats are dark brown, with a black tail and legs, though some have a cream-coloured patch on the chest. All four feet have five toes with retractable claws.
Because they can rotate their hind paws 180 degrees, fishers can grasp limbs and climb down trees head first.
A circular patch of hair on the central pad of their hind paws marks plantar glands that give off a distinctive odour, which is believed to be used for communication during reproduction.
Fishers also are known for one of their calls, which often is said to sound like a child screaming—and can be mistaken for someone in dire need of help.
The collection of skulls will end March 15. Any comments or questions may be directed to Gurski at 274-5498 after 6 p.m.
Fort Frances Times
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