Lucas Punkari
After months of discussions and getting feedback from the public over the summer, the recommendations made by the Fisheries Management Zone 5 advisory council to the Ministry of Natural Resources are inching closer to approval.
But before the new regulations for lakes from the Manitoba border to the boundary of Quetico Provincial Park can be put into effect for 2014, the general public has a chance to have their say this week before the MNR and FMZ 5 advisory council meets next month.
“We’re at the point now where the MNR has accepted the FMZ 5 advisory council’s recommendations, put in their own ideas, and now it’s out to the public to view the proposed objectives and the recommended action for each of the species,” explained Richard Boileau of Fort Frances, a representative of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (O.F.A.H.) on the advisory council.
But those who want to put in their two cents won’t have much longer to do so.
The MNR needs the completed comment forms, which can be picked up at the local office on Scott Street, by this Friday (Nov. 30) so they can be reviewed before the December meeting.
“You can’t wait much longer if you have anything you want to share with us,” stressed Brian Jackson, the area biologist for the MNR in Atikokan.
The boundaries of FMZ 5 extend from the Canada/U.S. border to the south, the Ontario/Manitoba border to the west, the CN Rail line to the north, and the Universal Transverse Mercatoral co-ordinate 15 (which also is the boundary of Quetico Provincial Park) to the east.
All lakes in this geographical region fall under the FMZ 5 banner, except for Rainy Lake, Lake of the Woods, and Wabigoon Lake, as well as the Rainy River and the English River, which are classified as specially-designated waters.
When it comes to major proposed changes, one of the biggest involves northern pike, which would see a change from the current regulation of keeping no northern pike between 70 and 90 cm, and only one over 90 cm, to one that would see no northern pike kept that are more than 75 cm long.
“When the current regulation was put in during the late 1990s, the idea was to increase the number of big pike in the lakes as it’s very important to the tourism industry,” Jackson explained.
“What has been a criticism, though, is that the pike that are between 70-90 cm are exactly the size for people that want to eat pike.
“There are a lot of lakes that will rarely produce those big 15- to 20-pound pikes,” Jackson added. “But with the current regulations, anglers were being prevented from catching a five- to six-pound pike that they could eat.
“In general, the tourism industry [was] happy with the current regulations but those resident anglers that want to eat pike weren’t, so this was kind of a compromise,” he noted.
The other major potential change regards black crappie, which would see a change to the daily catch and possession limits.
Instead of the current limits, which are 15 for a sportfishing-licenced angler and 10 for those with a conservation licence, the proposed changes would see those numbers cut down to 10 for a sportfishing-licenced angler and five for those holding a conservation licence.
“One of the common things that you are seeing is that somebody will go out ice-fishing, get on those fish, go home that night and put their GPS location on the Internet, and there will be 30 people sitting around that hole hammering away on the spot the very next day,” Jackson noted.
“On the smaller lakes, that is really going to hurt the population, so we’re trying to reduce the amount of fish that people are harvesting on any given trip to stop that,” he reasoned.
No major changes are planned to the current lake trout and bass regulations, although the elimination of reduced bass limits in the winter and spring has been proposed by the FMZ 5 advisory council.
There also are no new regulations planned for walleye, although Jackson said that could be totally different in a few years’ time.
“There are some concerns about the walleye population but I don’t think the [advisory] council and the MNR are ready with what exactly we need to do at this time before the 2018 regulations,” he explained.
“We need to consider things a bit more and look at whole bunch of data before we start discussing things,” Jackson remarked.
“And I think when 2015 comes around that we will have some hints as to what we can be doing.”
While the FMZ 5 advisory council’s work is coming to an end, Boileau felt his time with the group is something he’ll never forget.
“It was real rewarding experience. And if anyone who cares about fishing is asked to get on this kind of thing, I think that they should do this,” he stressed.
“If you are in agreement or strongly opposed to how things are going, you have the chance to step up and put in your two cents,” Boileau noted.
