Boycott won’t take a bite out of Manitoba walleye market: fish exporter

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This article was published 26/11/2015 (3655 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The head of the federal Crown corporation that buys and sells Manitoba fish doesn’t believe the province’s walleye fisheries will suffer from a boycott he says is based on stale science.

Earlier this month, California-based Seafood Watch urged consumers to avoid fish caught in Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis, claiming fisheries in the province’s three largest lakes are among the most poorly managed in the world.

The president and CEO of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp., who was in China when the boycott was issued, said Thursday it won’t have a significant effect on Manitoba’s walleye exports — and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, regardless.

“They’ve been waiting to deliver their good news to the world, that we’ve overfished our lakes and hadn’t managed them right. They chose their time well, when fishing is down and walleye production is down,” Donald Salkeld said at his Crown corporation’s annual public meeting, at the Canad Inns Club Regent.

Salkeld said the timing is perfect because the supply of walleye is so low, U.S. demand for the species known locally as pickerel is higher than ever.

“I don’t think it’s going to affect this industry,” he said. “I met with one of our biggest buyers the Friday after the Monday the report came out. I was sitting in his corporate head office. I said, ‘What did you think about the article in Manitoba?’

“His answer was, ‘We love it. We hope you Canadians stop eating our fish up there and ship more down here.’ ”

Salkeld said while retail-store customers increasingly look for eco-certification stickers, Manitoban walleye exports are relatively immune from the trend because this province sells fish mostly to processors and restaurant supply chains.

“I think (eco-certification) is going to be part of the new world, maybe in the next generation, to be sure,” Salkeld said. “But it’s just marketing. It doesn’t make the fish better.”

After Seafood Watch issued its advisory, Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Tom Nevakshonoff announced a review of Manitoba fisheries and said the province will eco-certify its largest lakes.

Salkeld said Freshwater Fish would assist with the process but said fishers who struggle to make ends meet should not bear “a hardship” in the form of paying for eco-certification, a process with a pricetag some biologists have pegged at $250,000.

On Thursday, Nevakshonoff would not say whether Manitoba’s NDP government would provide funds for eco-certification.

“That’ll be a work in progress. It will take some time, possibly years, to achieve that,” said the minister.

Nevakshonoff said he believes fishers will appreciate the benefits of premium prices that come with eco-certified fish and must retain access to export markets. He also said it is important for the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. to be on side with eco-certification.

That was not the case at the Crown corporation’s annual public meeting, where well-known Lake Winnipeg fisher Robert Kristjanson described eco-certification as “the biggest crock of (excrement) there ever was.”

Salkeld suggested Manitoba hire fishers, rather than biologists, to collect data about fish caught in the province’s large lakes.

“I believe these fishermen that have been fishing here for hundreds of years are quite capable of sustaining their lakes very well,” he said. “They don’t need someone from California telling them how to manage their lakes. This is what upsets me.”

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

The full report from Seafood Watch