Watchdog urges consumers not to buy fish from Manitoba’s largest lakes

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This article was published 09/11/2015 (3672 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An influential seafood watchdog is telling consumers everywhere not to purchase fish from Manitoba’s three largest lakes, claiming their fisheries are among the worst-managed in the world.

In a statement slated for release today, Seafood Watch warns people to avoid buying fish caught in Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis, the source of 81 per cent of the fish caught in this province. (Read the report.)

The move has potentially dire consequences for Manitoba’s economy and rural communities around its lakes, as about 85 per cent of the $22 million worth of fish caught in this province every year are exported to markets in the U.S. and Europe, where buyers are beginning to give preferential treatment to fisheries certified as ecologically sound.

The large size of Manitoba’s freshwater fishery — the second-biggest in North America by volume, after the Great Lakes — led the Monterey, Calif.-based Seafood Watch and its Vancouver partner SeaChoice to conduct the assessment, initially with the expectation this province would fare well.

“We were quite shocked at how poorly this fishery performed against other fisheries,” said Scott Wallace, a David Suzuki Foundation research scientist and SeaChoice member. “What we found with this fishery is it was like the good old days — a throwback to a time when people didn’t consider fisheries management at all.”

Seafood Watch claims Manitoba’s fisheries suffer from a poor understanding of stock sizes and catch rates, no catch limits for some species, lousy data, poorly regulated bycatch, no harvest-control rules and an “unenforceable multi-species quota system” that lumps in walleye — locally known as pickerel — with sauger and whitefish.

The assessment also claims “many fish stocks have collapsed or are severely depleted.”

Manitoba’s commercial fishers vehemently reject this claim, arguing fish stocks in the province’s largest lakes are healthy. The Seafood Watch assessment holds no water because it’s based upon paper reports, not actual conditions in the lakes, said commercial fisher Kris Isfeld, a spokesman for hundreds of Lake Winnipeg fishers.

He said the past 10 to 15 years are among the most productive years he’s ever seen for the fishery.

“The Lake Winnipeg fishery is one of the most successful, sustainable fisheries in the world. It has never collapsed,” Isfeld said.

‘We were quite shocked at how poorly this fishery performed against other fisheries’

— Scott Wallace, a David Suzuki Foundation research scientist and SeaChoice member

“Because there’s been no government interference, the fishery is thriving. What they want us to do is change the way we’ve been running the fishery for 100 years. They want us to fit into a European (system) that’s modelled after fisheries that have collapsed.”

Isfeld said he has no faith in provincial fisheries biologist Geoff Klein, who said in August Lake Winnipeg’s walleye stocks are declining. Isfeld said what’s actually happening is more whitefish have moved into the lake’s southern basin, where they fill up gillnets and prevent fishers from catching more lucrative walleye.

Less aggressive harvesting of adult walleye would harm fish stocks, Isfeld continued, claiming adult walleye will prey upon juveniles if left unchecked. Calling ecological certification “a load of crap,” he said management practices foreign to Manitoba lakes would harm the fishery and threaten jobs.

Not everyone involved in Manitoba’s commercial fishing industry is opposed to certification.

Last year, Manitoba’s Waterhen Lake became the first freshwater body in North America to attain eco-certification from the Marine Stewardship Council, an international body.

Lake Winnipeg could also benefit from ecological certification, said Karen Olson of retailer Gimli Fish.

‘Because there’s been no government interference, the fishery is thriving. What they want us to do is change the way we’ve been running the fishery for 100 years’

— commercial fisher Kris Isfeld

“We would love to be certified under the Marine Stewardship Council,” she said, noting the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. — the federal agency that exports Manitoba fish — has rejected this idea because of the expense, estimated by some ecologists at upwards of $250,000.

“Maybe it’s a cost that has to be incurred. Walmart and Superstore won’t buy fish that isn’t certified,” Olson said.

No one at the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. was available for comment.

Regardless of the cost of certification, Manitoba doesn’t have the capacity to certify Lake Winnipeg, said University of Winnipeg ecologist Scott Forbes, pointing to cuts to fisheries science by the Selinger government.

“These guys are as bad as the Harper Conservatives in terms of the attack on science,” Forbes said.

In response to the Seafood Watch assessment, Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Tom Nevakshonoff issued a statement promising “a comprehensive review of the sustainability of Manitoba fisheries” that will balance the needs of commercial fishers with the goal of ensuring they retain access to global markets. A report will be issued in 2016, Nevakshonoff pledged.

The Suzuki Foundation’s Wallace welcomed the review. “If you can’t put the resources into one of the largest fisheries, where do you put the resources?” he asked.

 

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca