Some fishers in Manitoba, along with the Manitoba Wildlife Federation, are concerned about what they consider unsustainable fishing practices on Lake Winnipeg.

According to Dr. Scott Forbes, an ecologist at the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba's quota system is built in such a way that it cannot prevent unsustainable harvests, and he says it has to change.

"We've already collapsed sauger, we're on our way to collapsing walleye, and now the fishing pressure is switching to whitefish and they have three or four years of good fishing left before they start to decline rapidly," said Forbes yesterday at a rally at the Legislature meant to promote sustainable fisheries management in Manitoba.

Dr. Forbes is calling for a complete closure of the sauger fishery in Lake Winnipeg.

"We're worried about their future existence on the lake," he says.

According to Dr. Forbes, walleye will recover after depletion but sauger will not. He says they're a fragile species and he blames the current sauger situation on overfishing and poor management.

"The fishery on Lake Winnipeg is essentially unmanaged. The way the quota system is built cannot prevent unsustainable harvests of every single commercial species," says Dr. Forbes. He says the system has to change.

A release from MWF says the current system encourages intense fishing pressure on the most valuable species. MWF managing director Dr. Brian Kotak says in the release, "the current government inherited a mess and change is necessary."

Sustainable development minister Rochelle Squires says the government is looking at a lot of options. She says, since taking power, the province has increased mesh sizes for netting in the south and north basins of the lake and has introduced a voluntary buyback of quota. Squires says the government is listening to science and is interested in obtaining more science and an agreed upon data set for fish stocks.

"Undoubtedly, there are differing viewpoints on how we can ensure the sustainability of the fishery and what needs to be done. Of course, the perspective shifts if you're an angler or a commercial fisher, but at the end of the day, we have to listen to the fish," says Squires.

The MWF has released a list of recommendations, some of which include increasing net mesh sizes across the lake, closing the sauger fishery entirely, developing a fishery management model based on British Columbia's Freshwater Fisheries Society, and implementing a five per cent royalty on commercial fish caught in Manitoba.