Avoid the fine and get your boaters card online Posted by Steve on Thursday, June 03, 2010 (21:02:50) (33 reads)
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Aboriginals snub province's fishing ban - Maintain it's part of their treaty ri Posted by Steve on Thursday, April 22, 2010 (16:26:47) (63 reads)
STE. ROSE DU LAC -- The fishing is amazing -- and illegal.
But that didn't stop scores of aboriginals Wednesday from exercising what they say is their treaty right to fish.
Province pleased with efforts to protect fish
THE province says efforts to balance aboriginal fishing rights with the need to protect the natural resources is working in the Dauphin Lake area.
Agriculture Minister Stan Struthers, MLA for Dauphin-Roblin, said prior to Wednesday's "ceremonial fish" by aboriginal people on the Turtle River, an estimate of just 270 kilograms of fish had been harvested during the shutdown -- about a quarter of the amount taken last year.
"I'm really pleased that we've been able to protect that fish stock," Struthers said, noting spawning season is nearly finished for the year.
The province imposed the ban on pickerel fishing on the Turtle, Valley and Vermilion rivers on April 14. It has not indicated when it will be lifted. Fishers on other five other tributaries of Dauphin Lake were limited to a daily catch of six fish using a rod and reel.
Struthers said Wednesday the province had laid two charges for illegal fishing and issued 20 warnings during the ban.
-- Larry Kusch
Aboriginal anglers defied the province's ban on catching spawning pickerel on rivers that empty into Dauphin Lake, hauling in pails, buckets and tubs full of pickerel. Manitoba Conservation officials did not show up to enforce the fishing ban, at least not between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Two youths from Skownan First Nation pulled in eight pickerel, all 0.9 to 1.3 kilograms each, in their first 15 minutes of casting on the Turtle River, which winds around Ste. Rose du Lac, about 265 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, before emptying into Dauphin Lake.
Morris Swan Shannacappo, Grand Chief of Southern Manitoba Chiefs, was spotted pulling in a plump one. "My first cast," he shouted.
"What kind of medicine are you using?" someone shouted back.
Down the row of anglers casting from shore, it seemed someone was always pulling out a pickerel, also called walleye, during the morning fish.
You could see why. Upstream of a man-made riffle -- a kind of rapids built to help fish spawn -- at least 45 pickerel were visible at any one time in the clear, shallow water. The peaceful protest was held behind the religious grotto at Dollard Park in Ste. Rose.
A little farther away at the Ste. Rose bridge, also over the Turtle River, hundreds upon hundreds of pickerel could be seen spawning.
People lined up along the bridge to witness the amazing sight.
The pickerel seemed to cluster into an arrow, males following females who dropped their eggs for the males to fertilize. Only one aboriginal man was fishing at that location, using a snare -- a circle of wire attached to a long stick the fish swim into -- with great success.
Manitoba Conservation has banned all fishing on the Turtle, Valley and Vermillion rivers here since April 14, until the completion of spawning. In its place, and to accommodate the aboriginal treaty right to fish for sustenance, Manitoba Conservation has been handing out six frozen pickerel to every aboriginal person who shows up at the rivers.
The province ran the program last year for the first time, handing out nearly 5,000 kilograms of pickerel at a cost of $50,000, and it kept most aboriginal people from fishing those rivers during the week to two-week spawning season.
However, the truck with the freezer of fish purchased from the Manitoba Freshwater Fish Marketing Board was not at the site Wednesday, at least not between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
"It's like the welfare system once again," said Thomas Nepinak, West Region Tribal Council resources adviser, and one of the key organizers of Wednesday's event.
More than 100 aboriginal people showed up for the protest, but only 30 to 40 people fished. Nepinak said the turnout shows people are concerned about the erosion of their treaty rights. First Nation people have already made concessions to help fish populations by putting away their nets, he said.
Many aboriginal people fish at this time of year because they cannot compete during regular fishing season, he maintained. "The aboriginal is poor. He cannot afford a boat and motor. This is our time of the year when we can fish. Eighty-five per cent of us are unemployed," Nepinak said.
Gilbert Sinclair of Ebb and Flow First Nation was charged by Manitoba Conservation earlier in the week for fishing during the ban.
That didn't stop him from fishing Wednesday. He held up his citation in one hand and two fish he'd caught Wednesday morning in the other.
The ban is "B.S.," he said. "I'm exercising my treaty rights." Sinclair said he has caught "about 30" pickerel since spawning started about a week ago.
First Nations are still fighting tickets issued to two other aboriginal fishermen last year. The cases are expected to come up in court in the next few weeks.
Joe O'Connor, director of the provincial fisheries branch, said the ban was implemented because studies show the stock of upcoming fingerling fish is drastically depleted. Sport anglers have also had their limit reduced from six fish per day, down to four.
Shacks may be iced - St. Clements seeks ban after fishers leave 'pigsty' Posted by Steve on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 (14:32:51) (59 reads)
The Rural Municipality of St. Clements is mounting a campaign to have the province ban ice-fishing shacks from the Red River in a bid to end the mess left behind each spring.
In a letter to Water Stewardship Minister Christine Melnick, the rural municipality north of Winnipeg said it's seeking support from the neighbouring RM of St. Andrews and the City of Selkirk to prohibit the installation of permanent ice-fishing shelters.
Pails of human waste, treated lumber, furniture, booze bottles and five entire shacks were among the items left behind after the March 15 deadline to remove ice shacks.
"We feel the municipality should do their part by speaking out against these ice shelters and the unnecessary carnage they leave behind on the ice," the RM wrote in a March 25 letter to Melnick.
St. Clements Coun. Robert Belanger said no amount of education or enforcement has prevented the annual "environmental disaster" on the Red, which he points out is a Canadian heritage river.
"Go out there in the winter. It's a pigsty. It's a joke," said Belanger, who is also founder and co-ordinator of Red River Operation Cleanup.
"(A permanent shelter ban) is the only solution. You have a cancer, you cut it out."
The RM also warns the maze of ice shacks made it difficult for ice-cutters working to minimize flooding damage from spring ice jams.
Melnick was not available for comment.
However, André Desrosiers from Manitoba Natural Resources said he's disgusted at what he sees when he patrols the river in the winter.
"Seventy-five per cent of the people using these permanent shelters, they're no longer fishing shelters. They're party places," he said.
Some shacks Desrosiers has removed after the March 15 deadline didn't even have fishing holes, he said.
Of the 520 shacks on the Red this winter, about 80 per cent of them were involved in some kind of illegal activity. In late February, RCMP and Natural Resources issued 12 tickets for fishing and open-liquor infractions after checking about 200 shacks.
St. Clements Mayor Steve Strang said the province recognizes the problem and he is discussing options such as issuing shack permits, enhanced licensing, or even the establishment of a river commission to oversee such activities on the Red. Another solution the RM proposed is temporary pop-up shelters.
"I don't want to take this fishery away," Strang said.
"We have to find a solution... is it outright banning them? If we can't come up with a (solution) then it may be the only answer, but I think we can by talking to everybody."
Donovan Pearase, president of the Walleye Anglers Association of Manitoba, said he would prefer a licensing system, more money for enforcement and heavy fines -- rather than an outright ban on shacks.
"Nobody should have their rights stepped on. It's a small percentage out here who are ruining it for everybody,'' Pearase said.
"Go after the people who are doing it. Set up rules, licences, and have enough enforcement present on the river to stop these people from doing this."
He said the sewage and garbage from permanent shacks is nothing compared with what the City of Winnipeg puts in the river.
Existing legislation requires ice-fishing shacks to have a name and address displayed on the outside.
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