It's official! Manitoulin joins Zone 10 fishery

[Spiel]

It's official! Manitoulin joins Zone 10 fishery

Management area Advisory committee struck to present Island concerns at broader zone level

 

March 28, 2008

Jim Moodie / manitoulin.ca

 

 

MANITOULIN-A redrawing of the angling management map has left Manitoulin as a small fish in a big pond.

 

In January, the Island and its inland lakes were lumped into Zone 10, an area that sprawls from Wawa in the northwest to the French River in the south, and as far east and north as Elk Lake. The change came as part of a province-wide amalgamation of fishing divisions, which were cut nearly in half-from 37 to 20-and rechristened as fisheries management zones. Or FMZs, if you care to add a new acronym to your vocabulary.

 

For years, Manitoulin had been its own fishing district-number 28-and treated as distinct from other areas of the North. This made sense, said Bill Strain of the Little Current Fish and Game Club, since "the lakes on the North Shore are in Precambrian shield and entirely different from what we experience here with our limestone basin."

 

Now, however, Manitoulin will be just one voice among many on a council representing Zone 10, a vast region across which most fishing regulations will be harmonized.

 

The good news is that the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), recognizing the Island's exceptional character, has established a Manitoulin advisory committee that will have the opportunity to identify our area's priorities and air these concerns via its representative on the zone council.

 

"It's to serve as a sounding board and also as a means to forward ideas regarding fisheries management to the new council," said MNR biologist Wayne Selinger. He added that the only other part of Zone 10 that will have its own advisory committee is the French River. "These are specially designated areas within the zone because of their unique character."

 

The Manitoulin group met for the first time last week, with members on hand to represent fish and game clubs, tourist operators, First Nations, lake associations, the Manitoulin Area Stewardship Council and Manitoulin Streams.

 

Manitoulin has always had a voice in MNR decisions about the fishery, Mr. Selinger said, with the United Fish and Game Clubs of Manitoulin (UFGCM) having fulfilled this role in recent years. "But the new group has broader representation," he noted. "We have eight or nine members right now, and are also approaching the Manitoulin Municipal Association. We're trying to cover the full spectrum."

 

At the inaugural meeting of the committee held at the Manitoulin Welcome Centre on March 17, Al Douglas, proprietor of Hideaway Lodge and chair of the Manitoulin Tourism Association, was chosen in absentia to represent the group at the zone level. "The committee will serve as a means to collate input for this individual to take to the Zone 10 council," said Mr. Selinger. "It's one voice but you're pulling in input from a broader group."

 

While most regulations regarding fishing seasons and catch limits will be consistent across the zone, as set out in the province's new Ecological Framework for Recreational Fisheries Management, the biologist said "there may be a need for (Manitoulin) to differ somewhat, as is already the case."

 

The daily catch limit for yellow perch on Manitoulin, for instance, is currently 25, as compared to twice that in other areas of Zone 10, noted Mr. Selinger. This owes to the fact that perch is more highly prized as a sport fish on the Island, where it grows to bigger sizes and is deemed an excellent meal.

 

"It's not really a sport fish in the balance of Zone 10," he said. "It's seen as more of a forage or nuisance fish, because they don't size up and provide the same kind of fishery as the jumbo perch on the Island."

 

Recognizing the value of this niche fishery, "we've rationalized an exception for Manitoulin perch," said the MNR rep.

 

The UFGCM would like to see protection of the perch fishery taken a step farther, with a closed season during spring spawning. Asked if this wish is likely to be granted, Mr. Selinger was hesitant to make a definitive prediction. "This is something that would have to go through the zone council," he said.

 

The most immediate change, and one that is already irking a few Islanders, is a reduction in the daily limit for lake trout. In the past, anglers on Manitoulin could catch up to three lake trout per day; that number is now poised to drop to two.

 

While the ministry, in rolling out its new fisheries framework for 2008, insisted that most anglers "will not notice big changes in the regulations," it did concede that, "in some areas, the change in boundaries will mean more significant changes in fishing seasons and fishing limits."

 

Moreover, because the MNR is most concerned about the protection of natural fish populations, a number of stricter rules have been put in place regarding the harvest of brook trout and lake trout.

 

Manitoulin has a relatively small population of the former (most of them reintroduced through recent stocking efforts undertaken by the MNR), but plenty of the latter, particularly in Lake Manitou.

 

Indeed, the population here of lake trout is so vibrant that, for years, the ministry has been drawing spawn from Manitou for the stocking of other lakes across the North, noted Kevin Hutchinson, a representative of the Little Current Fish and Game Club who will be sharing duties on the new advisory committee with Mr. Strain.

 

Initially, this withdrawal of spawn was rewarded with the stocking of lake trout fingerlings, said Mr. Hutchinson. But lately, the MNR has "decided that they don't need to put any back in because the lake is doing so well." The ministry is also harvesting fewer eggs from Manitou these days, he added, "because they now figure that it's better to take spawn from the area where it's going to be stocked, because they survive better."

 

As a result, Mr. Hutchinson said lake trout in Manitou are naturally reproducing at an impressive rate and the population is booming as never before. "The fishing this winter for lake trout has been, by far, the best fishing we've ever had."

 

He said it's striking how many trout in the 14"-18" range, perfect for eating, have been found by anglers' hooks of late. "The lake's full of them," he said.

 

Given this preponderance, Mr. Hutchinson feels it's unfair to subject Manitoulin to the same restrictions on trout as will be applied elsewhere across the zone. "We're unique in that we have a really good lake for trout," he said. "My concern is for the poor tourist operator, especially on Lake Manitou, where the livelihood is largely based on lake trout."

 

Knocking the daily catch limit down from three to two might not seem like a huge deal to some observers, but Mr. Hutchinson said it could be the difference in a trout fisherman's choice of where to spend his summer holiday. "If the ministry is saying you can only have two, then what is going to happen? Are people going to go to Michigan or to other places?" he wonders.

 

The ministry is additionally proposing a closed season for lake trout after July 15, since females are full of spawn in late summer. Mr. Hutchinson said he can understand the rationale for such a move in areas where lake trout are struggling to regain a foothold, but given Manitou's robust population of trout, and the fact that many tourists expect to fish for them all summer, he feels such a stipulation would be unfair.

 

To him, this is a perfect illustration of how the one-size-fits-all approach reflected in the new zone model simply won't work. "I find it a pretty hard pill to swallow," he said. "We're here on Manitoulin, trying to promote fishing, and all of a sudden we're forced into Zone 10, whereas for years and years we were area 28 and could have our own say. We should be our own specific, separate zone."

 

Mr. Strain agrees that this would be the ideal scenario, but given that there appears to be no going back, is trying to look on the bright side. "It's great that we at least have an opportunity to have a subcommittee to represent Manitoulin's interests," he said. "If it wasn't that way, you'd just have one person going to these Zone 10 meetings. This way, at least there's more of a collective voice."

 

It's a point that Mr. Selinger is also emphasizing. "It's one advantage to the new framework, in that we're giving stakeholders a greater voice in fisheries management," he said. Another bonus, he said, is that "attached to each zone there is a new fisheries monitoring proposal, where we'll be doing random sampling of lakes across the zone on a five-year cycle to evaluate populations."

 

This has occurred over the years for various animal populations, such as moose, he noted, but the MNR hasn't previously had "this structured monitoring for fish." The proposal would allow for "an unbiased random sampling of the province's fishery" that would greatly enhance the ministry's ability to manage the resource, he said.

 

In the meantime, he is hopeful that Manitoulin's concerns can be adequately reflected within the new zone, while declining to promise too much in the way of exceptions that might be made to various rules. "The flexibility regarding regulatory options on the Island remains to be seen," he said.

 

The first meeting of the zone council, at which Island rep Mr. Douglas plans to be present, will be held in Sudbury today (March 26).

[fishindevil]

Man i sure would like to get up there and fish that island i have been wanting to do it for well over 10yrs.....if only that moey tree in my yard would hurry up and grow and start making those $1,000 bills !!!!!!!!

[irishfield]

One thing I'm surprised they don't note in that news brief is the fact that it appears they have made Manitou Lake a sanctuary for the month of January and it never was before. I only know this as I was researching it for my s-in-law that has purchased a campground on Manitou, that she is taking over the end of April, and was pestering her that if she expects to survive the winters she should look into renting out the cottages to sledders and ice fisherman.. and get her "hubby" to start building some huts.

[danbouck]

Man i sure would like to get up there and fish that island i have been wanting to do it for well over 10yrs.....if only that moey tree in my yard would hurry up and grow and start making those $1,000 bills !!!!!!!!

 

 

Luckily a close buddy bought 100 acres on Tobacco Lake on the island