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The Allocation of Commercial Fishing Rights within the Great Lakes
This paper, by Evadne Liuson, reviews the agencies and instruments regulating recreational, Aboriginal, and commercial fishing on the Canadian Great Lakes, with a focus on the Individual Transferab…
environment.probeinternational.org
This is a LINK for those interested in some great reading material on the history of the Great Lakes fishery from the early days until this report was completed in 1997. If you have some spare time from your daily schedule this is an excellent read. I find it interesting to know what it once was, compared to what it is today. Available in PDF format
Sum Excerpts
Coureur des bois Pierre Radisson described the fishery resource of Lake Superior as consisting of “stores of fishes, sturgeons of vast bigness, and Pykes seven feet long.
In Lake Ontario, “salmon were so numerous in the late 18th century that women waded into the water to seine them with flannel petticoats.
By 1900, for example, the once abundant Atlantic salmon had vanished from Lake Ontario.
In the 1930s, a new threat arrived on the scene in the form of the parasitic sea lamprey. This eel-like fish wreaked havoc on the lake trout and whitefish populations when it invaded.
The blue pike (also called the blue walleye), endemic to Lakes Erie and Ontario, was also fished to extinction. Even the lake sturgeon, which was once so numerous that it was considered a pest, was a rare sight by 1900.
By the 1960s, the fisheries of the Great Lakes were on the verge of collapse. Hundreds of commercial fishing operations had gone out of business.
Later in the century, Lake Erie fish populations were devastated by the effects of eutrophication. The walleye catch, which had averaged over three million kilograms a year in the 1940s, dropped to 148,602 kilograms in 1968. Mercury contamination prompted the closure of the Lake Erie commercial fishery for walleye in 1970
On the Great Lakes, the industry is represented by the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. The federation becomes involved in conflicts that arise between sport fishing interests and the interests of other user groups. In the past, the greatest conflict has been between sport and commercial fishers. Recently, however, conflict between sport and Aboriginal fishers has been more intense.
In fact, today the Great Lakes support a multibillion dollar fishing industry.
The fishing industry of the Great Lakes is sustained by three types of activity: sport or recreational, Aboriginal, and commercial. Economically, sport fishing is the most important of the three.
Fish stocks have undergone a radical transformation in terms of size, age, species, numbers, and abundance. In fact, it is estimated that over 10 percent of the 75 species that were once found in Lake Ontario have disappeared.
ALSO COVERS
Fisheries Management Agencies
The International Joint Commission
The Great Lakes Fishery Commission
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
Fisheries Management Instruments
The Quota Program
Sum Excerpts