Levy
07-26-2012, 11:56 AM
So those of you who were following the Seibert lake Petition thread have the most to gain from this but i think everyone could learn a thing or two. All I'm doing is relaying information gained from a meeting with the Lakeland Biologist (as promised). Because I am unable to get a hold of unpublished and active research i cannot produce a presentation with nice figures and charts on fish ages, sizes, and distribution in Seibert Lake. I can however relay the info i have gleaned. Also this fall the Catch and Release proposal for Seibert Lake Pike will be brought up in the meeting and if there is a warm welcome to the idea it could possibly be implemented in 2013 but it is more likely to be brought before the board in 2013 for the 2014 regulations.
So i met with Jordan Walker who is responsible for the lakes in the beaver reaver drainage basin a while ago and he gave a good hour long talk on whats happening in our province with regulations, why they are the way they are, and how the fisheries are improving and changing.
Jordan said the SRD has three priorities; Producing self sustaining fish populations, Aboriginal Rights, and Sport Fishing. With Producing self sustaining fish populations being the most important and producing good sport fishing being the least important.
He also said the biggest complaint they get is that the alberta regulations allow for the harvest of large breeder fish and the lakes are full of small ones. In Alberta the high population, low number of lakes, and small variety of species (compared to the states or provinces like Ontario) in our lakes allows them to be fished out very easily. An Alberta lake will have at most five species that one can target. In most Alberta lakes two species that can be effectively targeted. If we went back to limits where we were allowed to keep fish before they reach maturity and before they have a few years to reproduce we would easily fish out that species before a significant number of them were able to breed.
The current regulations have produced improvements across the board over the past decade with a few exceptions. Slot sizes for walleye have been tried in the past to protect the big breeders and what was found was large number of illegal harvests by a few cm almost completely eliminated the fish in the protected slot size.
The health of a population of fish in a lake is assessed by marking and recapturing over several years. Four characteristics are used to assess the health of a population; age class distribution (number of adults and juveniles), age class stability (distinct numbers of fish at a certain age, and length), age at maturity (females at reproductive age), and growth speed. These four characteristics are graded as Trophy, Stable, Vulnerable, and Collapsed. In Seibert lake past netting since 2000 has put the walleye population at vulnerable. Netting in 2010 seemed to indicated the walleye population was collapsing, but that it may be that the netting that year failed to get a good representation of the population.
Seibert lake doesn't have very good growing conditions and mature female topped out at around 60 cm. Even if they were 17 years old. The majority of walleye in the lake didn't start reproducing until they were close to 50 cm and around eight years old.
The northern pike have not been directly studied but have been measured and assessed because they were captured in netting as well. The largest pike seen in the survey was 110cm and netting saw maybe two or three other pike over that 100 cm mark. What was interesting was how fast the pike were growing. They could make it to 100 cm in some cases as quickly as 10 years, but usually in 12 or 13 indicating a large ecological void for the population to fill. The highest density of fish were caught in a size range between 65 and 70 cm.
Wether its loss of habitat, illegal harvests, or incidental catch and release mortalities, pike are not making it to the legal harvest size.
Jordan Walker also discussed other lakes and show some examples of healthy fisheries across the province. If you are interested in getting a more in depth understanding on the Alberta fisheries management practices and methods, or if your are want to suggest a regulations change call your local Fish and Wildlife office and ask when the next meeting is for proposed regulations changes is. They are usually hosted in the fall and will offer you the chance to give input, learn, and contribute to the fisheries in your area. Im no english professor so if my grammer has made somethings unclear just ask.
Levy
So i met with Jordan Walker who is responsible for the lakes in the beaver reaver drainage basin a while ago and he gave a good hour long talk on whats happening in our province with regulations, why they are the way they are, and how the fisheries are improving and changing.
Jordan said the SRD has three priorities; Producing self sustaining fish populations, Aboriginal Rights, and Sport Fishing. With Producing self sustaining fish populations being the most important and producing good sport fishing being the least important.
He also said the biggest complaint they get is that the alberta regulations allow for the harvest of large breeder fish and the lakes are full of small ones. In Alberta the high population, low number of lakes, and small variety of species (compared to the states or provinces like Ontario) in our lakes allows them to be fished out very easily. An Alberta lake will have at most five species that one can target. In most Alberta lakes two species that can be effectively targeted. If we went back to limits where we were allowed to keep fish before they reach maturity and before they have a few years to reproduce we would easily fish out that species before a significant number of them were able to breed.
The current regulations have produced improvements across the board over the past decade with a few exceptions. Slot sizes for walleye have been tried in the past to protect the big breeders and what was found was large number of illegal harvests by a few cm almost completely eliminated the fish in the protected slot size.
The health of a population of fish in a lake is assessed by marking and recapturing over several years. Four characteristics are used to assess the health of a population; age class distribution (number of adults and juveniles), age class stability (distinct numbers of fish at a certain age, and length), age at maturity (females at reproductive age), and growth speed. These four characteristics are graded as Trophy, Stable, Vulnerable, and Collapsed. In Seibert lake past netting since 2000 has put the walleye population at vulnerable. Netting in 2010 seemed to indicated the walleye population was collapsing, but that it may be that the netting that year failed to get a good representation of the population.
Seibert lake doesn't have very good growing conditions and mature female topped out at around 60 cm. Even if they were 17 years old. The majority of walleye in the lake didn't start reproducing until they were close to 50 cm and around eight years old.
The northern pike have not been directly studied but have been measured and assessed because they were captured in netting as well. The largest pike seen in the survey was 110cm and netting saw maybe two or three other pike over that 100 cm mark. What was interesting was how fast the pike were growing. They could make it to 100 cm in some cases as quickly as 10 years, but usually in 12 or 13 indicating a large ecological void for the population to fill. The highest density of fish were caught in a size range between 65 and 70 cm.
Wether its loss of habitat, illegal harvests, or incidental catch and release mortalities, pike are not making it to the legal harvest size.
Jordan Walker also discussed other lakes and show some examples of healthy fisheries across the province. If you are interested in getting a more in depth understanding on the Alberta fisheries management practices and methods, or if your are want to suggest a regulations change call your local Fish and Wildlife office and ask when the next meeting is for proposed regulations changes is. They are usually hosted in the fall and will offer you the chance to give input, learn, and contribute to the fisheries in your area. Im no english professor so if my grammer has made somethings unclear just ask.
Levy