It’s easy to revise history to support a narrative. Heres’s another perspective: Alberta’s fisheries were collapsed by overfishing prior to 1990. The high harvests over those years were not sustainable, especially as there were no size limits in place to prevent young fish from being removed before they spawned. Anglers persisted despite declining fishing success for years, but finally started to drop out by the 90s because the fishing was so poor. This is well documented (
https://bgs.ucalgary.ca/files/bgs/Po...e_Collapse.pdf).
Finally, in the mid 90s, action was taken to recover the fisheries, starting with walleye. Most lakes went catch and release (which is not closed) and minimum size limits were put in place to allow the fish to replace themselves before being removed. The next action was to recover pike, which was just about as bad, but the powers-that-were decided that anglers shouldn’t be expected to forsake all pike harvest on top of walleye, so as consolation, very few pike fisheries went catch and release, instead generally going to a limit of 1-3 fish over 63cm. Perch got pretty much no attention. That decision has consequences we are still dealing with today.
Time passes. Recovery happens. In just 10 years, Walleye fisheries get way better. Some spectacularly. Pike, not so much. Perch generally get even worse. Angler numbers increase, eventually getting back to 1980s levels by 2015. Lots of folks smiling and having great fishing. For most anglers, the benchmark has shifted. The crappy walleye fishing during the collapse years is forgotten and it becomes normal to catch dozens a day. With more walleye being caught, pressure to allow harvest increases. Still confronted by the basic dilemma of too many folks wanting to harvest a fish, the bios come up with an innovative solution to allow controlled harvest at some lakes: special harvest licences. That move is met with mixed views, but becomes more popular with time.
More time passes and perspectives shift more. Collapsed walleye fisheries are just a memory. Some new anglers never experienced them. Noticing the gap between good walleye fishing and less good pike fishing, the new problem becomes ‘too many’ walleye in the minds of some. The status gap between walleye compared to pike and perch widens. Fisheries bios are criticized for mismanagement, after having shown how effective the recovery actions can be. Rather than get behind efforts to finally take the action needed to recover pike, critics condemn the bios for ‘closing’ pike fisheries rather than increasing walleye harvest, which is popularly thought to be the real cause of low pike numbers. The AFGA gets upset and calls for a science review. Pike recovery is delayed further. Perch management is barely on the radar screen.
So, here we are. Still dealing with the same basic dilemma of many anglers wanting to harvest fish from too few lakes. There are walleye in the account to spend, but they have to be shared amongst many mouths. How do we keep history in focus and use what we should have learned to make good decisions today? I bet the bios have some good answers. The ones I talk to sound like they know what they’re doing. Maybe we should get behind them. Hopefully, we can get some pike fisheries recovered and then move on to perch.