A Lake Winnipeg commercial fisher working near Deer Island in the Hecla-Grindstone region has been swamped by ongoing algal booms since the fall fishery season opened.
Bill Buckels took photos on Oct. 14 of ongoing blooms polluting the region and the deleterious effect they’re having on his harvesting operation.
The commercial fishery is a major source of income for fishers along the lake and an important contributor to Manitoba’s economy.
Communities along the west shore of Lake Winnipeg, including Winnipeg Beach, Gimli and Arnes, were inundated with noxious-smelling algal blooms and experienced some fish kills near the end of September and in October (see Oct. 5 and Oct. 12 editions of the Express online). The provincial government’s department of environment and climate said in statements at that time that the algal blooms had disappeared or weren’t present to be sampled.
Buckels said the area where he fishes is awash with algae, and that the government “must have been looking in the wrong lake.”
“All the new [NDP] government has to do is come to see me and I’ll show them a bunch of blooms,” said Buckels. “They should be looking for another job if they can’t see them, and I’ll be sure to phone the new ministers.”
It was the contention of a number of presenters at a public meeting hosted in September by the Silver Harbour-based Coalition for Lake Winnipeg that little progress has been made to reduce phosphorus – the primary nutrient encouraging algae growth – flowing into the lake from sources such as wastewater, raw sewage and agricultural operations. There was a call for meaningful action from senior levels of government to save the lake’s health from degrading further.
