Lake Winnipeg commercial fishers who work in the Hecla-Grindstone region north of Riverton say they encountered an algal bloom last week after the commercial season opened.
Robert T. Kristjanson said algal blooms at the top of the lake’s south basin and in the channel region continue to wreak havoc on fishing operations and damage the ecosystem. And there’s little hope for future generations, who’ll have a “terrible life ahead of them” if governments fail to put a stop to the pollution.
“As fishermen, we’re not whining. I’m an old man looking at this and tears are in my eyes because I never grew up like this. We fishers around the lake see this great big wad of dirt [i.e., algae] swirling around and we can’t do anything about it. The little time I got left on Earth means nothing. But I have little ones growing up and this is what’s been done to them and what’s getting passed on to them,” said Kristjanson, who has fished commercially since he was a boy and will be turning 90 years old. “We’ve had different governments over the decades that have come in and none of them have done anything to stop the pollution to our lake. All they ever talk about is putting money into the lake.”
The fall commercial fishing season opened on Sept. 7, and Kristjanson said his son Chris, who also fishes in the region, came ashore last week with “many inches” of algae in his boat after he hauled in his nets. And the algae are not limited to their area; commercial fishers farther north, around the Pine Dock region, are dealing with algae.
“The government will say it’s the warm weather causing this, but it’s not. It’s what they’re putting into our lake – that’s the real story,” said Kristjanson.
As a boy, Kristjanson used to work with his parents in fishing camps up north in the fall, and he said there were times when they encountered some algae in the bay area, but it was short-lived.
“Yes, there were years we did have algae that came in the bay for a little while, but the next day it was gone. And it was never ever a problem on the open lake itself,” said Kristjanson. “What we’re seeing now is the result of more residential development that creates more sewage, the farming industry with its nutrients and pesticides that run into the lake and the sewer pipes from the City of Winnipeg sending it all up to us.”
The City of Winnipeg is a notorious polluter of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, which eventually flow into Lake Winnipeg. In addition to treated wastewater from the city – which the Lake Winnipeg Foundation identified as one of the province’s phosphorus hotspots – the city’s combined sewer outlets dump raw human waste into Winnipeg creeks and rivers several times a year.
In April 2022, the city sent a whopping 59.6 million litres of raw sewage into the Red River during a storm to prevent it from backing up into city homes. The latest spill occurred on Sept. 1 when .03 million litres of raw sewage over a period of almost four hours were released into the Assiniboine River, according the city’s water and waste department reporting site.
Kristjanson said he hasn’t heard a word from any of the candidates in the provincial election campaign about what their respective parties plan to do to help the ailing lake.
“What are they going to do about this pollution? We’re going to elect another government, we don’t know which one, and they haven’t said anything about our lake,” he said. “We’ve got our commercial fishing industry around the lake and visitors that come up here for pleasure and to enjoy the water, but the pollution is killing us. Between the zebra mussels and the algae, I don’t know which is going to win. We have the most wonderful fish, a gift of God, and they’re trying to destroy it.”
Commercial fisher Bill Buckels, who also fishes in the Hecla-Grindstone region, said there’s been no improvement to Lake Winnipeg’s water quality. He too encountered an algal bloom last week after the fall season opened. And there has been no meaningful progress or concrete actions from any level of government to address the ongoing destruction through nutrient over-loading from agriculture and wastewater.
“The blooms just keep getting worse,” said Buckels. “To say any differently would be a lie.”
