April 3, 2010

I bought my last fishing licence this week. It’s not that I plan to stop fishing. The places around Southern Alberta I fish are as close to heaven as I want to be for a while.

Fact is, though, when you reach 65, the province doesn’t require you to be licensed. So, they won’t be asking for my $25.66 any more. I wouldn’t actually mind continuing paying if the money was all earmarked for conservation. As it is, a piece of it goes to the Alberta Conservation Association, which does good work. The rest goes to the Big Black Hole, the provincial budget, I’m told.

Most anglers I talk to would gladly pay even more if it meant the province would put more into enforcement. As it is, budget cuts will likely affect the fisheries like everything else.

So, since the 2010 regulations aren’t a whole lot different than when they were developed with the 1998 Eastern Slopes review, it would be nice to expect everyone who fishes reads them, nods their heads and practises ethical angling, as defined on Page 2 of the regulations.

A couple of other references in the new version caught my attention. One suggests new changes will be unlikely for the next two years. We should know them well. Daryl Wig, Alberta Sustainable Resources Southern Rockies area fisheries biologist, says roundtables to discuss potential changes will still be held, one April 17 in Edmonton, and changes can be made if necessary.

“It’s a bit of a new approach. It was felt we don’t really need to change them every year.”

The other new item that stood out, however, will require a change sometime soon. Native Westslope cutthroat were designated as a threatened species in Alberta last fall. A team including Daryl, others in Sustainable Resource Development, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Trout Unlimited Canada and resource industries representing oil and gas and timber, started work last year on a recovery plan the must be in place within two years of designation.

He says the biggest issue is hybridization with rainbow trout, which were introduced to the Oldman drainage in the early 1900s.

Groups such as Water Matters and Trout Unlimited, Oldman River Chapter urged designation of Westslope cutthroat as threatened two years ago and declining populations were identified before that.

In its brief, Water Matters pointed out, “Native populations occur in the upper Oldman, Livingstone, and Castle Rivers, uncommonly in the Belly and St. Mary Rivers, and seem to be extirpated from the Crowsnest River.”

Alan Costello estimated in a report to SRD and the Alberta Conservation Association in 2006 “the existing native populations occur, at most, in 20 per cent of the species' historical range.”

Brian Meagher, TU provincial biologist, says the decline is cumulative from activities such as “over-fishing, poaching, resource extraction such as logging and quads in the rivers.”

The team is compiling research to determine where the purest cutthroat remain in their natural environment before they can recommend how recovery should proceed.

And, if you’re into pike, the regulations list Southern Alberta lakes that have been previously closed April 1 to early May but are now open year around.