WHEATLEY, Ont. — Midway through the summer, while most of the fishermen on the U.S. side of Lake Erie were enjoying the bounty of another strong walleye harvest from the recreational fishery, a controversy was simmering here, in this Canadian village that touts itself as the “freshwater fish capital of the world.”
Despite the fact this is a different country and you need to cross an international boundary to get here, the issue was hardly a Canada-only matter. When it comes to Lake Erie, what happens in Ontario doesn’t necessarily stay in Ontario. The fish, especially those prized walleye, belong to everyone –— four U.S. states and the province — and they pass back and forth across that line of demarcation at will.
“To those walleye, there is no boundary. They go wherever they want, whenever they want,” said Captain Dave Spangler, a veteran of decades of charter fishing on the lake from the American side.
But when a labor group claimed in July that the inspection of the large Ontario-based commercial fishery on Lake Erie could be taken out of the hands of the government and made a private enterprise, the matter never showed up on the Ohio radar. Quite likely, it should have piqued our interest, at a minimum.
The issue, which was not a full-blown crisis but certainly more than a minor labor kerfuffle, was raised by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which obviously has a vested interest if such a change took place, and its likely negative impact on the organized labor jobs involved in governmental inspection of those commercial fishing harvests.
Warren “Smokey” Thomas, OPSEU president, fired one of the first salvos in the debate over the move. “Until the government reverses course, it’s basically telling the commercial fishing industry: you don’t have a license to fish, you have a license to steal,” Thomas said in mid-July when the union brought the issue to the surface.
He was clearly focused on both jobs and fish, and expressed concern that such a move could put the entire Lake Erie fishery at risk if any commercial fishermen used the proposed reduced scrutiny to overharvest walleye.
That’s where Ohio and Michigan anglers come into the fray. While we certainly are enjoying a wealth of walleye currently, that picture has fluctuated over the years, and since the walleye game is played with a different set of rules in Canadian waters, we should probably pay close attention to anything involving that commercial walleye fishery.
Ohio enjoyed a very productive commercial walleye harvest earlier in the 20th century, but due to pollution in the lake and concerns about increasing mercury content in walleye, the state suspended the commercial catch in 1970. While a robust recreational and charter fishing phenomenon blossomed on the U.S. side in the following decades thanks to a much cleaner Lake Erie, Ontario has maintained a commercial walleye fishing industry.
When the Great Lakes Fishery Commission's Lake Erie Committee sets Total Allowable Catch (TAC) limits for its partner states and the province, the overwhelming majority of Ontario’s allotment goes to the commercial fleet. That limit was set at 3.061 million walleye in 2018.
Recent figures show that there are about 200 active commercial fishing licenses for the Canadian waters of the lake, although there are roughly 50 commercial fishing boats, since some entities hold multiple licenses. These operations take walleye, yellow perch, white bass, white perch and other less desirable species.
Addressing the union’s earlier claims, Jolanta Kowalski, senior media relations officer for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry said the Ontario government is not privatizing inspections of quotas and daily catch in the commercial fishing industry. She said the ministry has actually increased the number of staff performing the inspections.
“Under a revised agreement with the Ontario Commercial Fisheries Association, the ministry has increased the number of Port Observers — who are ministry OPSEU employees — who continue to inspect commercial fish catches by directly inspecting on boats and at docks,” she said. “The ministry now does all of the data entry associated with daily catch reports.”
Ohio still permits commercial fishing for yellow perch, although there are fewer than 20 such licenses issued and up to 23 commercial boats involved in the fishery. Commercial fishermen get about one-third of Ohio’s annual TAC for yellow perch. Commercial fishermen based on the Ohio side of the lake also net rough fish, such as carp, bigmouth buffalo and sheepshead.
When the proposed changes in the way Ontario monitors its commercial fishing fleet were first raised by the union, Thomas cited several examples where such “self-regulation” arrangements had resulted in serious problems. “Can we really trust the commercial fishing industry to police itself?” he asked. “History has shown over and over that while businesses are good at making money, they’re terrible at following rules designed to protect safety and sustainability.”
Spangler, who serves as the vice-president of the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association, said that when he looks at the big picture on the lake, he is concerned about what goes on across that international line.
“Anyplace that (self-regulation) happens, we know it doesn’t follow through too well,” he said.
“I’m sure there are a lot of honest folks who will play by the rules no matter what, but anytime you put some loopholes in place, somebody is going to jump through those loopholes. Over time, there have always been some issues involved with the commercial fishing, so we need to pay close attention to what goes on there. These are all of our fish, not just Canada’s.”
No matter how the Ontario issue eventually was resolved, the takeaway from this for all Lake Erie anglers, and anyone interested in the overall health of the lake and its prolific fishery, is that the water and the fish know no boundaries. When it comes to Lake Erie, “minding our own business” extends beyond any state or international line.
First Published September 26, 2019, 5:33 p.m.
