Overall, your response in this survey will help determine the level of support for fishing closures as a recovery action. Fisheries Management would appreciate your opinion on these proposed closures and other fishing regulation changes.
This survey closes on October 20, 2017 at 4:30pm.
The North Central Native Trout Recovery Program is an Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) initiative to recover threatened native trout species in the central and northern East Slopes of Alberta, including bull trout, Arctic grayling, and Athabasca rainbow trout, as well as benefiting other species including mountain whitefish.
A fishing closure means there is no Indigenous or Non-Indigenous fishing permitted at any time of year, including catch and release fishing. Proposed closures are very similar to the standard fishing regulations in place in East Slopes streams for several decades (1950s to 1980s), where alternate-year closures were used to protect fish. Each year, approximately half of the streams would be closed, and half would be open. This would be reversed the next year. Similar to the current catch-and-release regulations, this one-year rest period was not enough to allow fish populations to recover.
To effectively recover populations to levels where options such as sustainable harvest can be considered, the following watersheds are being proposed for five year fishing closures. After five years, the populations and the fishing closures will be re-evaluated.
- Kakwa River and all tributaries
- Lower Ram River and the section of the North Saskatchewan River between Rough Creek and Prentice Creek
- The upper Berland River and tributaries
- The upper Clearwater River and tributaries