Perspectives on Asian Carp Prevention in Canada: Indigenous Commercial Fish Harvester
Indigenous communities, and Indigenous commercial fishers in particular, play a key role in the early detection of Grass Carp in the Canadian waters of the Great Lakes. Hear the perspectives of Bernie LePage, a Métis commercial fisher, and Francis Lavalley, a First Nations commercial fisher, on how a Grass Carp invasion would impact their livelihoods.
If you think you have captured a Grass Carp or any other aquatic invasive species, call the Invading Species Hotline at 1-800-563-7711 and do not release it back into the water!
Transcript
Speaker 1 (Bernie):
One of the biggest concerns I have about an invading species, especially like the new one, the Asian carp. If they ever get in here and take off as a species, who knows where it's all going to end up?
Like they get to be a big fish. They could be the only one species left in the lake. They might clean out everything else. And as somebody who is making a living off of it, it's very scary to think, “Oh, you got something knocking at the door there that's going to come in here and wipe out your fishery”.
You know, like all of a sudden, there it goes. You know.
I'm a Métis commercial fisherman. We harvest whitefish, lake trout, mostly. Some perch and a little bit of pickerel, herring. And it's nice to be able to provide a living on the Métis culture out here on southern Georgian Bay.
Speaker 2 (Francis):
I've been working off and on as a commercial fisherman all my life. My father was a fisherman. His father was a fisherman. Fishing is part of who I am. And because it was given to me, it was shown to me through my father. So I hold a piece of my father every time I do it.
Speaker 1 (Bernie):
I first started fishing with my father and my grandfather. I was a very, very young boy. So I've been doing it for over 60 years. And I have seen a lot of changes on Georgian Bay here.
Speaker 2 (Francis):
There's been too much invasion in these Great Lakes already and it's hard to withstand. The ecosystem is failing.
Part of our culture will disappear if we don't have our fish. It's something that we've always taken part in. You could say we're part of the ecosystem. They're part of the ecosystem. So it'll be a devastation for sure, for me, for my children, for their children, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (Bernie):
Pretty scary sitting here running a family business and hoping to pass it on to your family and not knowing what the future holds.
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