Tag Archives: Georgian Bay
A Day on the Bay with Métis Commercial Fisherman Bernie LePage
A day in the life of Métis commercial fisherman Bernie LePage starts like any other; with a coffee, a long drive to work and a short walk into the office. For Bernie, his office is the bridge of his fishing tug, and his workplace is the deep blue waters of Georgian Bay. A citizen of the Historic Georgian Bay Métis Community, MNO Region 7, Bernie has been fishing off the coast of Lafontaine since he was a young boy. The LePage family have been fishing out of Penetanguishene Harbour for four generations, dating back to 1861. His ancestors were both blacksmiths and commercial fishermen who used wooden rowboats. “It was tough work just to catch a few fish back then,” says Bernie. Times have certainly changed and the vessel Bernie now uses, which was also used by his father, the ‘Laurie E’, is a 1955 Great Lakes “tug”. The boat was built to handle turbulent waters in Georgian Bay while also hauling tons of fish and fishing gear. more, >>click to read<< 10:00
‘There’s no future in it’: Parry Sound commercial fishers given ever-decreasing catch limits
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry announced it was “modernizing” the commercial fishery, including a move toward fishers digitally reporting their daily catch. “They just keep taking (our quota) away,” said Sandra LePage of Nobel, who owns B. LePage Fishery with her husband, Bernie, (whose father founded the famous fish restaurant Henry’s). In 2018, the LePage Fishery was allowed to harvest 34,559 pounds of whitefish; that has dropped annually. Now, for 2023, they are allowed to harvest 20,470 pounds. For lake trout, the max was 8,128 pounds in 2018, and for 2023, it is 4,894 pounds. Commercial fisher Bill Kalwaski, who is based out of Byng Inlet, said that when the lake trout population is high, the whitefish population is down, and “without the whitefish, there is no commercial fishery in the upper great lakes,” >click to read< 18:30
