It’s year two for Mistissini’s innovative study on fish. Rather than wait for a problem to develop the community decided to a comprehensive study of the sports fish in the region. This year and last year scientists looked at speckled trout. There were some surprising initial results according to Dylan Fraser, the scientist in charge of the project. “What we are finding is that when you go to certain areas of the lake it is genetic specific,” he said. This means that there are neighborhoods of a sort. Go to one part of the lake and you’ll find speckle from a certain river or spawning bed. Speckles, similar to salmon, always return to the same spawning grounds. “The north shore of the lake (Mistissini) to Pinnekan Bay seems to be Rupert’s River territory,” said Fraser. This is exciting news as Fraser felt “if we know certain rivers are using certain parts of the lake we can protect the stock better. We want to preserve the genetic diversity. If you remove one part it may affect the overall structure.”
Fraser said initial testing indicates that the largest contributor of Speckles in Mistissini Lake is the Papas followed by the Rupert’s. “We are looking at patterns- which river uses which part of the lake and which produces a lot of fish,” he said. Fraser said some of his findings mimic traditional knowledge. He remembers a story in which some young men gillnetted a whole group of speckles and an Elder told them they shouldn’t have done that because they were brothers. “This means the same genetic strain, the same family and the possibility that speckle swim in pods,” said Fraser adding that his research indicates this is the case.
Fraser said that he was glad that this study was being carried out before something happened to the fish stocks. “If you wait it can be too late. This project is a small investment for a long-term gain. Think of it as a puzzle only containing genetic pieces. You can’t complete the puzzle if you are missing pieces. So if people had waited until there was a problem the puzzle would never be finished. This way we have a chance to use the information to maintain the genetic diversity of Mistissini Lake and protect all the fish populations,” said Fraser.
Fraser said what Mistissini is doing is looking at fish from a habitat management point of view. If there are problems in the future Fraser admitted that there could be a selective quota system put into place until the stocks built back up rather than stopping all fishing indiscriminately.
Next year Fraser will be looking at the walleye populations of Mistissini as well as finishing off the study on brook trout.
As funds for the study are limited local residents, outfitting camps and guides have participated in field studies taking samples of the fins and marking on a map of Mistissini where the sample was taken from.
