In 2012, I took my son on a moose hunting trip, in northern Mb. We came across a group of First Nations fisherman, who had a quota for 50,000lbs of fish. We asked to buy some walleye off of them and they laughed and said " we don't sell gold" he went on to explain that he gets $3.50/lb market price, and that it is also matched by the EI, Northern affairs, Hydro, and band subsidies, so he was essentially making $17.50 per pound. He went on to tell us, how the previous year, they brought in a reefer trailer, and harvested 23 moose, cows, calves and bulls. As we continued on our hunt, we came across abandoned fish camps. The site was despicable, garbage everywhere, blah, blah, blah. But what my eyes couldnt believe, was the wastage of fish. On three seperate occasions, we encountered waste piles, 20 ft by 20 ft, 2 -3 feet in depth. There was pike, whitefish, goldeye, tulibee, sucker. They were keeping only walleye, everything else was thrown on the shore. My 12 year old son, asked me how they could do that, and I could not provide him with an answer. That area is totally wiped out of moose now, and in 3 trips to that area, totalling 30 days, we never once saw a Mb conservation vehicle, let alone officer.
The second part of this story, involves bears. I grew up as a farm kid, and I get protecting livestock, Hay, etc. My son and I have grown to love bear hunting. An area we hunt near the parkalnd, has phenomenal opportuinities, but those oppertunties may not last long. I was informed of a bee farmer, that has his employees carry firearms in all their trucks, and they shoot bears, on site, year round. Doesnt matter if they are near the bee operation or not. An acquaintance told me of his neighbour, who bragged about shooting 180 black bears this past year. Any bear he saw on his property was shot on site and left where it fell.
both situations are a result of lack of funding for MB Conservation, and a government that lacks the testicular fortitude to stand up to special interest groups. They deer population warranted a complete closure of the season, province wide, but the province did not want to loose the funding that licenses carry. So now, guys are shooting spiker bucks as meat deer, and we are wiping out the genitics of big whitetails for generations to come. Our province can not support the unregulated harvesting of animals from special interest groups, and until a government levels the playing field, and actually has a method to hold people accountable, our natural resources will continue to be depleted to dangerous levels.
