I certainly support a plan…

I certainly support a plan to bolster the walleye fishery in LOTW, as it is clearly under tremendous pressure. I am a Canadian cottage owner on the lake, and though I very much enjoy a meal of fresh walleye, I am supportive of changes to the regulations to maintain the fishery.

However, I do not agree with a proposal that reduces my catch limits but has no impact on the catch limits of US residents.
Given that US anglers form the lions share (by far) of anglers in Canadian waters, they are clearly having the lions share of the impact on our stocks. Thus, for changes to the regulations to be impactful, it would make sense to ensure the US angler take is reduced proportionally. In the current regulations, non-residents (US) have lower catch limits (by half) than residents of Canada. They are allowed 2 fish on a Sport or Conservation license. In the proposed regulations, US residents fall under the same Sport license as a resident, which is proposed to be 2 fish. Thus, with these proposed regulations, there is absolutely no change to the impact on the fishery that the vast majority of anglers (US) will make. The anglers who are contributing most to the decline in walleye stocks in our waters are not impacted by the proposed changes. We cut the catch limits for Canadians fishing in Canadian waters, and who make up the smallest portion of the angling effort, and we leave the limits the same for US fishermen who make up the majority of the anglers in our waters. This makes no sense at all if the objective is to reduce pressure on walleye stocks. The number one ecological issue, Harvest is Too High, will barely be impacted by these changes, and it will be only Canadians who pay the price of the changes.

Certainly there are socio-economic issues to consider. But Section 2.2 states “Where there is conflict between the socio-economic objective and the ecological objective, the ecological objective shall take precedence.” This is clearly NOT being considered with this approach.
Given how much of the fishery pressure is born by US residents, and the proposed changes do not impact their catch limits, how can we expect to improve the fishery, if that is the primary objective? Goal #1 and Goal #2 (section 2.1 LOTW Fisheries Management Goals) are doomed to fail with this model. How can we expect a 40% reduction in the harvest when the catch limits of 81% of those fishing are not impacted by this proposal?

I also wonder if changes to regulations in US waters, to match what we are doing, are being considered? As I understand, walleye fishing in the Big Traverse (mostly from US fisherman) takes an incredible toll on the walleye stocks. Are we clamping down on our catch limits to allow that unsustainable catch to continue?