It doesn’t look like 2011 will be a banner year for commerical fishermen in the north.
The head of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation confirms prices and volume were both down this year.
Wood says there was 25.1 million dollars made in total payments to fishers in the company this year.
1.2 million dollars of that is being paid out as a final payment.
Wood says specific figures and statistics will be spelled out at next week’s general meeting in Winnipeg.
He says weather was a key reason for the decline.
“Saskatchewan deliveries were down because of weather in Northern Saskatchewan. The winter was a very cold one and it made it difficult for fishing so our winter deliveries out of Saskatchewan were down significantly last year.”
At the same time Wood notes the 25 million dollar total is fairly close to last year’s.
He says pickerel continues to remain strong and Whitefish is doing well.
Meantime Wood says nothing has changed in regards to the province’s intentions to get out from under the FFMC’s monopoly on April 1st of 2012.
He says until then the corporation’s current infrastructure in the province will remain intact.