FISHERIES AND MARINE SERVICE Translation Series No. 4197 The fishery potential of New Quebec by G. Power and R. Le Jeune Cririnal title: Le pôtentiel.de pêche du NouVeau-Québec From: Cah. Geogr. Que. 20(50): 409-428, 1976 • Translated by the Translation Section Departuumt of the Environment DepartiDent of the Environnent Fisheries a,nd Marine Service Biological Station • St. John's, Nfld. 1978 24 pares tyFescript Td)- 1528830 p. 409.1 /1-) n I CAHIERS DE GEOGRAPHIE DE QUEBEC, Vol. 20, No. 50, September 1976, pp. 409-428 THE FISHERY POTENTIAL OF NEW QUEBEC * by Geoffrey Power and Roger Le Jeune Center for Northern Studies, Laval University, Quebec. The area covered by this article, known as the New Quebec Territory, comprises vast, little-known regions with a variety of facies, surrounded by 'Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay. The territory contains several long rivers, many large lakes, and countless smalerivers, lakes, brooks, and ponds. The large number of fish species in these waters constituted a reliable food source for the native peoples who settled this country after the last ice age. Over the past three centuries, the contacts of these peoples with European cultures upset relations between fish and man. New and more efficient gear gained populalarity with American Indians and fish became a subject of trade and commerce. The rate of these changes was-considerably accelerated during the last quarter century by the widespread use of synthetic fibers in fishing gear and the expansion of aerial transport in New Quebec. During the 1950s, prospecting missions financed by the Canadian government prepared ililiZA-11m+ inventories of the Territory's fish resources; this led to the esta- blishment of several industrial fishing enterprises, with unequal success and a number of quick failures. At the same time, the growing southern demand for sport fishing brought about a summer migration to northern waters and led to the establishment of reception facilities for the thousands of sport -- w fishermen participating in this northern journey. Energy and eiele- needs,a-e 'ee 4g(A 1?he past and present attempts at establishing facilities to meet these needs also contribute more or less directly, but nevertheless significantly, / 1528836 2, p. 409.2 to changing the context of fish resource ?,and increasing the pressures on these resources. The recent Agreement between the Cree, the Inuit, and the Canada and Quebec governments led to a realization of the need to limit these pressures and, particularly, to rationalize their distribution. We felt that an evaluation of past and present resource uses and an attempt at forecasting their possible future role might be a useful contribution to this rationaliza,tion. * This essay was written between May and August 1976, i.e. prior to the submission of a voluminous report on yr recent harvesting; largely superior to the estimate melle here of fish resource use in the continental and coastal . ) (1„.- waters ot Newiffli éCve-Thus none of the eemeia-t,s.l ôf . the said report were used by the authors of this study) orrinf1uence711 in any wayl their appreciation and treatment.of the statistics and their opinions on the past, the present cuaLete, and the future. This does not mean'Tfiitnlbeqeâa-e-pt or reject the work of the Native Harvesting Research Committee, but only that they reserve the right to comment until they have had a chance to examine it in detail. See Research to establish present levels of harvesting by native peoples of northern Quebec, Il-Inuit. The Native Harvesting Research Committee, 1976, 230 pages, app. 3 1528836 1. , p. 410.1 Nature and Size of Resources The available documentation and information at our disposal cover marine, anadromous and freshwater forms, but are not complete enough to allow for more than a very rough estimate of the fish resources of New Quebec. Concerning marine species, the arctic nature of the coastal waters eliminates the possibility of major industrial fisheries. This conclusion stems from the low productivity of these waters, which was brought to light by a small number of concordant observations covering large areas of water in Ungava Bay (Dunbar, 1952; Dunbar and Hildebrand, 1952), James Bay 4nd Hudson Bay (Hunter, 1968), and the entire North American marine arctic (Dunbar, 1970). A few marine species (capeliri, cod), may be worthy of attention; however, they are unable to stand up to even a cursory analysis of their possibilities. T4eleape1in (Mallotus villosus) is abundant in James Bay and along the southern coast of Hudson Bay, and is ocCasionally (Le Jeune, 1963) found in Ungava Bay. This small fish, which supplements the native diet along the western coast of Hudson Bay (Hunter, 1968), could only be marketed commercially in the form of fish meal or fertilizer (Dunbar, 1970). Spence (1972) does not include the capelin in his list of fish used by the Fort George Cree population, though it is found in the area. Greenland cod (Gadus ogac) is also found in these waters; this small, slow-growing fish, however, does not seem abundant anywhere. It is generally included in smallvameents in domestic fisheries and has never been the subject of an industrial fishery, unlike the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), which is harvested to some extent at the end of summer in the Killiniq area, where the arctic waters of Hudson Strait encounter the Atlantic. This commercial fishery was established as an experiment in 1950 (Dunbar, 1952) and was still operating in 1970, with three traps and a freezer (Dunbar, 1970). Offshore expansion projects involving cod and Greenland halibut were planned, but never carried out. It is not surprising, in view of this lack of great promise, that nc attempts have been made to estimate the offshore fishery potential of the seas surrounding the New Quebec Territory. 1528836 Li" p. 411.1 The picture is different in the case of anadromous fish. During the summer, these species are generally found at sea, where their prospects are no brighter than those of marine species; during the spring and fall migrations, however, they congregate in the often very rich feeding grounds along the coast ard in river estuaries. This behaviour greatly facilitiates harvesting by the Inuit and other native peoples as a traditional food source and within the context of commercial or industrial enterprises. At least five'species may be included in this category in New Quebec: the arctic char (Salvelinus salvelinus or alpinus), Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), and the lake herring (Coregonus artedii), with a few unimportant forms occasionally found in briny water. The five species listed above belong to the Salmonidae family. The first three are more abundant in Ungava Bay, the latter three may be found in large numbers in James Bay and the southern part of Hudson Bay, while the arctic char is common in the northern Hudson region (Bay and Strait). Added to the traditional importance of these species in the native diet is a commercial interest, particularly over the past thirty years, largely based on export trade. There are no overall actual or potehtial harvesting estimates for these species, since only a small number of recent statistics (less than 20 years) and a few specific studies attempted during the last two decades are available. The coastal, littoral and estuarine environments are poorly suited for such estimates, which should take into account continental elements often acting as limiting or disturbing factors: restricted winter habitat (lakes and water courses), limited spawning grounds (specificity, accessibility), restricted stocking grounds (food, protection), irregular water and climate regimes, etc. ., not to mention fishing itself in both marine and continental waters. Exercises of this type should be more straightforward for freshwater fish; in the New Quebec Territory, several species are attractive to man because of their abundance or specific qualities. Lakes are mostly inhabited by whitefish, lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), arctic char, suckers (Catastomus 1528836 p. 411.2/412.1 catastomus), northern pike (Esox lucius), and the burbot (Lota iota). Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) and walleye (Stizostedicn vitreum) are also found in Radisson /Country (the James Bay Region). Many representatives of these species are found in rivers and streams along with brook trout and round whitefish (Prosopium cylindraceum). Our admitted inability to etablish the fishery potential of marine and anadromous species does not apply to freshwater fish and we feel e,L,e_eLt safe in making a few estimates based on available afe4a1.4-, hydrological, biological, and statistical data and the knowledge placed at our disposal by tradition, documentation and experience to back up and rationalize retroactive or prospective extrapolations. The combined surface area of the James Bay, Ungava Bay and Hudson Bay drainage basins is 876,000 square kilometers, approximately one third of which is covered by Water. Assuming that three quarters of this third is 2 suitable for fish, the productive area would cover an estimated 219,000 km . Scientific documentation abounds in production estimate bases for both real values and extrapolated estimates. For instance, with regard to the area of study and neighbouring sectors, Hunter (1968) lists an annual fish production of 320 pounds per square mile, which is attributed to the James Eay/Hudson Bay area for the purpose of fish resource management, without mentioning his sources. Parsons (1975), using Ryder's morphoedaphic inded (1965), estimated (.±:vralty7) fishery potentials for the Smallwood Reservoir (2.23 kg/ha/yr) an en Mile Lake (2.64 kg/ha/yr) in central Labrador. These local estimates and others are listed in Table 1 along with the corresponding extrapolations for New Quebec as a whole. The figures thus obtained are beyond reach...since all waters cannot be subject to a maximum potential kRxxest yield fishincLeffort (or its equivalent, the stock renewal capacity); therefore, in concrete terms, the New Quebec freshwater fish reserves remain virtually untapped.