Commercial Harvest
By the late 1800s commercial Lake Sturgeon fisheries developed in southern Manitoba. The fisheries were characterized by initial high yields, followed by sharp and lasting drops in production. Initial production in Manitoba focused on Lake Winnipeg, but as the sturgeon fishery failed in southern Manitoba, commercial Lake Sturgeon fisheries spread northward. Commercial fishing in the upper Nelson River began about 1900 and, with transportation aided by the completion of the Hudson Bay Railway, extended downstream of Kelsey Rapids sometime between 1918 and 1924.
Although the fisheries were generally operated by fish companies from the south, local Indigenous Peoples played a large role in harvesting the fish. Significant harvests are thought to have occurred below Kelsey and from the Grass River and Gull Rapids.
“…in the northern area of the (Nelson) river, sturgeon seem to be fairly plentiful, and in any favourable year the full limit (100,000 lbs at the time) should be easily obtained. Some summers, however, conditions do not lend themselves to successful operations in the river. When the flood waters of its various large tributaries start to pour in, the water becomes so dirty and so filled with debris of all kinds it makes the handling of nets impossible.”
~ Skaptason (1926)
By 1928, the fishery had rapidly declined and by 1934 it was closed. The fishery was reopened in 1937 and then was closed again in 1947. The fishery was reopened again in 1953 and extended downstream to Gull Rapids (1954), Kettle Rapids (1956), and the Weir River (1958) and the Fox and Bigstone rivers. Little harvest is thought to have occurred downstream of Kettle Rapids due to difficult travel conditions. The fishery was closed again in 1961, and reopened in 1970. By the early 1990s it became clear that Lake Sturgeon in the Nelson River were in peril. Following the R. vs. Sparrow court decision which affirmed Indigenous harvesting rights, the commercial fishery was permanently closed on the Nelson River in 1993 and on the Hayes River system in 1999.