Members of the fishing industry, who have long been at odds with the biologists, responded with a move the province didn't expect: they voted to dissolve a co-management board with the province, set up their own collective and to procure research they hope will serve as a counter-narrative to the notion walleye — locally known as pickerel — are in trouble.

"We can get our own scientists and have our own research and data," said Einar Sveinson, a fourth-generation fisher based in the lakeside town of Gimli and the president of the upstart Pioneer Commercial Fishers of Manitoba.

His gill nets have been full during the spring commercial fishing season, which comes to a close on Wednesday.

"Overall it's been a terrific season, just like the last 10 or 15 years. There hasn't been any difference, better or worse than any other," he said.
Walleye, lifeblood of the lake

On Lake Winnipeg, commercial fishers head out before dawn every day of the season.

Accompanied by a flock of white pelicans, five Sveinson family boats speed out of Hecla Village Harbour, about 175 kilometres north of Winnipeg. The seven-metre skiffs are small enough to allow gill nets to be hauled up over their bows and pulled along their gunwales, revealing the catch ensnared below the surface of the shallow but enormous lake during the previous 24 hours.

Working as a team, Sveinson and his son Erik pull the net across the boat and carefully free each fish from the mesh before tossing the creatures into one of three sorting bins.

One bucket holds cisco, a freshwater member of the salmon family, better known as tullibee in Manitoba and usually smoked before it's sold to consumers in Gimli or in Winnipeg. A second bin holds a jumble of species, including lake whitefish, yellow perch, goldeye and freshwater drum, the latter better known as sunfish in western Canada.

The third container holds the most valuable species of all. To commercial fishers, anglers and consumers in Manitoba, there is no more desirable fish than walleye, colloquially called pickerel.