Nelson River Sturgeon

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NRSB

The Nelson River Sturgeon Co-Management Board (NRSB) was established in 1993. Ernie Scott of Cross Lake founded the Board in 1992 with the motivation being concern about the level of harvest occurring and the need to manage the fishery for the future. Community representatives of the board reside at: the Norway House Cree Nation, Cross Lake First Nation, Wabowden, Thicket Portage, Pikwitonei, Split Lake Cree First Nation, and the York Factory First Nation. In the boards first year, Manitoba Natural Resources and Manitoba Hydro provided funding to hire field staff to monitor harvest. In 1993, the Cross Lake First Nation reached an agreement on its sturgeon claim that included funding for the Board for a 10-year period. The board is in its eighth year of operation and has two more years of funding before another agreement must be reached.

The NRSB mandate is to address two facets of Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) management - to provide for the subsistence and cultural needs of the communities and to provide for the preservation of the declining lake sturgeon stock. A five-year review of the NRSB Program revealed directives for the future. A primary directive presented was to expand programming with regards to education in both schools and communities while strengthening cultural and traditional ties to sturgeon. The NRSB believes that a proactive method of increasing sturgeon awareness requires effective and efficient education and communication, hopefully curtailing harvest efforts via a higher level of understanding and therefore, an increased consciousness. As a result, the initiative and objective involve increasing education efforts while incorporating efficient and effective means of communication to raise the level of awareness regarding the Nelson River Sturgeon population. Subsequently, rationale attempts to create a more pro-active and conscious level of understanding regarding this prehistoric species. An intense outreach program and increased sturgeon awareness initiative are currently being pursued.

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