Reeve Darren Seymour of Prairie Lakes addressed recent criticism surrounding the municipality’s aquatic invasive species (AIS) one boat-one lake program at Pelican Lake, acknowledging the wave of negative feedback circulating on social media.
With Pelican Lake becoming a known destination for great walleye and pike fishing, especially for those on the hunt for their next master angler, and with the most recent findings of zebra mussels in the Assiniboine River at the Manitoba Hydro site near Brandon, the local AIS committee has worked determinedly to try to stop the spread of AIS into Pelican Lake.
The plan was to barricade the numerous boat launches around the lake, and to funnel all watercraft through the Ninette boat launch at the north end of the lake. A mandatory $45 boat inspection and a clean bill of health allowed the boat owner to launch their boat at the ag grounds launch. Should the boat owner wish to remain committed to the one boat-one lake program they could purchase a $5 tag that would affix their boat to their boat trailer upon leaving the water.
An intact tag gave the inspection station staff verification the boat had not been introduced into any other waterbody, nor was it potentially bringing any aquatic invasive species into Pelican Lake and was thus allowed back into the lake without the need for another inspection and $45 fee.
Decal program sparked mixed reactions
For homeowners a decal program became available from the start of spring where an annual decal could be purchased for $100 for each motorized watercraft, and $25 for each non-motorized watercraft, giving that watercraft the green light to launch at any time from personal docks with the understanding that if the watercraft was used in another body of water the owner would revisit a provincial or the Pelican Lake inspection stations.
And if the watercraft was used in a known AIS infected waterbody, such as the Red River or Lake Winnipeg, then the boat and trailer would be decontaminated properly at a provincial decontamination station.
While many understood the reason behind these efforts, to protect the lake from AIS, others felt it was too draconian and have spoken loudly against it. Fees went directly to start-up costs, barricades, and staffing of the inspection station, with the understanding the plan and its fees would be reviewed at the end of the season. Some thought the fees were too costly. Others felt the mandatory inspection was encroaching on their rights. Some of the loudest naysayers to the program have come from outside the community, claiming the municipality has removed their 'welcome mat' and so they have taken a 'Fine! I'll take my toys home then!' approach.
Reeve Seymour says it's not that they don't welcome boats from other parts of the province, but there are still too many who don't understand the detrimental effects of AIS, specifically zebra mussels, to Pelican Lake's infrastructure, beaches and aeration system. Too many seem to care too little about the fact that if the lake gets infected with AIS, then not only is the aeration system potentially compromised, (not to mention every nook and cranny where microscopic zebra mussel larvae - veligers - could float into including boat motors) but this infestation floats downstream to other communities and water bodies.
It's important to note that the documented #1 perpetrator of spreading AIS is motorized watercraft, not birds or critters. In fact, it is scientifically unsound to believe zebra mussels are attached to bird feathers, or that veligers hitch a ride on pelicans, ducks and geese. It's simply unfounded.
Taking to social media, some folks have resorted to negative behavior with comments turned ugly. Unbecoming additions have been added to the welcome signs at two entrances into Ninette, and barricades have been vandalized.
“Facebook is Facebook,” Reeve Seymour remarks, noting that while the platform allows people to vent, it often lacks fact-checking and balanced perspectives.
He admitted that fishing activity on the lake has slowed but emphasized that attributing the decline solely to the AIS strategy oversimplifies a complex situation. Seymour pointed to multiple contributing factors—including seasonal changes in fish populations and varied impacts on local businesses—highlighting that while some tourism operators have seen a downturn, others are experiencing record success.
Seymour says AIS isn’t sole cause of decline
"There is some truth to that it slowed down a bit at Pelican ... I don't believe as much as they want to blame it all on the AIS program and our strategy to effectively try and put off getting AIS in the lake," he explains. "There are a number of factors that have come into play."
"One of those being that the fishing itself has slowed down. We've had phenomenal fishing for the last four or five years. Unfortunately, even at the end of winter season, the fishing was slowed down. You know, there was probably quite a few ice shacks out on the lake that were empty that nobody was in them because they weren't catching a lot of fish."
"So that has slowed down some of the traffic as well," continues Seymour. "Our Facebook friends want to blame that all on us as the municipality. Unfortunately, that's not completely true when it's got other factors. You know I do talk to other businesses. There are some businesses that are complaining saying that tourism is down and I've got other businesses - in talking to an Airbnb business - that said they're busier than ever. They thought maybe this would affect their business as well, but it hasn't."
Seymour says it’s difficult to make a blanket statement about the overall impact. He acknowledges that some businesses have been affected, while others have not. “It can be due to many, many reasons,” he says. He notes that some businesses have told him they’ve had their best year ever, which contradicts claims from others who say tourism is down.
Seymour says the businesses most directly tied to fishing have clearly felt the slowdown, but he stresses that this is largely due to a drop in fish activity—not just the AIS program. “The lack of fishing has affected traffic and business,” he says, “but it’s not fair to pin all of that on our AIS mitigation strategy.”
"But you know, there are people who are not coming because they're proving a point to us, so to speak, and saying, 'You know what, I'm not going to come to Pelican Lake. I'm going to stand my ground.' And so, I do understand that there's some of those people out there as well," he adds.
AIS not the only threat to Pelican Lake fish populations
Some suggest the decline in fishing is a direct result of overfishing and poaching practices over the past few years where anglers were caught and charged with numerous offenses, all of which can have a significant impact on fish populations in Pelican Lake. While some were caught in unscrupulous angling practices, others went unnoticed.
Throughout the 2023 open water fishing season on Pelican Lake, conservation officers and patrol officers conducted angling compliance checks, laying 46 fisheries charges totaling $7,518 in fines and $1,974 in restitution. Eighteen individuals were charged for angling with barbed hooks, five individuals were charged for angling without a valid license, and 22 individuals were charged for possessing fish that do not comply with size limits.
In one instance in July of that same year, while conducting angling compliance checks at Pelican Lake, Boissevain conservation officers directed a boat with two occupants to dock their boat. Instead, the driver quickly turned the vessel around, left the immediate area, and appeared to dump fish over the side of his boat. Officers made contact with the boat and determined several walleye were dumped overboard. The driver, who hailed from southern Manitoba, was fined $2,542 for obstructing a fisheries officer. Seized walleye fillets were donated to a local food bank.
It's these types of occurrences that directly affect the health of the fish and fish populations. Using barbed hooks can significantly injure a fish and thus affect its recovery. And as fish over the slot size are typically the egg-layers, damaging or removing them from the lake will certainly impact fish populations.
In some ways, the AIS Mitigation model was launched on a year where the previous years of illegal fishing practices created the perfect storm.
Seymour understands that Manitoba Conservation officers are doing their best given the large area they cover.
"I give them credit they're doing what they can. There's only so many of them, though, and unfortunately there are people out there who don't abide by the rules and take more than they should - and then they're surprised that the fish stocks are down."
"Fishing also has always been, will I say, up and down or come and go. It doesn't stay busy for years on end. We do see lulls, and I think we're just in one of those lulls," he explains.
"So, one of the things that's very positive for me, though, is that I'm still hearing that people are catching quite a bit of smaller stuff, which is our future," he adds. "So hopefully those fish as they grow, we'll get to cycle back to good fishing. We didn't stop our stocking programs, working with the government as far as putting fingerlings in the lake. All of those good things have continued. So, so we're hoping we'll see an upcycle again."
In addition to walleye fingerlings, Manitoba Fisheries stocks Pelican Lake with hundreds of thousands of walleye fry every spring as part of their regular restocking program.
Province awarded $120K for AIS Prevention in Pelican Lake
In mid-July the Province awarded close to $120,000 to the Pelican Lake AIS Mitigation committee, as part of the provincial government's investment of close to $400,000 to help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) into Manitoba waterways. Six organizations across Manitoba received funding through the new Manitoba Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Fund.
Reeve Seymour says that money is ear-marked for the AIS prevention, and that's where it will remain.
"Some of that money, we have already spent money out of our tax paying base which was our hope not to do that, but we had to start somewhere," he explains. "So, some of that will repay back what we've already spent up till now. We did apply for the program based on all our costs."
When the decision was made to launch the program to begin this spring, costs included the setting up of the boat inspection station, staffing, the decals purchase, signage and barricades to funnel boats through the north end of Pelican Lake at Ninette.
User fees aim to ease taxpayer burden - not just a 'money grab'
"It's been said quite a bit, especially on Facebook, that this is just a money grab," says Seymour, "and that has in no way been any part of our thought process through this. Nobody's thinking that we're going to make any money anywhere. We just don't want to put this all on our local taxpayer. So, we felt the user group needed to pay for, you know, using the lake for the fishermen and the people traveling here. It shouldn't just go to our taxpayer on our tax base."
"So therefore, we had that funding in place before we knew if we were going to get provincial funding, which we now found we did. We've said all along at the end of this year, we're going to be transparent. We can't shift gears halfway through or two-thirds of the way through the program and all of a sudden change the cost of the program. That wouldn't be fair to those who already paid into the program."
"So, what we said was we'll sit down at the end of this season, and we'll be transparent. We may have another town hall meeting to give people the opportunity to look at what we've done and what we spent the money on."
The question has been posed within the organizing committee if a second inspection station is needed on the lake. As well, the thought of partnering with the Province to help fund a decontamination station in the southwest corner of Manitoba has been discussed.
"We've lobbied for several years now trying to get a decontamination station closer to us," says Seymour.
"But it doesn't look like that's going to happen at this point anyway, without some input or share of management of that. So, the government has showed a willingness to work with us on that. And so we'll sit down and kind of make some plans and then adjust our costs going forward for next year, so we'll know what we need to make the program run."
Seymour adds when it came to developing and launching an AIS mitigation program for Pelican Lake there were very few examples of how to do it in the province.
"There was no roadmap, if you will, as to how to set this program up or what to do. We did get as much information from other parties as we could, places like Sandy Lake and different places that had done some work prior to us. But a lot of it was flying by the seat of our pants a little bit and we had to come up with a plan."
As far as the negativity on social media, Seymour says the posts on Facebook has certainly settled down.
Social media criticism lacks facts, Seymour says
The reeve notes a large percentage of people have been respectful and comfortable with the AIS program at Pelican Lake. He explains that while some visitors were initially uninformed and expected the process to be more difficult, many have found it more accommodating than anticipated. Seymour says the municipality has made adjustments to the program along the way to better meet the needs of lake users, such as extending boat launch hours of operation.
He acknowledges that there have been a few negative incidents, including gates being sabotaged or cut, but says those repairs come at a cost.
“If next year we have to budget for repairing a certain number of gates, that cost will be reflected in the price of decals or inspections,” Seymour says. He adds that those trying to protest the program by damaging infrastructure are ultimately hurting their own community. “They’re not gaining much traction,” he says.
“Overall, I think the program has gone well. However, there are still the Facebook people. I do not respond to Facebook," says Seymour. "I will not respond because you cannot win. If anybody wants to come and have a conversation with us or sit down, we'll gladly have a conversation and explain our side of it, but I'm not going to get into a debate on Facebook. And so, we've chose to just leave it."
"I read some of the unfortunate things that are put on there, some of them are so far not true," he adds. "It's unbelievable that people will write them, but that is the way it works today. In today's day and age with social media, people feel they have a right to have a say, and they don't check to see whether what they're saying is true or not. They just spread it and add more to it. And that's unfortunate."
"As a municipality, we want to see businesses flourish and grow. And you know, if we were to get AIS in Pelican Lake and the aeration plugged up and it went back to the greenery that we remember 20 years ago, that would affect tourism greater and it would also affect property values and if you see in the last 10 years the amount of construction that's gone on around the lake and the people spending money here, it is huge," adds Reeve Seymour.
"We see people wanting to be at the lake and be on the lake and that is in part due to the fact of all the work that's been done on the lake and around it. And we want to see that continue because that does bode well for those businesses for the future."
AIS Program aims to protect generations ahead
Seymour says he’s pleased with the overall response to the aquatic invasive species (AIS) mitigation program at Pelican Lake, noting that participation has exceeded expectations. “We’ve sold around 600 decals for motorized boats, which is right on target with our initial estimates,” Seymour says. “But the surprising number is the roughly 500 decals sold for non-motorized watercraft like canoes, kayaks, and paddle boards. That’s much higher than I anticipated.”
Seymour acknowledges that the rollout of the program wasn’t without its challenges. “Yes, there have been hiccups. Yes, some people were upset,” he says. “But change is hard at first. Once people realized the process wasn’t as difficult as they feared, many saw the value in what we’re doing.”
“This is about the future of Pelican Lake—for our kids, our grandkids, and everyone who wants to enjoy it as we have,” he says. “The more we can do now to protect it, the better off we’ll be.”
Despite some resistance, Seymour says the program has been a success so far and remains optimistic about its long-term impact. “Overall, I think it’s gone well,” he says. “We’re doing this for the right reasons, and I believe people are starting to see that.”