A commercial fly-in fishing business says a proposal by Environment Yukon to limit the number of lake trout his clients can catch and release on Mandanna Lake would hurt him.

Bernard Stehelin of Wilderness Fishing Yukon said in an interview Tuesday his clients from around the world are not going to pay for a trip into Mandanna Lake if they’re limited to catching and releasing five fish per day.

It would cost him a couple of hundred thousand dollars in net revenue over 15 years – in addition to the lost opportunities to other sectors of the economy that benefit from international anglers visiting the territory, he told the Star.

Stehelin said he is a good steward of the lake, and takes care to ensure his clients have been properly instructed on the live release of lake trout.

Scientific survey work by Environment Yukon shows the lake trout population in Mandanna is healthy and has actually increased since Stehelin bought the fly-in fishing business in 2001.

When the proposal first emerged in 2017, the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board rejected the government’s request to include in its regular public review of proposed regulation changes.

It was sternly critical of how the government never consulted Stehelin, the only one who would be negatively impacted by the regulation change. The board suggested the proposal was shortsighted in that it never gave consideration to what type of precedent would be set by a new restriction on catch and release fishing.

Stehelin said he believes the proposal to put a limit on catch and release fishing is linked to the Little Salmon-Carmacks First Nation and its dislike of catching fish for sport, then releasing them.

The First Nation’s final land claim agreement sets out a provision to establish Madanna Lake as a special management lake in the Yukon, the only other one being Tatlamain in the Selkirk First Nation’s traditional territory.

The intent of the Mandanna designation is to give priority to the Northern Tutchone food fishery, according to the First Nation final agreement.

Stehelin said that’s fine. But there is no evidence his commercial business is having a negative effect on the lake trout population, which has grown by five times what it was in 2001 when he took over.

“I respect the fact they have to put special management plan in place but they do not have to destroy my business,” he said.

The final land claim agreement, he emphasized, also states that all users of the lake are to be treated fairly in the establishment of the special management designation.

Killing his Mandanna Lake business could hardly be seen as fair, he insisted.

Stehelin said Environment Yukon advanced the proposal to the wildlife management board six months before they talked to him, and even then it was simply to let him know what it was doing.

Stehelin explained his fly-in fishing business involves several different lakes. Net revenue from Mandanna alone brings in about $17,000 annually, or about $255,000 over 15 years, he pointed out.

The business owner has written both Environment Minister Pauline Frost and Premier Sandy Silver.

Wildlife critic Wade Istchenko of the Yukon Party raised concerns in the legislature Tuesday regarding the proposal.

He asked Frost if she had any evidence the current management practices on the lake are having a negative impact. He also asked if the wildlife management board supports the proposal, and if regulation changes are being considered for other lakes.

Frost told the legislature when the management board refused to put it through the regular public review process, she still had an obligation to advance the regulation change as part of the obligation to establish the special management lake. It’s an obligation under the land claim process, that includes giving priority to the food fishery, she said.

“Their (Little-Salmon Carmacks) biggest concern was that the catch and release fishery resulted, in their view, in mortality, and the First Nation was not comfortable with the level of mortality,” Frost said. “This is a unique case.”

In its criticism of the proposal in an email to a senior Environment official in October 2017, the wildlife board pointed out the Carmacks Renewable Resource Council was not supportive of the proposal.

The letter said proceeding without taking into consideration the impact on the fly-in fishing business would create bad press for both the Yukon government and the board.

The regulation does recognize the First Nation’s dislike for catch and release fishing, but it essentially targets one person – a person who has been a good steward of managing the resource, the board submitted.

The email suggested the regulation opens up a can of worms that can’t subsequently be closed.

It suggests the government would be hard-pressed to refuse further proposals from First Nations to place a cap on the number of fish anglers could catch and release, now that a precedent has been set.

Frost was unavailable to the Star for comment this morning.