Plenary Featuring Al Kristofferson

Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium

Wednesday, May 21
11:20 a.m. – Noon
Wenjack Theatre, Otonabee College

Lake Winnipeg is one of the least studied of the world's great lakes. It is the major geographical feature in central Canada and is of vital importance to the people of Manitoba. It generates over 100 million dollars in tourism each year and supports a commercial fishery with an average annual landed value of 20 million dollars. The majority of the over 1000 commercial fishers are Aboriginal and, in addition to its economic importance to them, the lake is of great spiritual importance as well. Published studies of an environmental nature number fewer than 100 compared with the 1000's of similar studies that have been conducted on North America's Laurentian Great Lakes. Why is this so? Lake Winnipeg is far from the densely populated areas of Canada and far from heavy industry. Thus, a naive assumption has persisted over the years that nothing detrimental to the lake's health would likely occur. Unfortunately this has not been the case. The commercial fishery was closed for over a year in the late 1960's when high levels of mercury were detected in some commercial fish species. The sources have since been dealt with and mercury contamination is no longer a problem in the lake. However, the lake now faces the serious threats of cultural eutrophication, exotic species and climate change. Excessive amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen have entered the lake over the last 50 years from the millions of non-point sources within its massive drainage basin. The result is the development of lake-wide algal blooms each year, particularly within the large north basin, which have impacted the structure and function of the food web. These developments, along with the recent arrival of a number of exotic species and climate change, clearly pointed to the need for a dedicated research initiative to address the situation and prevent future problems from developing. The Red River flood of 1997, with its massive influx of flood water to the lake's south basin, served to heighten government's awareness of the need for this research. To that end, the Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium (LWRC) was founded in August 1998 and incorporated in August 2001.