A new study shows that the Athabasca is seeing declining fish numbers, and many believe that this is caused by the oil industry operations in the area. This is no surprise to Raymond Ladouceur who has been fishing the area for over 60 years. Ladouceur said “There were all these fish in these rivers, but now I’m not even catching half of what I once caught since the oil companies moved in and grew 20 years ago. When we have no more fish and can’t drink any water, will we drink oil and eat money?” A report on the study was released last year in November by the University of Lethbridge, and it may back up the fisherman’s claims. Joe Rasmussen and Astrid Schwalb, both biologists and coauthors of the report on the study, reported “Our results indicate that significant ecological degradation has occurred in the lower Athabasca River system since the 1970s, although the causal relationships remain unclear.”

If the Athabasca is facing declining fish numbers then something needs to be done. Before any solutions can be proposed the reason for the decline must be determined, and the report does not identify any single cause, only possible contributing factors. Several migratory fish species were studied, including northern pike, goldeye, whitefish, longnose sucker, walleye, and white sucker. The report concluded by stating “The weakness that we see in this program is that it does not adequately address the status of migratory fish populations, which can be used as bioindicators for long-term changes over a large spatial scale (network scale) and which are of vital importance to the subsistence and recreational fisheries in the region. It is clear that improved monitoring of their abundance and health status will be a key requirement of a comprehensive cumulative effects monitoring program for the region.”