Ice fishing when the ice is melting

These days, ice fishing season in northern Quebec isn’t as long as it used to be. Climate change is impacting the Inuit traditional activity and challenging the relationship between the fishers and their practice.

“The spring comes earlier, and the freeze starts later,” says Allen Gordon, the executive director of Nunavik Tourism, an association promoting the most northern region of the province’s activities and nature.

November and December seem to be the standard starting time for ice fishing for some lucky ones who can manage to find a frozen spot.

“Well, it’s always almost the case every year,” explains Inukjuak Mayor Pauloosie Kasudluak from Inukjuak. His community is located on Hudson Bay.

Anglers can expect to fish until May, but the season used to be considerably longer.

“We used to have ice in the lakes up to June,” Kasudluak said.

And the changes have been observed for a while now.

“I started to notice the changes in the mid-90s, that suddenly there was a very sporadic temperature change,” Gordon said. “It’s been like a yo-yo effect”.

Ice fishing later in the season makes for better conditions because “you have more daylight time,” Kasudluak said.

But when the ice is there, it’s not the same as it used to be.

“What happens now is this huge blanket of snow covers the thin ice, and you’ll find slush under it,” Gordon said.

“There’s always slush now, which makes the ice also unlikely to get thicker, because there’s a blanket of this really slick snow that comes down now, whereas, in the old days, it would all freeze first and then snow later, it’s like the opposite.”

The “slush” Gordon describes has a considerable effect on the actual ice fishing experience, since “it’s no fun, you’re getting a lot of ice built upon your boots, and your snow machine can get stuck,” he said.

The terrain also becomes more difficult to operate.

“A lot of the streams are not freezing over,” Gordon said. “So, you have a lot of open streams, which makes it difficult to navigate certain areas.”

Nevertheless, ice fishing remains a strong part of the Inuit identity.

“People have their favourite lakes,” Kasudluak said. “I have five or six lakes that I like to go fishing.”

Ice fishing isn’t only for people living close to nature.

Back in Montreal, the Southern Inuit Association in Quebec organized an ice fishing activity for its male members to connect with this traditional practice. For two days at the end of February, a small group ventured on the ice to fish. The goal was to connect the members with their roots, on the ice.

While the ice remains, the possibility of ice fishing is there. But with the northern Arctic parts of Canada warming up three times as much as the rest of the country, the ice melts on its way the possibility for Inuit to keep practicing their tradition.