Establishing a long-term, river-based monitoring system for Arctic Char harvest in the Cambridge Bay area, Nunavut

This monitoring program will occur annually at commercial waterbodies, typically spanning from early July to late September. The initial length of the project will be seven years, reflecting given that the minimum number of years needed to collect catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) data is five years. This will also allow for modifications to the study design and monitoring protocol. Hired monitors accompanied the fisher to the fishing site and recorded catch (number of fish) and effort (amount of time fished) data in a log book designed for this monitoring program and specific to the fishery type (e.g. gillnet, weir). The log book data was recorded in a pre-designed database and the information was sent to Central and Arctic DFO for analysis. Both a pre and post-fishing meeting was conducted with fishers and monitors: pre-season to provide training related to the monitoring program; and post-season evaluation of fishing and monitoring activity.