A northern New Brunswick fire chief is sounding the alarm after his volunteer department received four calls related to ice fishing in just over a one-week period.
One of those calls, assisting the Campbellton Fire Department on Feb. 1, led to three people being rescued, Charlo Fire Chief Gaetan Sivret says.
Most recently, the Charlo crew responded to two calls last weekend for shanties that were drifting away on ice slabs, Sivret says.
“It’s not worth the risk and it’s not worth the risk of the people going to go and do the rescue,” he says.
During one of those recent rescue calls, his volunteer crew also received a fire alarm call.
“This divided the crew in two,” he says. “That put a lot of strain — we were lucky there was no fire at the house.”
He’s asking that ice huts be removed during warmer, more dangerous temperatures.
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Sivret says ice fishing-related calls aren’t out of the normal, but most times they come towards the end of the season when weather warms up again. He says typically there would only be one or two calls per season, though.
December and January temperatures have been “well above normal” across the province, says Jill Maepea, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.
“December temperatures were 4.2 degrees above normal, and in January, they were 6.2 degrees above normal,” Maepea says.
“Charlo actually saw their second-warmest January ever on record, since records have been kept in 1937,” she says.
Ronald Estey, a life-long ice fisher living near Sussex, says establishing a provincial association or group could help address safety concerns.
“It’s crucial that you check the ice the whole way out, you don’t just hope for the best,” he tells Global News. “It’s all about safety first.”
“I’ve done interviews… about people going through the ice… I mean it’s not worth it over a fish,” Estey says.
Matt Alexander, Rothesay’s deputy mayor, has been active on social media about ice safety. That’s because he says he was concerned some people might’ve put their shanties out a bit too soon this year.
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“I’m very concerned just because it developed quickly, as it usually does, but it wasn’t a very stable ice sheet that developed,” he says. “So there were still areas that were open on the river.”
Alexander says most ice has thickened up since then, but there are still some areas of concern.
In a statement sent to Global News, Nathalie Michaud, the New Brunswick Wildlife Federation president, says ice fishing on tidal waters “with current ice thickness and most importantly ice condition is dangerous” right now.
Michaud says ice fishing is also “not ideal” on lakes, but says “fishing lightweight is safe.”
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