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Lake Winnipeg Research Ship M.V. Namao

The tenth largest body of freshwater in the world, Lake Winnipeg is an important boreal forest lake serving a variety of uses and providing a wealth of vital ecological functions. A popular holiday destination and recreational area, Lake Winnipeg also sustains economic activities such as a commercial fishery and hydroelectric power generation. Lake Winnipeg is vital habitat for a multitude of fish, aquatic organisms, migratory birds and other wildlife.

In a troubled state comparable to that of Lake Erie in the 1970s, Lake Winnipeg suffers from the combination of factors including nutrient overloading, invasions of exotic species, climate change, and imposed water controls. A superseding threat known as eutrophication, induced by increased water temperatures and nutrients, causes the bacteria known as blue-green algae to prosper. Increasing in size and frequency over the last 15 years, blue-greens dominate the once diverse community of algae causing negative impacts all the way up the food chain.

The watershed of Lake Winnipeg, the second largest in Canada, encompasses four provinces and four U.S. states. Six separate basins, covering 1 million square kilometres, flow into Lake Winnipeg. Combined with the fact that Lake Winnipeg is shallow - at an average depth of only 12 metres - susceptibility to natural and human-induced impacts is high as changes in temperature or other inputs can quickly affect lake dynamics.

The Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium (LWRC), aboard the research vessel M.V. Namao, is monitoring the nature of human impacts on the lake. Every year, three 25-day research surveys are conducted lake-wide. The LWRC, in addition to its multidisciplinary research aboard the Namao research platform, also promotes information sharing through its education and outreach program because everyone has a stake in, and a responsibility for, the lake’s well being.

Academia, environmental groups, and government agree that solving the problems associated with Lake Winnipeg will be dependant on the sustainable management of not only the lake but particularly of its watershed. What this means is that landscapes and ecosystems, including trees, soils and waters, well beyond its shores will determine the fate of Lake Winnipeg.

Running along the entire east side of Lake Winnipeg is a span of boreal forest where pristine streams, marshes, and rivers , flow nourishing the lake with clean water. The intact forests of this unique region anchor the soil which controls erosion and keeps nutrients from leaching into rivers and eventually the lake. The healthy ecosystem in this region provides animals and humans alike with clean water and air while sequestering carbon which helps in regulating global climate.

Industrial development including mining, logging and hydroelectric development, and subsequent roads and corridors, would alter the performance of this landscape irreparably. Forests impacted by industrial development would allow leaching and erosion to occur introducing dissolved organic matter and nutrients into the water which would negatively affect ecosystem sustainability. Protecting the majority of the east side of Lake Winnipeg in a large protected areas network is imperative to the long-term management strategy to restore and sustain Lake Winnipeg.