Gordon BELL, a physician and college professor, promoted recreational hunting and fishing, which were popular with members of the elite and people from Bell’s own middle-class background:
“Along with several other physicians, [Bell] built a hunting lodge on Lake Manitoba near Delta Marsh. He was a keen duck hunter, president of the Fort Garry Gun Club, and a Manitoba trap-shooting champion. The clear water of Fox Lake, near Minaki, Ont., was brought to the attention of Dr Bell by several medical students. In 1912, with a number of friends, he formed the Namaycush Fishing Club and built a lodge at the lake.”
Maliseet hunter Noel BEAR did not look kindly upon the conservation measures adopted in Maine and New Brunswick at the request of recreational hunting enthusiasts:
“In the 1870s and 1880s a burgeoning demand for meat, hides, and furs encouraged hunting for market purposes and led to the widespread slaughter of game. The same period saw a phenomenal growth in sportsmen’s clubs based on a new conservation ethic and the idea of the ‘gentleman hunter.’ Now influenced by powerful sportsmen’s lobbies, both Maine and New Brunswick saw profits to be made from sports hunting and enacted increasingly restrictive game laws with harsh penalties for violators. Together with the scarcity of game, this policy had disastrous effects on the traditional Maliseet way of life. It is thus not surprising that in 1897 Edwin Tappan Adney* and others found Noel ‘grouchy and distinctly ugly towards whites.’”
The biographies that can be found in the following lists provide additional information about recreational hunting and fishing, as well as conservation initiatives to protect various species and promote the sustainability of these activities.
