Book: The Freshwater Fishes of Manitoba, and the Largest Fish Ever Recorded to be Caught in MB!

We really love this book, The Freshwater Fishes of Manitoba. 

For one thing, it is a great artist reference, if you like to draw fish, which are a very fun and forgiving subject! Check out our tutorial on whittling and wood burning a fish, coming soon!

This book also describes so many fishes’ nesting habits, their habitats and behaviour, and the things that make them unique and important. It could be used as an amazing scavenger hunt guide if you like snorkeling in Manitoba!

Fish are an animal we often think of as being a bit random maybe, just existing, swimming around... but they actually have families, care for their young, and have nests, homes, and spots they like to hang out, just like any animal! 

Also, their memories are way longer than a few seconds (this is a myth!

In Nehiyawewin, the word for fish is kinosew (key~no~say~oo) 

In the front of the book The Freshwater Fishes of Manitoba, which is available at the Steinbach Library, and likely other libraries, there is this photograph of the largest fish ever caught in Manitoba. 

It was a sturgeon, found in a pool of the Roseau River in 1903. Sturgeon were overfished by settlers just for their caviar, and are now a protected heritage species in Manitoba. 

Check out the Museums of Manitoba website for more info on this beautiful fish, who was 15 ft long and estimated to be 150 years old, and full of roe (fish eggs!.

Sturgeon are called Name (nah~may) in Anishnaabemowin, and have been so generous and imortant to Indigenous people and the land that they have been called The Buffalo of the Water. 

Read more about Name from Metis artist Christi Belcourt here