A California-based seafood watchdog program suggests consumers avoid buying certain species of fish from Manitoba's three big lakes.

Seafood Watch released an assessment of Lakes Winnipeg, Manitoba and Winnipegosis on Monday, comparing them to some of the most poorly-managed fisheries in the world.

The assessment was carried out by SeaChoice, a B.C.-based seafood program.

SeaChoice claims the fisheries lack an understanding of stock sizes, catch rates and lack catch limits for some species. The program claims many fish stocks have collapsed or are severely depleted.

The assessment was done because of a shortage of freshwater fish for sale with sustainability rankings.

“We started out thinking these fisheries would be ranked on the higher end of the spectrum, but quickly became aware of the fisheries management challenges,” said SeaChoice member Scott Wallace in a news release. Wallace is a senior research scientist with the David Suzuki Foundation.

The lakes are an important fishery, making up 80 per cent of the fish coming from Manitoba. The species include perch, pike, walleye and whitefish.

These fish are sold in Canada as well as in the U.S. and overseas markets. Seafood Watch is urging consumers to avoid buying all these species from Manitoba's three big lakes.

While the big lakes have come under fire, a smaller lake in Manitoba has already demonstrated sustainability. Waterhen Lake has earned Marine Stewardship Council certification through sustainable fishing practices.

Wallace said it's the big lakes which need improvement.

“There is no reason why these lakes can’t meet minimum standards including precautionary catch limits, improved reporting and publically available information,” said Wallace. “A first step would be to offer more resources to the provincial fisheries’ branch to improve fisheries practices for these three large lakes.”

The province announced Monday it's launching a comprehensive review of the big lakes to protect the fish stock.

Lake Winnipeg commercial fisherman Bruce Benson said he's shocked the lakes were rated so poorly but doesn't buy the Seafood Watch assessment for Lake Winnipeg.

Benson said there are lots of fish in the lake. He said if one correction could be made it would be allowing fishermen to catch whitefish "off quota." He said there are currently too many whitefish and that could be hurting walleye stocks.

Benson said it's not viable for fishermen to keep whitefish as part of their quota because they're not worth as much as walleye.