For Jerry Hussey, a local fisherman from Bonavista, Nfld., who's been fishing for over 50 years, the inclusion and expansion of any large, offshore fishermen – Canadian or international – is worrying.Johnny C.Y. Lam/The Globe and Mail
The federal government has ended a more than 30-year-old moratorium on commercial cod fishing off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, heralding the potential resurgence of a historic industry but raising worries that past failures could be repeated.
“Ending the Northern cod moratorium is a historic milestone for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians,” federal Fisheries Minister Dianne Lebouthillier said Wednesday in a news release, adding that the 2024 season would have a total allowable catch of 18,000 tonnes.
The inshore fleet sector will receive about 84 per cent of that total allowable catch, with 6 per cent to the Canadian offshore fleet, said Ms. Lebouthillier. Remaining allocations include Indigenous fisheries.
While some called Ottawa’s decision a milestone for an iconic fishery, the inclusion of offshore fishermen is a source of major concern for many in the industry. The Atlantic’s cod fishery existed for centuries before being nearly wiped out in the 20th century by factors that included rampant overfishing by offshore fleets. Questions abound about whether the fish stock can withstand this increased pressure, as experts say it is not back to its historic strength.
“It was an absolutely atrocious decision,” said Greg Pretty, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union, angry at the allocation given to foreign fishermen represented by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization. “Not only is NAFO there now but the same companies who played a large role in the demise of northern cod are now back at the table with their hands out.”
Cod sales were worth about $700-million annually in the mid-1980s, playing a key role in making Canada the largest exporter of seafood in the world. The 1992 moratorium caused the biggest layoff in Canadian history, with 40,000 fishermen and related workers affected. Losses amounted to 30,000 in Newfoundland and Labrador alone.
Mr. Pretty is infuriated by the federal governments decision to not honour a 1982 federal pledge to allocate the first 115,000 tonnes of Northern cod to inshore groups, a promise reaffirmed by the Prime Minister in 2015.
Through NAFO, Canada previously agreed to provide 5 per cent of the overall total allowable catch to other NAFO contracting parties when it reopened a commercial Northern cod fishery, Ottawa said in its statement. NAFO is an international fisheries body with 13 contracting parties, including Ukraine, Canada and Norway. The Canadian total allowable catch of 18,000 tonnes is considered 95 per cent of the overall allowable catch.
This could leave inshore fishermen worse off than before. Since 2006, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has authorized a stewardship fishery for Atlantic cod that last year had an annual allowable catch of just under 13,000 tonnes.
Inshore fishing boats are smaller than offshore ones. They use less intensive techniques to catch the fish, such as handlines, longlines and single hooks. In comparison, offshore boats tow fishing gear, typically a weighted net, across the bottom of the ocean.
Now that the federal government has changed the status of the fishery from a small-scale stewardship model to a full-fledged commercial fishery, the doors are open to these offshore trawlers.
Jason Sullivan, a fisherman based in Bay Bulls, N.L., was disappointed to hear that even a small percentage of total allowable catch could go to other countries and called the increased quota a “pittance.”
“Before, if we were to divide the quota for the overall total allowable catch amongst all of us harvesters, it would have amounted to about somewhere around 10,000 pounds each,” Mr. Sullivan said.
“So now, it’s amounting to 12,000 pounds each and now there’s foreign draggers allowed in our waters.”
A veteran fisheries scientist worries that the presence of the foreign fishermen puts fish stocks at risk.
“DFO is rolling the dice on this important fishery,” George Rose said in an e-mail, saying even though stocks have shown some signs of recovery, they remain far off historic levels.
Dr. Rose, who has studied Atlantic cod for decades and recently co-authored a paper about historic migration patterns, also raised concerns about potential overfishing by NAFO countries and the health of capelin, a small fish that cod depend on for sustenance.
“With NAFO back in, good luck stopping overfishing of their 5 per cent. … DFO has thrown in the towel,” he said.
Asked why DFO chose to reopen a commercial fishery rather than increasing the quota for the stewardship fishery, department spokeswoman Kathryn Hallett said the new decision “will avoid the situation where foreign offshore vessels are allowed to fish while our Canadian offshore vessels are not.”
If the first 115,000 tonnes of commercial Northern cod were allocated only to the inshore fleet and Indigenous harvesters, other Canadian fleets would be excluded from the fishery while fishing by NAFO contracting parties would be allowed to occur in the NAFO regulatory area outside the Canadian 200-nautical-mile limit, she added.
To Jerry Hussey, the inclusion and expansion of any large, offshore fishermen – Canadian or international – is worrying. A small-scale fisherman, he is concerned the sacrifices Newfoundland’s local fishermen have made over the past decades to preserve fish stocks will be eradicated by large-scale, offshore operations.
This will be devastating to the communities along the Atlantic Coast who depend on small-scale cod fishing, he said.
“The smaller boat people are the most vulnerable and I think they should be the most protected,” he said.
The statement from the federal Fisheries Minister included quotes from six Liberal MPs from Newfoundland and Labrador.