A number of news items related to the province’s traditional fishery were carried in the Coaster in 2011. The following is a review of some of the more major items.
The Honourable Clyde Jackman, the then provincial Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, at the beginning of 2011,said that the production value of the province’s traditional fishing industry improved in 2010 and things can be much better for harvesters in the future.
Jackman said that the production value of the fishery was $950 million in 2010 as compared to $750 million in 2009.
Representatives from the traditional fishery and the aquaculture industry formed a committee in 2011 – the Aquaculture and Fisheries Committee - to help both industries move forward in the Coast of Bays.
Mildred Skinner, a FFAW/CAW representative in Harbour Breton, was the main driving force behind the formation of the committee. Ms. Skinner is also a fish harvester in the local area.
She said that she first talked about the idea at the Coast of Bays Corporation’s Ocean Conference that was held in Harbour Breton in April 2010.
“Even though both industries work in the same waters, we’ve been kind of separate. As neither of us is going away any time soon we have to learn how to get along and keep each other informed about events happening in both industries,” Skinner said.
About 14 Ocean Choice International (OCI) trawler men from the Coast of Bays region joined their 100 or so provincial counterparts on Tuesday, January 25 in starting a strike action against OCI.
Fifty-nine per cent of the trawler men, who are represented by the Food, Fish and Allied Workers’ Union (FFAW), voted to reject OCI’s latest contract offer.
Roland Hedderson is a FFAW staff representative for the OCI trawler men.
Hedderson said that the trawler men are simply frustrated about the level of pay they are receiving for their hard work.
The workers later accepted a contract from OCI and were back to work shortly after the strike was called.
The ‘Celtic Explorer’, the first fisheries science and oceanographic research vessel to be funded by the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, is conducted cod winter acoustic surveys in Newfoundland waters in 2011.
The Honourable Clyde Jackman, the then provincial Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, said that the project is very important for the traditional fishing industry.
“Some of the people in the fishing industry have been telling us, especially since the moratorium of 1992, that we need more research on the cod stocks in our waters,” Jackman said.
Dr. George Rose of the Centre for Fisheries Ecosystems Research (CFEP) with the Marine Institute of Studies will lead a new cod stock identification project that is being promoted by the provincial Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture.
Rose said that the project would involve a technology that will be used in Newfoundland cod studies for the first time - the study of the chemical composition of ear bones of cod, which are also known as otoliths.
“This particular research project, which is being led by an internationally renowned fishery scientist, George Rose, will be an acoustic survey and should provide us with a good picture of the health of the current cod stocks in our waters.”
Jackman said, “When I became Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture in November 2009 I made it very clear from the outset that I was not interested in bringing forward to my government a request that was for hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.
“What we’ve got here is a combined request for about $450 million that doesn’t take into account any workforce adjustment package that would be required for displaced plant workers or deck hands.
Lobster harvesters in Newfoundland were frustrated in the early part of the 2011 season as the fishery ran into a serious problem.
The Newfoundland Standing Fish Price Setting Panel set a price for lobster at $4.26 per pound for the week of April 17 to 23 and at $4.23 for the week of April 24 to 30.
In early May, George Joyce, the Executive Director of the Seafood Producers of Newfoundland and Labrador (SPONL) advised the FFAW that buyers could not afford the price formula established by the Panel and would stop buying lobsters as of May 4.
Earle McCurdy is the President of the FFAW/CAW, the union that represents lobster harvesters in the province.
McCurdy said that the real issue is that buyers would prefer to operate in the 19th century rather than the 21st century, and that they show a complete disregard for the harvesters who supply the raw material.
However, the situation improved in early May as harvesters were selling their catches to provincial buyers once again as the Seafood Producers of Newfoundland and Labrador (SPONL) and the FFAW ended a dispute over lobster prices on Thursday, May 12.
The dispute started after processors said they could not pay the $4.25 set by the Standing Price Setting Panel at the beginning of the season. The two groups agreed to $3.25 per pound to start with, a price that will be reviewed every week until the end of the season.
Cod harvesters in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) division 3Ps may receive a better price for their catches in the near future. The World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWFC) is working on a project to possibly have 3Ps cod certified with the international Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
Many consumers around the world are refusing to buy seafood products that are not MSC certified which basically means that the fish purchased has been taken from a sustainable fishery.
Janice Ryan, who has worked in several aspects of the Newfoundland fishery for 12 years, is currently an advisor to the WWFC in Newfoundland.
Ryan said that Icewater Seafoods Inc. of Arnold’s Cove currently sells its cod products to Marks and Spencer in Great Britain.
Marks and Spencer officials have notified Icewater that as of 2013 they will not purchase any wild fish product that does not have the internationally recognized MSC certification.
Ryan said, “Ice water officials partnered with us in January of this year to basically implement a Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP) on 3Ps cod. While the WWF has worked on similar projects on other areas of the world, this is the first time we have started such a program in Canada.”
The WWFC is partnering with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the provincial Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture (DFA), the FFAW and Ocean Choice International in the possible certification project.
Ryan said, “We’re working on the 3Ps cod fishery to improve its status so that once the process goes to the assessment mode for MSC certification we’ll pretty much know we’re going to meet the requirements that are consistent with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s guidelines for fisheries certification.
St. John’s lawyer Eli Baker and Isle Aux Morts resident Elizabeth Harvey will probably be taken off the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) Christmas card list this year.
Thanks to the years of hard work and dogged determination, the Dynamic Duo of Baker and Harvey are largely responsible for winning a tax reassessment case for over 700 former fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador who retired their licences back in 1999.
The harvesters retired their fishing licences in 1999 under the Atlantic Groundfish Licence Retirement Program (AGLRP). In 2000 they were told by officials from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to claim the retirement package as a capital gains tax from the disposition of a fishing asset.
However, the harvesters were given incorrect information according to Baker who said that the harvesters should have been told to claim one half of the package as a retirement program and the other half for the agreement never to participate in the fishery again.
Apparently, all the harvesters filed their income tax based on the wrong advice from Revenue Canada and many paid as much as $25,000 too much in taxes.
In 2004 the federal department of revenue apparently settled, out of court, with about 100 former fish harvesters who challenged the 2000 income tax returns. These fishermen, allegedly, had to sign notices of confidentially about the matter that was exposed in 2007 when Ross Windsor again challenged the income tax he paid on his licence buyback or retirement.
While some of the older generation in the province may still consider Friday to be an unlucky or bad day, Friday, November 18, according to Mildred Skinner, was a great day for the lobster fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Skinner is an Executive Board Member (Inshore Division) of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) and is a lobster harvester out of Harbour Breton.
She said that November 18 was a ‘great day’ for the fishery as the federal and provincial governments announced a sustainability and conservation plan for the lobster industry. The program was developed by the FFAW, on behalf of fish harvesters, and was approved under the Atlantic Lobster Sustainability Measures Program.
The Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador will each contribute over $9 million to the program.
The plan is comprised of three main elements: a science and conservation plan to be implemented in all lobster fishing areas of the province; trap reductions in southwest and western Newfoundland; and a lobster retirement program for the same areas which take in fishing lobster fishing areas from Area 11 to Area 14B.
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