Tag Archives: Federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson
Government of Canada establishes Atlantic Seal Task Team
The sustainable management of Canadian fisheries is important to fish harvesters whose livelihoods are supported by the ocean. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) ensures that the best available science is considered when making management decisions for seals. However, DFO has continuously heard concerns by fish harvesters about the relationship between seals and fish populations. Listening to these concerns, DFO is taking action to address a concern that encompasses not only Newfoundland and Labrador, but all Atlantic Canada and Quebec coasts. >click to read<16:18
Clock ticking as Fraser River slide blocks spawning salmon: Wilkinson
Time is critical to find a solution to a massive obstruction in British Columbia’s Fraser River as 90,000 salmon wait downstream and an estimated two million more sockeye are about to arrive, federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Tuesday. The minister said dozens of people are working against the clock looking for ways to clear a path that allows salmon to get through the area where a massive rock slide came down in the river northwest of Kamloops. >click to read< 20:14
New Brunswick fishermen get $2M to test gear to prevent whale entanglements
Snow crab fishermen in northern New Brunswick are getting more than $2 million over three years to help test technologies aimed at reducing the risks of North Atlantic right whale entanglements in fishing gear.The funding for the Acadian Crabbers Association comes through the $400-million Atlantic Fisheries Fund, which is jointly funded by Ottawa and the region’s provincial governments. >click to read<17:08
Proposed Eastern Shore Islands MPA – N.S. lobster fishermen tie up boats to protest DFO minister
More than a hundred lobster fishermen from Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore tied up their boats Wednesday to protest an appearance by federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson at a local legion. The protest was over Eastern Shore Islands, a 2,000-square-kilometre proposed marine protected area (MPA). Wilkinson told an East Ship Harbour legion hall packed with fishermen that the local lobster fishery — which accounts for 97 per cent of the landings inside the proposed MPA — would not be affected if the area is designated. >click to read<15:09
Canada MPA’s – Ban oil, gas, bottom trawling in marine protected areas, urges panel
A panel that has spent the year studying marine protected areas (MPAs) in Canada says no oil and gas development, seabed mining, or bottom-trawling fishing should be allowed within their boundaries. In its final report released Tuesday, the National Advisory Panel on Marine Protected Area Standards, which was created earlier this year by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, recommended that the federal government adopt International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) standards and guidelines for all MPAs. That would also make dumping off-limits.>click to read<18:09
MPA’s – Report silent on whether lobster fishing should be allowed – >click to read<15:07
