Tag Archives: FFAW President

Is politics getting in the way of rebuilding a sustainable fishery in Newfoundland?

The sentinel program, created after the cod moratorium in 1992 to monitor fish populations, is run exclusively by the Fish Food & Allied Workers, the powerful union that represents around 15,000 fishermen, fish plant employees and other workers in the province. DFO relies on data from the sentinel fishery to help assess fish stocks, and has paid the union millions to run the program. “The FFAW and the DFO are cheating the fishermen out of a resource that belongs to the people of Newfoundland,” said Jason Bateman, a former enforcement officer with DFO.  Ryan Cleary, a former member of Parliament for St. John’s-Mount Pearl and an outspoken critic of the FFAW, said the union has found a way to prosper since the collapse of cod by integrating itself into fisheries management, acting almost as a regulator, while becoming a vocal industry voice that contradicts science. >click to read< 17:55

FFAW President Meeting with Federal Fisheries Minister – proposed cuts to the shrimp quota

maine shrimpFFAW President Earle McCurdy will meet with federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea next week to discuss the northern shrimp fishery. McCurdy attended a special meeting of the Northern Shrimp Advisory Committee in Ottawa yesterday to discuss the implications of proposed cuts to the quota. McCurdy says although he understands that the resource is not at peak levels, and quotas need to be adjusted, he say they must be done with a fair hand. Read more, and listen here