Tag Archives: snow crab licences

Fisheries minister defends rare decision to overturn board on new crab licences

The chair of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Fish Processing Licensing Board is speaking out after Fisheries Minister Derrick Bragg overruled the board and denied coveted crab licences for plants in two communities. Reg Anstey said the board’s recommendations on snow crab licences were made over more than a year of research and meetings with scientists in the fishery, adding the independent board’s mandate is to assess the entire industry without a political lens. The board had recommended that four processing plants receive snow crab licences — St. Mary’s Bay Fisheries, Dandy Dan’s in Argentia, Bay Roberts Seafoods and HSF Ocean Products in O’Donnells. However, Bragg only approved crab licences for two of the plants, in St. Mary’s and in Argentia. >click to read< 12:37