Tag Archives: Bruce Chapman
Over a Million Bucks for Bruce – Offshore Companies Get Leg-Up from DFO
This week, news broke that DFO spent untold millions completing two weeks of science work for redfish on the Mersey Venture, a 200-foot factory freezer trawler owned by Mersey Seafoods and part of the offshore lobby group, the Atlantic Groundfish Council headed by Bruce Chapman. Go on, ‘by. Surely the Union’s not out complaining about the government doing more science work when that’s what they’re going on about half the time? In an effort to simplify the complex history behind the issue, I’ll give readers some background. In a nutshell, DFO Science is directly subsidizing corporate offshore fisheries development at the expense of coastal communities and the owner-operator fishery. >click to read< 10:32
Ottawa signs new deal to charter fishing boats for science surveys
The agreement with the Atlantic Groundfish Council, which represents the region’s largest seafood companies, allows DFO to charter industry vessels for two to six weeks a year for fisheries or ecosystem surveys in Atlantic Canada. “We’ve been distressed in the fishing industry for two or three years now because DFO research vessel surveys were not getting done,’ said Bruce Chapman, president of the Atlantic Groundfish Council. DFO scientists returned last week from the first mission under the new charter agreement. It was a two-week survey on Georges Bank aboard the Mersey Venture, a 58-metre factory freezer trawler owned by Nova Scotia seafood company Mersey Seafoods. The Mersey Venture gathered data used by both Canada and the United States to jointly manage trans-boundary haddock, cod and yellowtail flounder stocks on the shared fishing grounds. Photos, >click to read< 17:35
Researchers tracking fish to learn more about where they migrate and spawn
Northern cod are about to experience a much higher level of surveillance. The iconic fish — 1,260 of them — are having small transmitters implanted into their bellies. As the cod swim about, their transmitters will send information to 75 acoustic receivers moored to the ocean floor in 13 areas along the eastern continental shelf and in three areas closer to shore in cod fishery area 2J3KL. >click to read< 19:10
Canada’s marine protected area laws need a ‘floor of basic protections’
The oceans that surround Canada on three coasts are under considerable pressure from a range of human-driven stressors. But measures in place to protect and de-stress them are a weak patchwork. The consensus is that by prohibiting some of the main culprits, such as commercial fishing and oil drilling, within their boundaries, designated marine protected areas (MPAs) go a long way to relieving the stress seas are under. “But right now our MPA laws are like baby Aspirin,” says Linda Nowlan, who heads the marine program at West Coast Environmental Law. “What we need is a heavy duty Advil.” That was her message to the National Advisory Panel on Marine Protected Area Standards Friday during the first of three days of consultations in Ottawa. >click to read<14:27
