Tag Archives: Clearwater Seafoods
Clearwater Seafoods loses redfish quota as other Indigenous harvesters gain
Indigenous-owned Clearwater Seafoods is on the losing side of the redfish quota cut handed to the Atlantic Canadian offshore fleet by the federal government last week. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans reduced the share of Gulf of St. Lawrence redfish quota held by Clearwater and other offshore licence holders by 20 per cent, in part to encourage Indigenous participation in the fishery. Commercial harvesting will restart this year, marking an epic comeback from a collapse 30 years ago to a population now estimated at 2.2-million metric tonnes. Offshore companies spent tens of millions of dollars gearing up for the return only to lose a big piece of their quota on the eve of reopening. photos, more, <<click to read<< 14:11
Clearwater Seafoods announces fish crew certification for its fleet
Clearwater Seafoods announces that seven vessels within its Canadian fleet have been certified using the Fish Standard for Crew, an independent, third-party certification program for labor practices on fishing vessels. The certification was awarded after extensive policy and procedure review was conducted, as well as on-site vessel inspections, and face-to-face interviews with crew members by the independent auditors. FISH certification seeks to improve the conditions for vessel crew and to serve as a credible tool that organizations in today’s seafood industry can use to validate their commitments to their employees. Clearwater’s FISH certified fleet of seven vessels is comprised of clam, lobster, and scallop harvesters, operating in the Canadian North Atlantic. >>click to read<< 14:54
The man who changed Canada’s lobster industry and his $1B deal to sell Clearwater
In Nova Scotia, John Risley is arguably a household name, synonymous with the seafood industry and his many conspicuous possessions. On both fronts, his reputation is well earned. In 1976, he and his brother-in-law Colin MacDonald started Clearwater, a dumpy retail lobster shop on the side of a suburban Halifax highway. From that simple start, Risley fundamentally changed the Atlantic Canadian lobster industry — transforming it from a seasonal, afterthought business to a year-round, $3-billion sector where lobsters are shipped overnight by air to customers in Europe and Asia, a premise unheard of before Risley entered the industry. Along the way, Clearwater matured into a global seafood company. >click to read< 07:43
Clearwater Seafoods wants 72 tonnes of lobster added to its annual harvesting quota
The Indigenous-owned company has exclusive rights to Lobster Fishing Area 41, or LFA 41, off southern Nova Scotia, where Clearwater maintains a long-held quota of 720 tonnes. Last fall, the Membertou First Nation and Mi’kmaw partners in the company asked the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to increase the total allowable catch by ten per cent. In response, DFO has issued an “interim” total allowable catch of 720 tonnes for 2023 while it considers this request. The Brazil Rock Lobster Association, the Coldwater Lobster Association and the LFA 33 Advisory Committee have submitted letters to DFO in opposition. >click to read< 08:44
Commercial fishing deaths in Canada hit 20-year high
Despite improvements in safety training and awareness, commercial fishing remains one of the most dangerous professions in Canada. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada reports that 45 workers died between 2018 and 2020, the highest three-year total in 20 years. And fishing safety has been on the board’s watchlist of important safety matters since 2010. But fishing fatalities are preventable. The Transportation Safety Board also reports that 29 workers died between 2015 and 2021 after their boats capsized or sank without personal floatation devices or distress-alerting devices. “You’ve got to be prepared for the worst-case scenario, and that’s where we see that they’re not prepared,” said Glenn Budden. >click to read< 19:03
New Factory Trawlers for the Canadian North
Last year saw the delivery of Ocean Choice International’s Calvert and an order placed for a new Polar Code standard trawler for Clearwater Seafoods and Ocean Prawns in Denmark, currently under construction at Tersan. Now an agreement has been struck with Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corporation for the design of a new trawler to replace the company’s existing Saputi, which dates back to 1987. >click to read< 09:29
How the $250M Clearwater Seafoods purchase by 7 Mi’kmaw First Nations came to be
“In the beginning, we wanted a pathway, a clear pathway on how we’d end up with 100 per cent of the ownership of the company,” said Chief Terry Paul of the Membertou First Nation. “Most all of the prospective partners walked away … because of our insistence on what we were looking for.” Paul made the comments during an online chat with Clearwater founder John Risley that was put on by the non-profit Public Policy Forum. >click to read< 09:42
Premium Brands and Mi’kmaq First Nations Coalition Announce Acquisition Completion of Clearwater Seafoods Inc.
“We are very excited to have a world class seafood company like Clearwater join our ecosystem.,,, said George Paleologou, President and CEO of Premium Brands. “We are also very pleased to be partnering with the Membertou, Miawpukek, Sipekne’katik, We’koqma’q, Potlotek, Pictou Landing and Paqtnkek communities. “This is a significant achievement for the Mi’kmaq,” said Chief Terry Paul, Membertou First Nation. “Mi’kmaq not only become 50% owners of the company but expect to hold Clearwater’s Canadian fishing licences within a fully Mi’kmaq owned partnership. >click to read< 09:23
How a Mi’kmaq nation found prosperity and a seafood empire
The urban Mi’kmaq reservation, on the southern edge of Sydney, N.S., used to be the kind of place many in Cape Breton avoided. It was seen by outsiders, unfairly, as rough, poor and unwelcoming to business. Chief Terry Paul, “They all used to avoid this place. Now, they’re all here. They have businesses here. Even the taxis wait for their fares.” This month, the remarkable four-decade-long transformation of the community reached a new milestone with Membertou’s co-ownership of the largest shellfish producer in North America, Clearwater Seafoods. >click to read< 11:56
Nova Scotia Supreme Court approves sale of Clearwater Seafoods
It is the final step in a deal described as “the single largest investment in the seafood industry by any Indigenous group in Canada.” On Thursday, shareholders voted in favour of the sale to a partnership of Premium Brands of British Columbia and a coalition of Mi’kmaw First Nations led by the Membertou band of Nova Scotia and the Miawpukek in Newfoundland and Labrador. Court approval for the mega deal took 20 minutes. >click to read< 18:40
Clearwater Seafoods dropping MSC certification for its Canadian offshore lobster fishery
The blue MSC eco-label tells consumers the seafood they are buying is sustainably caught and has been a point of pride for North America’s biggest shellfish producer. Clearwater’s offshore lobster fishery off southern Nova Scotia was the first fishery on the Eastern Seaboard to receive MSC certification in 2010. The current five-year certification expires at the end of the month.,, The Marine Stewardship Council declined to directly comment on Clearwater’s decision to drop its lobster certification. >click to read< 06:54
‘We won’: Clearwater Seafoods deal gives Mi’kmaq control of lucrative ocean stretch
Early this week, leaders of the Membertou and Miawpukek First Nations, both of which are Mi’kmaq communities, reached an agreement to buy Nova Scotia-based Clearwater Seafoods in a deal worth C$1bn (£580m). Heralded as the “single largest investment in the seafood industry by any Indigenous group in Canada”, the landmark deal comes at a critical moment for Indigenous communities in the region, as tensions remain high over their treatied fishing rights. >click to read< 15:48
Mi’kmaq-owned partnership in Clearwater Seafoods deal a ‘benefit for everybody’
The sale of Clearwater Seafoods to Premium Brands of British Columbia and a coalition of Mi’kmaq First Nations is a game-changing moment in Atlantic Canada, says a public policy analyst. Ken Coates, a senior fellow in Indigenous rights and economic development with Ottawa’s MacDonald Laurier Institute for Public Policy, said Tuesday it’s “absolutely a transformational moment.” Video, >click to read< 10:39
“There’s something awful fishy going on here”: What about Clearwater and the offshore lobster fishery?
Media attention is trained on St. Mary’s Bay in southwest Nova Scotia, where the Sipekne’katik First Nation led by Chief Michael Sack has been exercising Treaty rights to a “moderate livelihood” fishery since September 17. But what is happening in the offshore lobster fishery is going largely unnoticed. That is absolutely understandable, given the very ugly scenes that erupted,,, But what is happening in the offshore could also have wide-reaching impacts on the Atlantic lobster fishery and independent inshore fishers, and is also worth keeping an eye on.,, Just nine days before Sipekne’katik fishers took to the waters, Membertou First Nation and Clearwater Seafoods announced that they had “reached an agreement for the sale of two of Clearwater’s eight offshore lobster licences” to Membertou. >click to read< 19:52
Royal Greenland buying 4 more N.L. fish plants – FFAW raising red flag over corporate concentration and foreign ownership
A Crown corporation owned by the Greenland government is set to become the largest fish processor in Newfoundland and Labrador, dramatically changing the landscape of the province’s fish-processing industry. In a deal recommended by the Fish Processing Licensing Board and approved by Fisheries Minister Elvis Loveless, Royal Greenland is taking controlling interests in Quinlan Brothers fish plants in Old Perlican, Bay de Verde and Baie Verte. Royal Greenland subsidiary Quin-Sea Fisheries will take over valuable crab, shrimp and other processing licences owned by Quinlan Brothers. Royal Greenland is also taking a controlling interest in St. Anthony Seafoods in a partnership with Clearwater Seafoods. >click to read< 17:29
Membertou First Nation Investments to Expand Participation In Atlantic Canada’s Commercial Offshore Lobster Fishery
Clearwater Seafoods and Membertou First Nation are pleased to announce that they have reached an agreement for the sale of two of Clearwater’s eight offshore lobster licenses to Membertou First Nation. Membertou is investing $25 Million to purchase the licenses, significantly increasing their presence in the commercial fishery in Atlantic Canada. >click to read< 15:28
Clearwater gives up piece of offshore lobster monopoly to N.S. First Nation for $25M – Clearwater currently holds all eight Canadian offshore licences that are fished with a single vessel, the F/V Randell Dominaux, out of Shelburne, N.S. It is the only year-round lobster fishery in Canada and the only one with a quota. Paul said Membertou’s two licences will continue to be fished by the Clearwater vessel. Membertou has gone to the First Nations Finance Authority for the money for the purchase. >click to read<18:26
Global Lobster Market Report 2020
The recently published market intelligence report on the Global Lobster Market offers an in-depth analysis of segments and sub-segments in the regional and international Lobster market. The research highlights underlying factors such as the impact of restraints, drivers, and macro indicators on the regional and global Lobster market over the short as well as long period of time. Through a detailed presentation of the data, valuable information of forecast, trends, and dollar values of global Lobster market is offered. The Lobster industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth,,, >click to read< 17:07
Clearwater Seafoods keeps Canadian surf clam monopoly for 2020
Halifax-based Clearwater Seafoods will keep its monopoly on Canada’s lucrative Arctic surf clam for another year.,, The licence was originally awarded to a consortium of First Nations led by the Elsipogtog Band in New Brunswick and Premiums Seafoods of Arichat, N.S.,, But the licence was cancelled after it emerged the partnership was formalized after the licence was awarded, that participants had family ties to the federal Liberals including then-Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc, and were unable to secure a vessel to harvest the quota. >click to read< 18:49
Clearwater keeps sustainability label for offshore lobster fishery following audit
Auditors imposed conditions on Clearwater, downgraded its ratings and concluded “there is evidence of systematic non-compliance in the fishery.” The company said it is pleased with the outcome.,,, The independent audit was ordered after Clearwater was convicted of a “gross violation” in its lobster fishery in September 2018. The company pleaded guilty to illegally storing thousands of traps at sea after,,, >click to read< 09:52
Ottawa stalls on restarting controversial contest for Arctic surf clam licence
The federal government has stalled on a plan to break one company’s monopoly on a lucrative Atlantic fishery by awarding part of the quota to an Indigenous group, after a disastrous attempt last year that led to an investigation by the federal ethics watchdog. Ottawa announced a year ago that it would choose a new licence holder for 25 per cent of the Arctic surf clam quota in the spring of 2019, to begin harvesting clams in January 2020. That has not happened, and the office of Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson now says there is no timeline on the process. >click to read< 14:02
Fourteen First Nations announce landmark agreement with Clearwater on Arctic Surf Clam
Fourteen First Nations communities in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador and Clearwater Seafoods Incorporated (“Clearwater”) (TSX: CLR) are pleased to announce they have reached a landmark agreement to the benefit of all parties. The Agreement forges a 50-year partnership that protects existing jobs in the Arctic Surf Clam fishery while creating meaningful economic, employment and capacity building for the fourteen First Nations that are adjacent to the clam resource. >click to read<19:09
Clearwater defends its lobster fishery
With a fisheries conviction in the news and an important eco-sustainability certification at stake, Halifax-based Clearwater Seafoods is defending the way it conducts its offshore Canadian lobster fishery. The company offered media a tour this week on board its 40-metre offshore lobster vessel, the Randell Dominaux, at its home port in Shelburne.,,, Clearwater holds all licences in Canada’s offshore Lobster Fishing Area 41. The boundary begins 50 miles from shore to Canada’s 200-mile limit. In practice, the fishery takes place off southern Nova Scotia. >click to read<13:02
Clearwater pulls plug on storing lobster traps at sea
North America’s largest shellfish producer, Halifax-based Clearwater Seafoods, says it has stopped storing lobster traps at sea. Clearwater’s practice of leaving thousands of pots on the ocean floor for weeks at a time earned it a conviction for a “gross violation” of Canadian fishery rules. Unlike every other lobster fishery, there is no season and Clearwater has been awarded a quota of 720 tonnes, which it says represents about 15 percent of all lobster it sells. >click to read<12:58
MSC Sustainability rating drops for Clearwater’s offshore lobster fishery
Clearwater Seafoods’ offshore lobster fishery in Eastern Canada has lost its “recommended” rating from Ocean Wise, a seafood sustainability recommendation program of the Vancouver Aquarium. It’s more fallout from a 2018 conviction for what the Crown called a “gross violation” of a Canadian fisheries regulation by Halifax-based Clearwater. In a separate action, the Marine Stewardship Council, another much larger eco-sustainability organization, has moved up its scheduled “full surveillance audit” of Clearwater’s offshore lobster fishery by two months to April. >click to read<11:00
Canadian seafood giant Clearwater convicted of ‘gross violation’ in lobster fishery
Canadian seafood giant Clearwater was convicted of “gross violation” of fisheries regulations last fall after senior management ignored federal government warnings to change the way the company conducts its monopoly offshore lobster fishery, CBC News has learned. The decision to prosecute North America’s largest shellfish producer occurred amid a lengthy and still ongoing lobby effort by Clearwater to change the rule it broke: a Canadian requirement that fishing gear at sea must be tended every 72 hours. Clearwater company CS ManPar was convicted for storing 3,800 lobster traps on the ocean bottom off the Nova Scotia coast for upward of two months in the fall of 2017,,, >click to read<08:46
LeBlanc in conflict of interest over surf clam licence, Clearwater to keep monopoly until 2020
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc was found in breach of conflict of interest rules Wednesday for approving an Arctic surf clam licence to a company that employed a family member — a violation that comes with no penalties. Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion said in a report issued Wednesday that LeBlanc knew his wife’s first cousin was involved in the Five Nations Clam Co. and knew the cousin would have benefited financially when awarding the company a multi-million dollar license in February. >click to read<
Clearwater to keep Arctic surf clam monopoly until 2020 – Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has confirmed Clearwater Seafoods has been given the go ahead to catch the outstanding 25 per cent of the 2018 and 2019 total allowable catch (TAC) for Arctic surf clams. A statement issued by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) on Sept. 11 reiterates the plan remains to identify a new Indigenous participant for the 2020 fishery, however. >click to read<18:49
Fisheries and Oceans quietly cancels plans to award Indigenous surf clam licence
The federal government says it has cancelled plans to issue a controversial clam fishing licence to a First Nations company with ties to the Liberal party and several sitting Liberal MPs — including the former fisheries minister. A news release from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans says the process to issue a fourth licence to harvest arctic surf clam off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia was cancelled in early July, and that it won’t be issued this year at all. That multimillion-dollar licence was supposed to go to the Five Nations Clam Co., a company court documents suggest did not initially meet key eligibility requirements spelled out in the government’s tender process. >click to read<15:16
Clearwater throws cold water on surf clam rival’s prospects in 2018
Halifax-based Clearwater Seafoods spoke for the first time Tuesday since losing a valuable arctic surf clam quota and raised doubts about whether a new Indigenous rival will be able to live up to its promise to harvest in 2018. The company suggested the licence for about 9,600 tonnes of the shellfish, worth an estimated $29 million, is on hold while the award is challenged in Federal Court. “Our understanding is with a judicial review process, the Department [of Fisheries and Oceans] would pause in issuing a licence until that process plays itself out,”,, >click to read<18:02
Tories ask ethics commissioner to probe fishery bid they say favours Liberal insiders
A Conservative MP is asking the federal ethics commissioner to investigate the bidding process that awarded a lucrative Arctic surf clam license to a group with Liberal links. In his letter to Mario Dion, the newly appointed ethics watchdog, Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty alleges the government’s effort to diversify ownership in the fishery — by clawing back part of an existing quota held by Clearwater Foods and handing it to a group with Indigenous representation — violates the Commons conflict of interest code because it enriches the brother of a sitting Liberal MP and a former Liberal MP.>click to read< 12:57
A seafood empire and a court battle over Trudeau’s push for Indigenous reconciliation
One of the Trudeau government’s signature acts of Indigenous reconciliation is being challenged in court, exposing the fierce competition between First Nations for a shellfish quota worth millions — and the jockeying by one of Canada’s leading seafood companies to keep control of the fishery. Hundreds of pages of records filed in Federal Court offer new insight into the controversial decision in February to award 25 per cent of Canada’s Arctic surf clam quota to Five Nations Clam Company, led by Elsipogtog First Nation of New Brunswick and its industry partner Premium Seafoods of Arichat, N.S. >click to read<09:43
