Tag Archives: Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Salmon fishing shut down on the Fraser River in the Lower Mainland
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans shut down all salmon fishing in the Fraser River from the mouth to the railway bridge in Mission. Concerns over the number of sockeye salmon prompted the restrictions on commercial, First Nations and recreational activity. The summer runs are coming in with 3.5 million fewer fish than forecasted numbers. Lower river levels and warmer water temperatures expected to lead to a much higher mortality rate at salmon spawning grounds. Video, Read the rest here 09:08
Survival of local fleets, communities – Maritime Fishermen’s Union supports DFO owner/operator and fleet separation policies.
The Maritime Fishermen’s Union 
(MFU) has been pushing for stricter enforcement of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans owner operator and fleet separation policies. Squires said that in order for fishermen to get a fair price, there needs to be competition at the wharf level for the purchase of their fish. “If a fish buying company owns the fishing boats, the buying stations and the processing facilities, they have no reason to pay a good price at the wharf level — they just make their profit somewhere along the line.” Read the rest here 08:36
Wearing Rose Colored Glasses on P.E.I. – High hopes that Invasive green crabs could become lucrative commercial fishery
P.E.I.’s first commercial green crab fishery is underway. Fourteen fishermen have been granted licences from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans to fish this invasive species until mid-November. Not a lot of green crab has been landed so far. Fishermen believe the two recent harsh winters have knocked numbers down. Luke Poirier says chefs have been making the crab into a single-bite appetizer using Cajun-style spices. He believes a successful soft-shelled crab fishery will be established eventually on P.E.I. Read the rest here 09:47
Erecting old Markets, Plan calls for revival of seal penis sales
Sales of Canadian seal products could get a lift if the federal Fisheries Department adopts a plan that, among other things, calls for the revival of the controversial seal penis trade, a key supporter of the East Coast seal hunt says. says its five-year plan, dated March 2014, focuses on creating markets for a number of products that could be derived using every part of the seal carcass. Officials at the Fisheries Department declined an interview, but said in an emailed response that they were considering the report. Read the rest here 10:07
FFAW members protest federal ‘attacks’ on N.L. fisheries – P.E.I.’s halibut quota a “kick in the gut”
Around 50 fishers and several politicians came out in front of the Joseph R. Smallwood building to voice their anger with the decisions of Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea. FFAW members say recent policies appeal to Maritime voters while disadvantaging workers in this province. “These continued attacks by the federal Conservative government on rural Newfoundland and Labrador are shameful,” FFAW president Keith Sullivan said in a statement. Read the rest here 09:51
Turbot fisherman fined $7,500 for excessive catch
A fisherman from Seldom has been convicted for exceeding trip limits for fishing Turbot and failing to accurately report the amount of gear fished. Joey Leyte was convicted in Gander provincial court in May for breaching two counts of the fishery regulations, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said in a statement Tuesday. He was fined $5,000 for failing to accurately complete his fishing log on a daily basis. Leyte was also fined $2,500 and had to forfeit $4,742 for the value of fish exceeded on his trip. He was two years to pay the fines. (article) 09:55
Digby Fisheries officers stay busy, seize halibut and scallops and lay numerous charges
Department of Fisheries 
area have had a busy month – since April 10 they have seized halibut in Delaps Cove, scallops at the Digby wharf, and carried out a detailed inspection of the documentation of a fishplant in Delaps Cove. Various infractions – discovered six bags of scallops that had been segregated from the rest of the catch, seized 208 pounds of scallops and have laid charges for an inaccurate hail, fishermen offloading halibut in Delaps Cove without having hailed, found cooked lobster aboard a groundfish dragger, Read the rest here 15:23 [CORRECTION: an earlier version of this story INCORRECTLY said that halibut was seized in Delaps Cove, when in fact the halibut was seized in Parker’s Cove. The Courier regrets the confusion. (1:40 p.m. May 31, 2015)]
Changes to halibut sharing a ‘callous, desperate’ ploy for votes, says FFAW
A decision by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to deviate from an 
will have a deep impact on fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador, and greatly benefit harvesters in Prince Edward Island, the home province of Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, a union leader says. “It’s like taking bread from the table of hard-working Newfoundlanders and Labradorians just to buy votes in other parts of Canada,” Sullivan said. Read the rest here 11:00
Court orders new safeguards to prevent fish farm disease spreading to ocean
The federal government has been ordered to shore up its regulations to ensure diseases aren’t transferred from fish farms to the ocean. A Federal Court judge in Vancouver has struck down rules around transfer of fish between acquaculture farms and has given the Department of Fisheries four months to fix the regulations. The decision comes after a biologist accused a fish farm operator of moving diseased salmon smolts from its hatchery to a open pen fish farm on the British Columbia coast. Read the rest here 19:21
Future uncertain for fisheries research centre, five years after inception
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – The future of the largest seagoing fisheries research program of its kind in Canada is unclear as cash-strapped Newfoundland and Labrador reviews spending. “We want to continue with this project,” Premier Paul Davis said Tuesday aboard the RV Celtic Explorer docked in St. John’s harbour. But the centre is in the last of a five-year mandate and there’s no guarantee it will continue. The oil-dependent province has been walloped by lower prices and is reviewing all spending as it projects deficits through 2018. Read the rest here 20:48
P.E.I. Lobster season opening under discussion
Officials from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans will be on a conference call with fishermen in the region Monday to update the start of the lobster fishing season. On Thursday DFO decided to delay the April 30 opening of the spring lobster fishery due to ice in many harbours. No new date for the opening was set. That is expected to be discussed on the conference call. Read the rest here 10:35
DFO makes large seizure of lobster and scallops in Victoria Beach
Gary Hutchins of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans confirmed that officers made what he called a large seizure of lobster and scallop meat in Victoria Beach on Sunday night, March 29. Hutchins says because the investigation is still ongoing, he isn’t prepared to provide any more information at this time, but when charges are laid, possibly within two or three weeks, more information would be available to the public. Read the rest here 22:55
Heiltsuk First Nation claims victory over disputed herring fishery – “It looks like the fleet has packed up and is going south empty,”
A confrontation between the Heiltsuk First Nation and the federal government that threatened to erupt into a “war on the water” appears to have ended with the commercial fleet leaving the central coast, where the industry had been waiting for a disputed fishery to open. “We’re pretty ecstatic here,” Carrie Humchitt, legal services co-ordinator for the Heiltsuk said Wednesday. “We’re just waiting for official confirmation, but we’ve received word through channels that all of the industry boats will be pulling out.” Read the rest here 22:25
DFO bends to pressure, resumes herring talks with Heiltsuk – Marilyn Slett remains locked inside the federal fisheries office
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Pacific Regional Director resumed negotiations this afternoon with Heiltsuk First Nations over the controversial herring fishery as protests at DFO offices in Vancouver and Bella Bella grew. Top DFO boss, Sue Farlinger, landed on Denny Island this afternoon near Bella Bella off the Northern B.C. coast to meet with First Nations leaders there. Read the rest here 20:10
Heiltsuk take over DFO office to stop herring fishery
Heiltsuk tears and anger were cast at Department of Fisheries and Oceans officers standing on the front steps of the federal office on Denny Island Sunday afternoon, as band Elders, leaders, women and youth pleaded for the controversial herring fishery not to resume on the central B.C. coast. Within hours, more than a dozen band members also occupied the DFO office, promising to remain there until the herring fishery is closed. Read the rest here 22:34
Fish-farm madness – A US/Canadian Collaborative, The “Joint Forward Plan”
The Joint Forward Plan states that “Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency worked on aligning product reviews and risk assessment methodologies” in order to “reduce administrative burden on industry and provide simultaneous product access” to users. Regarding fish farms, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is collaborating with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Read the rest here 16:02
Heiltsuk will risk arrest to blockade herring boats, warns chief councillor
The herring battle on the central B.C. coast heated up Thursday with warnings from Heiltsuk tribal leaders that further commercial herring boats will be physically blockaded if the Department of Fisheries and Oceans re-opens the catch further. “We have a small fleet of boats getting ready to go out on to the water if the [herring] fishery is opened by DFO,” said Chief Councillor Marilyn Slett with the Heiltsuk Tribal Council. “We are putting DFO on notice,,, Read the rest here 13:21
Heiltsuk First Nation threatens to blockade commercial herring fishery
“We don’t trust the DFO [Department of Fisheries and Oceans] science.” said Carrie Humchitt, the first nation’s legal adviser. “It’s very industry driven.” Humchitt says if a commercial fishing is allowed, the Heiltsuk will act. “Our people are ready to mobilize and go out an protect our territory if we have to,” he said. We’re prepared to go out and protect our stocks.” “We think it’s in very bad faith that the DFO is forcing us and other nations up and down the coast to go out and protect our fisheries.” Read the rest here 09:31
Snow crab fishermen fined $7K
Three snow crab fishermen in the province have been fined a total of $7,000. According to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Carman Frampton of Burin was charged with having too many crab pots set, failing to take aboard an observer and using gear that’s not part of a licence. Read the rest here 11:59
South coast harvesters blast DFO and FFAW; call conservation ‘a joke’ – Cod fishery extended into spawning season … again
Inshore fish harvesters on the south coast of Newfoundland are accusing the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW) of using the guise of science to allow large company-owned trawlers to catch cod during a time that is traditionally closed for cod spawning. The cod fishery in area 3Ps was set to close for spawning on March 1. But it was decided, the same as last year, the fishery would remain open until the end of March to help gather more information. Read the rest here 07:55
Fisheries bureaucrats made pitches Dragons’ Den-style
Talk about a trial by fire. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans held a “Dragons’ Den”-style event where bureaucrats were asked to pitch ideas to a group of senior managers, a newly released document shows. Unlike the popular TV show on which the exercise was based, where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists, Fisheries and Oceans asked public servants to come up with “creative solutions to policy and operational challenges.” Read the rest here 14:13
DFO leaving nearly $1B unspent is ‘appalling’
Cardigan MP Lawrence MacAulay says the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans leaving $950 million unspent is ‘appalling’ and the money should have been used to benefit P.E.I. programs. However, federal Fisheries Minister and Egmont MP Gail Shea says that’s not accurate and MacAulay should know how the budget process works since he was once a cabinet minister. Read the rest here 08:15
‘Unfair sharing’ of shrimp resources at centre of FFAW protest
The 
announced in the fall it would be cutting the inshore shrimp quota by 26 per cent, while the offshore quota would be cut by three per cent. About 30 shrimpers protested against those cuts on Friday. They said the changes will result in the loss of thousands of jobs, resulting in a devastating impact on the coastal communities that rely on the resource. They blocked the offshore vessel Newfound Pioneer from offloading shrimp at Moorfrost. Video, Read the rest here 10:13
Haida Nation threatens legal challenge if federal authorities open herring roe fishery
The Haida Nation says the 
is considering opening a large commercial fishery this year in the community on the north coast. Haida Nation president Peter Lantin says herring stocks have not rebuilt enough to support the opening, saying department’s management process flawed. Read the rest here 15:49
Lobster fishermen favour licence stacking proposal
Members of the Western Gulf Fishermen’s Association voted overwhelmingly this week in favour of a proposal that might allow them to hold both a spring and a fall lobster license in the same name. The proposal was put out for secret ballot during the WGFA’s annual meeting Monday at the Western Community Curling Club. Read the rest here 18:54
For the love of cod, do it right this time: fishermen
Fishermen along the south coast of the province fear lessons learned from years of being under cod fishing moratoriums might be forgotten.And if history repeats itself — as signs of cod stocks growing and talks of quotas increasing make the news — they say the next blow might be the last for the inshore fishermen and many rural communities that have a stake in groundfish stocks. But fishermen are frustrated they cannot land the total cod quota available because local processing companies are not buying the cod when the fishermen are able to fish it. Read the rest here 08:10
Tignish fisherman continues fight with DFO over crab licence
Tignish lobster fisherman Henry Doucette says he wants justice — and compensation — for DFO denying him a lucrative career as a snow crab fisherman. Doucette blames the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for costing him millions of dollars in lost potential earnings over the past 13 years. Doucette’s lawyer Clifford Hood hopes the judge finds DFO “acted contrary to law… Read the rest here 23:41
New species of razor clam was right under our noses, says Philip Sargent
Scientists have identified a new species of razor clam, based on samples collected more then seven years ago from the ocean just off Long Pond, Conception Bay. “It was right under our noses,” said Philip Sargent, a technician with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in St. John’s. Read the rest here 10:52
Animal welfare organizations in B.C. are furious over the stolen teeth from their dead orca
The young adult female whale was found floating off the coast Thursday and had been brought ashore. “Someone last night selfishly, cruelly, illegally cut off several teeth from her,” Marcie Callewaert of the Victoria Marine Science Association told CTV. “It’s a crime that can’t be described. It’s a crime against science; it’s a crime against her and the respect to Rhapsody.” . Read the rest here 14:38
New research debunks myth that shark derbies have a significant impact on blue sharks
As it turns out, blue sharks are travellers. Sharks tagged off NovaScotia are being caught far fromCanadian waters. “A lot of these tags are being recaptured way off in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, often by Spanish fishermen of all things,” he says. Read the rest here 10:18
