Tag Archives: Department of Labour

Fairness in Scheduling and the Targeted Elimination of the Small-Boat Fleet

Three weeks into the snow crab fishery and dozens of attempts made to work out a fair arrangement for fish harvesters, FFAW-Unifor is calling on the provincial government to better regulate processing companies, issue additional processing licenses, and open the province up to outside buyers immediately to allow inshore harvesters to sell their catch. “Processing companies are engaging in unethical business behaviour to the targeted detriment of the small boat fleet in our province. The fishery may be open with a price agreement in place, but with no avenue to sell, harvesters are still in crisis,” says FFAW-Unifor Secretary-Treasurer Jason Spingle. “Our Union has made every effort this year to work out a fair proposal to ensure all fleets have a fair opportunity to participate in the fishery, but at every turn we’ve only been met with the same fish merchant-style tactics,” he says. >click to read< 15:10

Fish Safe NS Encouraging PFD Use Ahead of Dumping Day

Executive Director Matthew Duffy says they’ve been on wharves from Tiverton, Digby County to Eastern Passage over the last few weeks. He says the biggest topic of conversation are PFD’s. “I strongly encourage everyone going out to sea this season, that they always wear one. The Department of Labour is enforcing that, it’s the law to wear a personal floatation device in Nova Scotia,” says Duffy. >click to read< 09:10

Southwestern NS fishermen asked ‘Are you ready?’ as focus is put on safety heading into season

The Fisheries Safety Association of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Fisheries Sector Council have been busy in the weeks leading up to the opening of the lobster fishery delivering man overboard drills, safety equipment demonstrations and safety messages at wharfs throughout southwestern Nova Scotia as part of their ‘Are You Ready?’ program. “Attendance at these drills has been fantastic, even in smaller ports for 10 or less vessels we are still seeing all captains and crews show up,” said Matthew Duffy, safety advisor for the Fisheries Safety Association of Nova Scotia. >click to read<10:53

Devestation – Seven drownings among Nova Scotia fishermen highlight importance of PFDs

Allan Anderson never thought his close friend, “a stellar tuna fisherman” of four decades, would be the latest drowning victim. The Aulds Cove lifelong fisherman learned of the tragic news on Saturday not long after Stevie MacInnis died while tuna fishing off the coast of Port Hood. The father of three was the seventh Nova Scotia fisherman to drown on the job this year. The 68-year-old Arisaig resident was widely regarded as a selfless community man. It’s unclear whether he was wearing a personal flotation device (PFD).,, But Anderson also admits that he and MacInnis also represent an older generation of fishermen reluctant to wear PFDs themselves. >click to read<12:18

Yarmouth Sea Products outlines extensive safety steps taken following serious injury to crewmember in 2015

It was just supposed to be another ordinary fishing trip, except that on the water things don’t always happen the way they’re supposed to. But that can change. An accident onboard the scallop dragger Compass Rose II in June 2015 left a crewmember (Clayton Joudrey) with permanent injuries. In a room of fishermen and others 28 months later, the owners of that vessel, Yarmouth Sea Products Ltd., gave a presentation on the extensive safety steps that have been undertaken to prevent such an accident from happening again. The presentation was ordered by the court as part of the penalty,,, click here to read the story 13:43