Tag Archives: F/V Mersey Venture
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
