Tag Archives: Harvesters
Fisheries union, harvesters eager to work with new federal minister
Diane Lebouthillier, Liberal MP for the Quebec riding of Gaspésie-Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, was one of several ministers to assume new roles in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet on Wednesday. She leaves the revenue portfolio to assume the role of minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard from Joyce Murray, who has announced she will not seek re-election. FFAW president Greg Pretty said he’s eager to meet the new minister. “This woman is from the Gaspé Peninsula. She represents harvesters, we got a lot in common,” Pretty said Wednesday. >click to read< 15:38
P.E.I. fishers call spring lobster prices ‘a slap in the face’
Harvesters say they’re getting between $6.50 and $7 per pound from processors — less than last year, and about half what they were getting a few years ago. “That price we got in 2006, and you could buy a fishing fleet in 2006 for $200,000 and now they’re $1.5 million to $2 million. Everything has gone up … bait, fuel, engines, pickup trucks, rope, traps, buoys, everything,” McGeoghegan said. “So to expect us to go fishing for a price that’s 18 years old is a slap in the face. And we know for a fact … that the demand is high, higher than it’s been in the last 10 years, and supply is the lowest it’s been in 10 years.” Photos, >click to read< 07:52
NPFMC asks industry for recommendations on Bristol Bay red king crab
The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery is historically one of the most valuable in the state, but for the last decade, the stock has been declining. Last fall, surveys showed that the female biomass of the stock had fallen below acceptable levels for harvest, and managers closed it. At the April NPFMC meeting, the council members approved a motion to ask the industry to come back with a list of voluntary actions harvesters and other industry stakeholders can take to help reduce bycatch of Bristol Bay red king crab and reduce discard mortality in the directed fishery. Industry stakeholders include not just the directed harvesters in the red king crab fishery, but also reach to the Pacific cod sector, pollock, and Amendment 80 fleets, which impact red king crab stocks based on area and bycatch rates. >click to read< 15:10
For Alaska’s seafood processors, the Coronavirus pandemic has cost tens of millions
Heading into the 2020 fishing season, many people were concerned that seafood workers from out of state would bring COVID-19 to rural communities. Processing companies managed to keep the disease under control. but at a big cost. Now, economists are looking at that financial toll. To keep track of how the pandemic is shaping the seafood industry, economists at the McDowell Group have started to publish monthly briefs for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. “It’s interesting to describe a crisis when you’re in the crisis, right? And that’s our situation,” said Garrett Everidge, an economist at the McDowell Group. >click to read< 15:15
Coronavirus: It’s not business as usual for fishing industry
For Alaska’s commercial fisheries industry in 2020, things will hardly be business as usual. Reports of the first case of novel coronavirus in the state prompted processors to get to work developing plant and vessel response plans in consultation with medical experts to assure the health and safety of employees, harvesters, communities they work in and the fish they will process by the ton. “Everyone is working on it on a regular basis,” said Norm Van Vactor, president and chief executive officer of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. in Dillingham. “It is literally a plan in progress. We are moving forward with a positive attitude (but) nobody is in La La Land.” >click to read< 18:15
Outside buyers allowed in cod market as fishermen protest in St. John’s, Old Perlican
Buyers from outside the province will have a 14-day window to purchase cod from Newfoundland and Labrador harvesters, Gerry Byrne’s announcement comes as members of the The Fish Food And Allied Workers Union set up on the waterfront in St. John’s Monday morning, giving their cod catches away for free to protest what they say is a processors’ refusal to buy it. Union members are also protesting outside the Royal Greenland plant in Old Perlican, and the FFAW said it submitted an official request to Byrne Monday morning, asking that outside buyers be allowed into the market. >click to read< 16:48
Harvesters worry their efforts in producing a quality catch will be lost due to delays in grading
With hefty nets, healthy livers and plump fish, harvesters across the central region are seeing signs of a healthy and rebounding cod fishery this summer. But fishers and union representatives agree, the most pivotal mark to grow this future fishery is not in quantity but in producing a quality grade codfish. “The only thing that’s going to do it for us is quality,” Salvage harvester Gordon Janes said. “Norway and Iceland got it down to a science, and the fish we put out in comparison to them is very little. In recent years, harvesters have been encouraged in a variety of techniques for producing a fresher and higher-quality fish. These techniques include an emphasis on more fish caught through hook and line, decreasing the amount of time harvesters leave out gillnets, pulling out the fish’s gills to drain the blood from its fillets, and gutting the fish and putting it in ice immediately after it’s caught. >click to read<11:09
‘This Is It For Us’ – Harvesters Gather At Confederation Building
“A lot of people are going to be hurting” that’s the assessment of at least one crab harvester as those involved in the fishery gathered at Confederation Building today to protest the price set for snow crab this year. The event was organized by FISH-NL. The price set by the Fish Price Setting Panel is $4.55 cents a pound. That’s below the recommendation made by the FFAW. The price set for harvesters in the Maritimes is more than $5.00 a pound. Harvesters are concerned that with declining stocks they won’t be able to make a go of it. Watch video. >click to read<23:08
Newfoundland fish harvesters fed up with ‘bad news’ – >click to read<
Seeking a viable fishery in Twillingate – Harvester and harbour master weigh in on state of shrimp fishery
With projected quota cuts to an already curtailed fishery, some shrimp harvesters say they will not even bother chasing the species this year. Perry Collins of Seldom on Fogo Island has harvested shrimp for over 10 years. He says if quotas go lower than they already are, there will be little to no profit in taking part in the shrimp fishery. “If the quota goes any lower … they may as well close it out all together,” Collins said. “With the time you take to gear up and change over from your other fisheries, it’s really not worth going after.” >click to read<14:09
Fish harvesters are “ready to revolt.” Ryan Cleary to help form breakaway fish union
A former NDP MP says forming a new union for fishermen will be a big challenge, but Ryan Cleary told reporters on Monday that he thinks it is possible. Cleary held a news conference in Petty Harbour to talk about what he called a “David versus Goliath challenge.” Harvesters have been pleading with him to start a union that represents fishermen only, Cleary said. They are currently part of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW), which also represents plant workers. Cleary called that a “conflict of interest,” and said it’s hard for the union to be critical of government policies when it received “untold millions” from the federal government. He said harvesters are “ready to revolt.” Read the story here ‘Fish harvesters have lost confidence in the FFAW’ – Read this article here ‘The FFAW is a conflict of interest wrapped in a mystery inside a huge puzzle with pieces missing, the missing pieces being fish’ Read this article here 07:50
Harvesters want higher Gulf halibut quotas for Newfoundland and Labrador fishermen
Halibut harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador are calling on the federal Liberals to address the previous government’s wrongs by establishing what the union calls “fair” quota allocations for Gulf of St. Lawrence halibut. In a press release today, the Fish Food and Allied Workers (FFAW-Unifor), the union that represents fishers in this province, said it will be making a presentation to the Gulf Groundfish Advisory Committee reviewing halibut allocation decisions made since 2007. “Previous sharing agreements have resulted in significant and disproportionate reductions in quota for Newfoundland and Labrador harvesters,” FFAW president Keith Sullivan said in a prepared statement. Read the rest here 16:34
