Tag Archives: in the Maritimes
Canada proposes shutdown of troubled Maritime elver fishery in 2024
The federal government has served notice it intends to close the commercial fishery for baby eels, or elvers, in the Maritimes this year — six weeks before the season is set to open. Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Diane Lebouthillier informed licence holders Tuesday and gave them until Feb. 23 to respond. Lebouthillier said there was not enough time for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to implement enhanced “access for Indigenous communities, a new regulatory framework to regulate and licence the possession and export of elvers, and a suite of operational changes to the management of the elver fishery.” “Based on all the above, it is my view that it is not possible to have a safe and sustainable elver fishery in 2024, and therefore the fishery should not be opened,” Lebouthillier wrote. more, >>click to read<< 16:46
More than 50 Indigenous fish harvesters in the Maritimes charged or on trial
Three years after a First Nation started a self-regulated lobster fishery that sparked protests and violence in Nova Scotia, federal prosecutors are pressing ahead with charges against dozens of Indigenous fishers, some of whom are planning constitutional challenges. On Sept. 17, 2020, the Sipekne’katik First Nation issued five lobster licences to its members, saying they could trap and sell their catch outside the federally regulated season. The bold move came exactly 21 years after the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the treaty right of Indigenous groups in Eastern Canada to hunt and fish for a moderate livelihood, but interpretations of that landmark ruling remain in dispute. >>click to read<< 09:25
Maritime baby eel fishers pan federal decision to close fishery over safety concerns
Ottawa’s decision to shut down the lucrative but contentious baby eel fishery in the Maritimes has effectively ended the 2023 season, says a commercial licence holder in southwestern Nova Scotia. Brian Giroux, of Shelburne Elver, a fishing co-op that employs 39 people, said the mandatory 45-day closure announced by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on Saturday will largely run out a season that normally wraps up in early June. “Illegal activities that (DFO) failed to control have taken away the fishing from the licensed and legal fishing,” Giroux said in an interview Monday. >click to read< 10:32
