Tag Archives: Jonathan Wilkinson
Rising costs drain contingency fund for Canada’s new fisheries science ships
According to a memorandum prepared for Jonathan Wilkinson, the former minister of fisheries and oceans, the project had already used $19 million in contingency funds by May 2019. But more was needed, the memo said, to cover “escalating project costs such as labour rates and owner’s changes, as well as other unexpected increases to project costs including transition into service costs.” “Access to the remainder of the contingency funding [redacted] is now required,” the two-page memo said. >click to read< 10:21
Ottawa stalls on restarting controversial contest for Arctic surf clam licence
The federal government has stalled on a plan to break one company’s monopoly on a lucrative Atlantic fishery by awarding part of the quota to an Indigenous group, after a disastrous attempt last year that led to an investigation by the federal ethics watchdog. Ottawa announced a year ago that it would choose a new licence holder for 25 per cent of the Arctic surf clam quota in the spring of 2019, to begin harvesting clams in January 2020. That has not happened, and the office of Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson now says there is no timeline on the process. >click to read< 14:02
101 lost snow crab traps, 9 km of rope removed from gulf to protect right whales
Federal fishery officers and Canadian Coast Guard crews have removed 101 lost snow crab traps and more than nine kilometres of associated rope from the Gulf of St. Lawrence as part of ongoing efforts to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. The so-called ghost gear,,, Ropeless gear holds hope, Earlier this week, during a stop in Dieppe to discuss whale protection efforts, Jonathan Wilkinson,,, “But certainly from a fisheries perspective we see that as a very, very interesting way to address and separate the issues of fishing versus the whales.” >click to read< 21:36
Wilkinson Celebrates new Fisheries Act Measures for Preserving the Independence of the Inshore Fleet
Ensuring that the benefits of the fishery remain in local communities,,, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, announced that measures that will ensure that key policies relating to owner-operator and fleet-separation policies are being enshrined in regulation under the new Fisheries Act. The owner-operator policy requires fish harvesters to fish their licences personally so that those who actively fish, receive the benefits from their licences. The fleet-separation policy maintains a separation between the fishing and fish processing sectors. Maintaining the independence of small-boat owner-operators and implementing a fair licensing regime will help protect middle-class jobs and ensure the long-term sustainability of the fishery. >click to read< 16:46
Canada Has a New Fisheries Act. How Does It Stack Up?
Canada has the longest coastline in the world, yet it has long been a lax outlier in fisheries management. But with an overhaul of the federal Fisheries Act now complete, the sense among advocates and fisheries experts is that the tide is about to turn. The passage of Bill C-68 on June 21 means that for the first time since the Fisheries Act was enacted in 1868, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is required to manage fish stocks sustainably and put rebuilding plans in place for those that are depleted. >click to read< 18:36
Canada’s Second New Offshore Fisheries Science Vessel Launched
Canada’s second of three new Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels (OFSV) was launched on June 5. The Canadian Coast Guard vessel was built by Seaspan’s North Vancouver Shipyards under the National Shipbuilding Strategy. The OFSVs are the first class of ships to be built by Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards as part of the non-combat package under the National Shipbuilding Strategy. They will support science and research activities undertaken by Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. >click to read<15:50
Climate change is now a fact of life in Atlantic Canada fishery
The Atlantic Ocean is one of the most productive marine environments in the world, with an abundance of marine organisms from crabs, to lobsters and wild fish stocks, supporting over 55,000 jobs in industries like fishing, aquaculture, and tourism. On April 10, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson released what is the first Atlantic Ocean status report, called Canada’s Oceans Now–Atlantic Ecosystems,2018 >click to read<15:52
Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Fisheries – Why the herring fishery was allowed in BC this year
As a British Columbian, and the minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, I care deeply about restoring our chinook salmon populations and protecting our iconic southern resident killer whales. That’s why we have made historic investments in conservation through the $1.5-billion Oceans Protection Plan, the $167.4-million Whales Initiative and additional funding of $61.5 million in measures aimed to address all key threats to southern resident killer whales: sound disturbance, contaminants and availability of prey. >click to read<17:31
BC’s Herring War, and the Sacrifice of the Salish Sea
Indeed, it sometimes seems blame is about the only renewable resource we can rely upon anymore. There’s certainly been an abundance of it this herring season in the Strait of Georgia, here in the northern reaches of what’s fast becoming the Salish Sewer. At the dock of Hornby Island’s Ford Cove, a world-weary gillnet fisherman, Calvin Siider, squared off against a conservation group advocating for the closure of the last commercial gillnet fishery on the B.C. coast. “You are telling me what I’ve been doing my whole life is wrong,” Siider shouted. “We’re making a little bit of money out of this, and you’re trying to rip that out of our lives!” >click to read<13:44
MPA’s: Trawlers allowed to fish in E.U. marine (un)protected areas – “We were surprised to find this,” said Boris Worm
Marine Protected Areas appear to not be particularly protected. At least not around Europe. A study released Thursday in the journal Science found that trawling efforts were about 36 per cent higher inside European Union Marine Protected Areas than it was outside of them. It also found that abundance of species often caught as bycatch in trawls, like sharks, skates and rays, was lower inside the heavily fished marine protected areas than outside. “We were surprised to find this,” said Boris Worm, a Dalhousie University marine ecologist who was also a senior author of the study. >click to read<19:45
New SAR lifeboats for Canadian Coast Guard
Public Services and Procurement Canada is set to acquire eight new SAR lifeboats from Chantier Naval Forillon and Hike Metal Products for the Canadian Coast Guard. The companies are already producing six SAR lifeboats each under contracts signed in 2015. Under the amended contracts, each shipyard will build four additional vessels at a total cost of $61.8 million. With the ability to operate up to 100 nautical miles from shore, these new high-endurance lifeboats will enhance the coast guard’s SAR capabilities. >click to read<21:10
Fisheries minister meets with stakeholders to discuss right whale protections
The federal fisheries minister met with fishermen, industry representatives and marine scientists Tuesday to discuss the impact of restrictions put in place to protect North Atlantic right whales and whether they may be needed for the coming fishing seasons. Jonathan Wilkinson sat down with dozens of stakeholders at a hotel in Dartmouth, N.S., to discuss measures introduced earlier this year that were aimed at shielding the marine mammals against fishing gear entanglements and ship strikes — their greatest threats. >click to read<13:31
Fisheries Minister Wilkinson fires back at enviro groups for suing over killer whales
Canada’s fisheries minister has fired back at environmental groups for launching court action to protect endangered southern resident killer whales instead of working with the federal government on the issue. Jonathan Wilkinson said the groups abandoned discussions shortly after they began with federal officials and representatives from the transportation and fishing industries. “They were the ones who initially asked to convene the multi-stakeholder forum. They effectively attended one meeting and then decided that they would pursue a more adversarial approach rather than a collaborative approach.” >click to read<10:48
Oceans Protection Plan – New fisheries minister directed to focus on sustainable waters
Sustaining Canada’s waters dominates the list of responsibilities for the Trudeau government’s new Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Jonathan Wilkinson.,, The minster is directed to implement and develop the Oceans Protection Plan, advance Bill C-68 – the reform of the Fisheries Act, which aims to restore lost protections, to achieve the government’s goal of protecting 10 per cent of its marine and coastal areas by 2020, protect Canada’s fresh water, restore salmon stocks in the Fraser River, create a healthy future for Pacific salmon by 2019 the International Year of the Salmon and to formalize the moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s North Coast. >click to read<21:43
Some advice for the new Fisheries and Oceans minister
I’d like to welcome Jonathan Wilkinson to his new post as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. The fishery department, not the coast guard, he has inherited is a monstrosity of policy and regulations of which very little have to do with conservation of fish. It’s a department run amok with bureaucrats and lobbyists all juggling for control, while our inshore Newfoundland fishery, its fishing villages, its culture, is collapsing. Time for Canada to have a fisheries minister for Canada’s fish harvesters. U.S. President Donald Trump said it was time to drain the swamp and it is long overdue to drain the bureaucratic mess in fisheries and oceans. By inshore fisherman John Gillett >click to read<09:42
Moving salmon farms on land vital
You may have heard that the federal government has a new minister of Fisheries, Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard. Unlike his predecessor from the east, Jonathan Wilkinson is a West Coast man. Also unlike his predecessor, he will understand what the wild salmon mean to all of us on the B.C. coast. From Indigenous communities to whom the salmon have given physical and spiritual sustenance for millennia, to tourist and commercial fishing, and all of us who want to eat wild salmon that is unadulterated from chemicals; to bears and marine animals who depend on the wild runs, and the forests who are fed by salmon carcasses, the wild salmon is part of who we all are. by Paula Foot >click to read<12:00
$1.5 billion Oceans Protection Plan – Canada takes immediate action to protect endangered whales
Today, Canada’s Whales Initiative was announced in Vancouver by the Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport, and Jonathan Wilkinson, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. This $167.4 million initiative under Budget 2018 will protect and support the recovery of the Southern Resident Killer Whale, the North Atlantic right whale, and the St. Lawrence Estuary beluga whale through comprehensive actions tailored to address the unique combinations of threats. >click to read<13:02
