Tag Archives: New Brunswick
Illegal Elver Poaching Must End
Rick Perkins, Conservative Candidate for South Shore-St. Margarets, and Clifford Small, Conservative Candidate for Central Newfoundland, issued the following statement today regarding the illegal poaching of the elver fishery: “The return of elvers in the rivers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick has attracted a surge of poachers who descend upon Nova Scotia’s 300 rivers each night, trespassing on private land to illegally harvest. Unregulated fishing not only threatens the safety of residents due to the armed poachers but also jeopardizes scientific research and conservation efforts crucial for maintaining a healthy environment and ensuring the sustainability of this species. The unchecked actions of these poachers could lead to the collapse of the entire eel population. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 15:02
Challenges facing elver fishers as season opens
We’re nearly a week into elver season. The baby eel fishery on Maritime rivers has been plagued by shutdowns, poaching and illegal activity over the years. The federal Fisheries department decided to open the season last weekend, with several changes. A new app is now in place to track the catch, and a new quota plan gives more commercial catch to First Nations. Stanley King with Atlantic Elver Fishery Ltd. says some of his quota was taken without compensation. “First Nations now hold 53 percent of the fishery. We’re a shell of our former company, and other commercial license holders are feeling the same way. At this point, we’re trying to make ends meet,” said King. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:02
Atlantic lobster industry could be hurt by tariffs from China, U.S.
Atlantic Canada’s $2.9-billion lobster industry could be impacted by tariffs imposed by the United States and China, an industry spokesperson said Tuesday. “At the moment we really don’t know how much impact there will be,” said Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Halifax-based Canadian Lobster Council. China imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian seafood March 20, and U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to begin tariffs on Canadian products on April 2. Tariffs on Atlantic Canada’s lucrative lobster fishery were among the topics of discussion at the Maritime Fishermen’s Union annual convention, held in Moncton Monday and Tuesday. Irvine said Atlantic Canada exports approximately $2.9 billion worth of lobster annually, with 67 per cent going to the United States and 20 per cent going to China. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:34
As the elver season opens, a First Nation is pushing back hard against DFO
In the coming weeks, Matthew Cope will anchor his cone-shaped fyke net along a river, and as the overnight hours creep by and the ocean tide comes in, he will catch tiny but highly lucrative juvenile eels. He will do so, however, without authorization from the Department of Fisheries, asserting that as a Mi’kmaw harvester, he has a treaty right to fish for the young eels, known as elvers, even outside of federal regulations. He expects to be stopped, and even arrested by fisheries officers, as he was last year during an elver seizure at a transport facility in Dartmouth, N.S. Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:40
‘Cruel’ tariff threats bring endless uncertainty to N.B. fisheries
Leaders in New Brunswick’s fishing industry are not mincing words when it comes to the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the constant back and forth of tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. “Oh, it’s painful. It’s painful,” said Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada, in an interview. The latest date for tariffs to take effect, now set for April 2, coincides with the opening of lobster season in some sectors of the Atlantic region, but that’s about all Irvine could say for certain about the potential impact. “Honestly, I don’t have a clue. Every single processor, shipper and exporter will have to talk to their customers.” He said the constantly changing news is destabilizing. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:31
Chiefs granted intervenor status in border-crossing lobster case
An Indigenous nation has been granted intervenor status in a case involving a U.S.-based lobster fisher accused of illegally fishing in Passamaquoddy Bay. Erik D. Francis, 55, of Perry, Maine, faces charges under the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act alleging that he illegally fished from a foreign vessel in New Brunswick waters. According to court documents, he was stopped on Nov. 15, 2022, off the coast of Deer Island by fisheries officials, who seized 36 lobster traps owned by Francis. Francis, who is self-represented, has claimed Indigenous fishing rights as a part of the Peskotomuhkati (Passamaquoddy) Nation, which has two communities in Maine including Sipayik (Pleasant Point), where Francis lives, and the community known as Skutik in Charlotte County. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:58
Chiefs deny they encouraged Indigenous people to poach baby eels
Four Indigenous chiefs are denying the allegations of a New Brunswick businesswoman that they encouraged members of their communities to poach baby eels during a tumultuous period on Charlotte County rivers in the spring of 2022. In a statement of defence filed late last month at the Court of King’s Bench in Saint John, the Wolastoqey chiefs rejected the claims made by Mary Ann Holland, the owner of Brunswick Aquaculture and Alder Seafood, in one of three lawsuits she’s filed against them. “The Defendants deny that they collectively or any one of them individually authorized, directed or condoned fishing and/or related activities on any of the Rivers,” states the document, filed by OKT lawyer Nick Kennedy of Toronto. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 10:12
How Atlantic Canada came to rule the slimy, slippery, squirmy big business of baby eels
During his lifetime, Philip Holland was known as a dedicated Crown prosecutor who put the bad guys behind bars. But his legacy could very well be the lucrative baby eel industry he started in Canada under the most modest of circumstances, keeping the tiny, squirmy critters he had plucked from cold New Brunswick rivers alive in plastic tubs in his basement before shipping them to Asia. And yet, more than two decades after his death and 36 years since he was granted an experimental licence to capture glass eels, the elver industry in Atlantic Canada has become deliriously successful, worth millions. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:17
Snow crab quotas way up for some Cape Bretoners, way down for others
Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab fishermen are learning who’ll be winners and losers when quotas are divided up for the 2025 season. At a meeting with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) in Moncton this week, the commercial fishermen in Area 19 (near shore in western Cape Breton) learned they’ll get a 42 per cent quota increase. That’ll offset quota cuts in the past two years that equaled about the same. The much larger Area 12 fishery, which covers the central Gulf of St. Lawrence all the way to New Brunswick, meanwhile, can expect to see an over 20 per cent cut to their quota. Demand for snow crab is high in the United States, where 85 per cent of what’s caught in the southern Gulf goes. Prices were around $4 a pound last year and it was hoped to be higher this season. But U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of a 25 per cent tariff could hurt everyone’s bottom line. “We’re waiting on Trump, like every industry from forestry to mining,” said MacLean. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 15:22
N.B.’s favourite seafood threatened by Trump: lobster industry
Fishermen would be forced to swallow a depressed price for their catch and processors would have a lot less work, shaking up a commercial enterprise that employs about 5,000 New Brunswickers on boats and another 5,000 in seafood plants. Behind the scenes, the lobster lobby is working feverishly to convince officials in the White House administration and other top Republican officials that imposing a 25 per cent tariff on seafood would be a big mistake for American consumers already reeling from the higher cost of living. The lobster market has long been deeply integrated between Canada and the United States and would be badly wounded by a trade war between the two nations. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 19:53
N.B. lobster processors living with uncertainty as clock ticks on U.S. tariffs reprieve
Lobster processors in New Brunswick are relieved that U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports have been postponed, but there is still a possibility they will be implemented in March, creating anxiety in the industry. “That’s the frustrating bit,” Nat Richard, executive director of the Lobster Processors Association in the region, said. “It just extends the uncertainty, which is not great for business for sure.” The United States is by far the largest consumer of Canadian lobster. The concern for the lobster industry extends into the United States, as well. Chellie Pingree, the Democratic congresswoman for Maine’s 1st district, said lobster often goes back and forth between the two countries for processing. While diversification of markets is something Richard supports, he said it won’t be simple.”We’re not going to walk away from the U.S. market, whether this is a tariff or not,” said Richard. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:21
‘There will be no winners.’ Atlantic Canada braces for impact of U.S. tariffs
The looming trade war between Canada and the United States raised alarm throughout the Atlantic provinces on Monday as leaders calculated the economic toll of hefty tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump. In Newfoundland and Labrador, the executive director of the Association of Seafood Producers said the province’s lucrative crab fishery is in jeopardy, and he’s not sure if it will open as expected next month. “I cannot sit here today and say there will be a fishery,” Jeff Loder told a news conference in St. John’s. “This is a serious situation …. We’re going to do everything we can to have a fishery, but we need to be prepared for whatever transpires.” The tariffs are the biggest threat to the province’s seafood industry since the 1992 cod moratorium, which wiped out about 30,000 jobs and a centuries-old way of life in Canada’s easternmost province, Loder added. more, >>Click to read<< 16:39
Judge fully dismisses U.S. lawsuit against N.B.’s Cooke Inc.
A federal judge in New York has found the arguments made in a lawsuit against a large New Brunswick seafood company to be false and ordered the case closed. Saint John-based Cooke Inc. was sued last July for its involvement in the menhaden fishery in Virginia. The lawsuit alleged Cooke knowingly defrauded the U.S. government by creating shell companies to operate the fishery of a small baitfish used to make fishmeal, fish oil and other products. U.S. District Court Judge Jesse M. Furman dismissed the case because he found that not only did the plaintiffs not prove foreign ownership beyond a doubt, but also that the fish and fishing licences that Cooke was allegedly defrauding the government of cannot legally be considered property. “Cooke Inc. is pleased that the court has dismissed this baseless lawsuit, which we have always maintained was without merit,” Joel Richardson, company spokesperson, wrote in an emailed statement on behalf of Cooke Inc. and Omega Protein. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:50
Elver prosecutions trickle into court after ‘hell’ year on N.S. and N.B. rivers
About three dozen people have been charged with offences related to this year’s chaotic illegal fishery for juvenile eels in the Maritimes, a number that falls well short of the overall tally of arrests this spring but which the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans says could grow. The enforcement of the lucrative fishery for the tiny eels, also known as elvers, has been heavily scrutinized in recent years, with many in the industry outspoken about what they view as a failure to crack down on rampant poaching. The department said Friday that 37 people have been charged with elver-related fisheries offences committed in 2024, providing for the first time a concrete number of prosecutions that have emerged from a year when fisheries officers struggled badly to keep pace. more. >>CLICK TO READ<< 19: 03
Ottawa has ‘carefully calculated plan’ to wreck eel business: lawsuit
A New Brunswick entrepreneur whose family pioneered the baby eel industry in Canada is suing Ottawa again after it told her she would likely lose nearly 90 per cent of her business to First Nations and other people who want to get in on the lucrative fishery. In a filing in the Court of King’s Bench in Fredericton on Dec. 9, Mary Ann Holland accuses the defendants, who include three successive federal fisheries ministers and eight high-ranking officials in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, or DFO, of having “engaged in a carefully calculated plan” over the years to drive her “out of business,” and give it away to First Nations and other fishers. “Such a plan represents patent gross abuse,” that they know will cause her companies, Brunswick Aquaculture and Alder Seafood, great damage, the lawsuit states. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 14:56
DFO to increase year-round lobster gear monitoring in Bay of Fundy
Enforcement officers with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans will soon have a new tool to lift, check and seize illegal lobster fishing gear from the waters between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The department is seeking a crew and vessel that would be contracted to take DFO officers on patrols to inspect fishing equipment. The patrol work isn’t new, but this contract represents an increase in surveillance and enforcement in an area where the fishing industry has called on officers to do more to deter illegal fishing operations. The contracted vessel would be responsible for patrolling throughout the Bay of Fundy and “be able to berth at various ports in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,” according to the documents published online. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:33
Fishing boat Captain Craig Sock honoured for Bravery
Craig “Jumbo” Sock, the Elsipogtog fishing boat captain who lost his life while rescuing members of his crew in 2021, was honoured Thursday with the Governor General’s Medal of Bravery. The Governor General’s office said in a news release that Sock was one of 38 Canadians to receive the Medal of Bravery during a ceremony in Ottawa Thursday. The award was presented to his widow, Sue Ann Sock, and their children, Tessa and Tyrone Sock. “On April 3, 2021, Captain Craig Sock lost his life rescuing the crew of the fishing vessel Tyhawk,” the citation from the Governor General said. “During a storm at sea, the boat capsized, trapping Sock and a crewmate in the wheelhouse. He freed his crewmate and then found the remaining crew on the overturned hull. Captain Sock re-entered the water to rescue an unconscious victim, pushing him to safety moments before disappearing underwater. Sadly, the captain did not resurface. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 14:50
Canada Expands Seal Harvest Licences in NB, PEI
Seal harvesting is an important and valuable activity for many Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. In Canada, it is managed in a sustainable, well-regulated, and humane way that supports Canada’s Indigenous, rural, remote, and coastal communities. In response to growing interest in participating in the seal harvest, today, the Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced that personal use seal licences will be available to harvesters in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The focus of this harvest is harp and grey seals which DFO assesses to be in the healthy zone of the Department’s precautionary approach framework. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:43
Maritime lobster harvesters walk out of DFO meeting over illegal fishing concerns
Lobster harvesters from the Maritimes walked out of a meeting with DFO Tuesday after officials allegedly refused to discuss the illegal fishing that has been taking place out of season since August. At the beginning of the meeting, a motion was made by harvester representatives to discuss the issue of ongoing poaching throughout the region. When DFO officials refused to amend the agenda, representatives from Lobster Fishing Areas 27 through 38 walked out, according to a statement from 11 fishing associations representing 3,000 lobster licence holders from across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Representatives of lobster harvesters said they would return to the table when DFO is prepared to discuss a plan to end black market, out of season fishing, which they say is an “enormous threat” facing the industry. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 12:31
Bay of Fundy fishermen see uptick in poaching patrols
Many lobster fishermen say they have seen an uptick in Coast Guard patrols in the Bay of Fundy less than a week after a protest against poaching in Saint Andrews, N.B. “Last spring I didn’t see any fisheries on the water at all,” said Jaret Mawhinney, a sixth-generation fisherman. “Last fall I think I might have saw one boat and that was probably the first day. After that I never really seen too much.” Mawhinney notes lobster catches have dropped in recent years, something he attributes to poaching. Last Saturday, roughly 50 fishing boats from Lobster Fishing Area 36 – which covers waters from Alma to the American border – docked in Saint Andrews to peacefully protest illegal fishing and what they see as a lack of enforcement by the government. Video more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 19:32
UPDATE: Enforcement patrols return as frustration over poaching boils over
Enforcement patrols have returned to a stretch of the Bay of Fundy that local fishermen had said was left wide open to illegal fishing, including by foreign vessels. That’s after frustration over poaching had boiled over, grabbing headlines, finding its way onto the floor of Parliament, and resulting in local fishers threatening to “take matters into their own hands” this upcoming lobster season in the absence of federal enforcement. The Fundy North Fishermen’s Association says DFO has now deployed enforcement resources in an area known as Lobster Fishing Area 36 that stretches along New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy coast from Alma to the American border. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:54
Editorial: Ottawa must answer the bell on lobster poaching
The federal government must do more to address complaints about out-of-season fishing and lobster poaching in the Bay of Fundy – issues that have come to public attention in the last couple of weeks as fishing operators in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia plead for better enforcement. Clearly something is amiss when you have local business owners threatening to take matters into their own hands by pulling up illegal gear – an action that may spark confrontations on the water or at wharves along the Fundy coast. The Nova Scotia fisheries minister has lent further credence by writing to his federal counterpart, warning of an underground fishery and reports of threats and intimidation for speaking out. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 15:18
More calls for Canada’s Fisheries Minister to resign
There are growing calls for Canada’s fisheries minister to step aside from her role. Around 50 lobster fishers from across southern New Brunswick gathered in Saint Andrews on Saturday for a peaceful protest. The fishers said they are fed up with continued mismanagement of the industry and failure to address critical issues. The protest was organized by the Fundy North Fishermen’s Association, which represents fishers in Lobster Fishing Area 36. The association claims there is a lack of enforcement in the fishing area, which extends from Alma to St. Stephen, leading to illegal fishing and buying activities. Fishers are calling on the minister to acknowledge the mismanagement, provide a solution and step aside from her role. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:39
Lobster harvesters ready to ‘take matters into their own hands’
Local lobster harvesters are prepared to patrol waters themselves and haul up illegal gear, which could spark confrontations with poachers, according to Amanda Johnson, executive director of the Fundy North Fishermen’s Association, which represents 150 lobster fishers from St. Stephen to Alma. “It could lead to a lot of violence on the water,” Johnson said at a protest held in Saint Andrews Saturday in support of local fishers and their families. Maine and New Brunswick poachers are now taking to Lobster Fishing Area 36, which runs along New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy coast from Alma to the American border, ahead of its November season, Johnson said. Deer Island fisherman Dale Mitchell claims lobster catches have dropped 30 per cent in the last seven years since the start of what he called an “illegal summer fishery” in the region. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:06
New Brunswick fishermen fill St. Andrews Wharf Saturday as they call for change on the water
It’s not what you expect to see in St. Andrews but mixed in amongst the whale watching boats and small vessels, dozens of lobster fishing boats docked along the wharf Saturday. Local fishermen from Lobster Fishing Area 36, which covers waters from Alma to the American boarder including Deer Island and Campobello Island, and their families filled both the water and the wharf as they called for change out on the water. The protest is against what they believe is inaction by the government and a collective call for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Diane Lebouthillier, to resign. “We believe that she is not capable of protecting our fishery and protecting our resource,” said Fundy North Fishermen’s Association executive director, Amanda Johnson. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 18:26
Norbert Cunningham: Coast Guard can stop poaching
Lobster is a lucrative fishery in Maine and New Brunswick, and it’s past time for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to step in an act decisively against American poachers. They can begin with sending in Coast Guard ships to drive intruders out while also initiating another attempt at a better resolution with U.S. authorities. The tensions aren’t new, nor is this the first such flare-up in our waters, but it may be one of the worst and have the most potential for lethal violence. Canadian fishers are seeing evidence and hearing the latest incursions are the work of organized crime, not just fishers straying a bit over unmarked and disputed lines on water. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 12:08
Fisheries enforcement ongoing in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
Recently, there has been much speculation and public discussion about the state of enforcement in Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Maritimes Region, encompassing Southwest Nova Scotia, Eastern Nova Scotia and Southwest New Brunswick, in light of an ongoing job action. For absolute clarity, fisheries enforcement activity in the Maritimes Region is active – to suggest otherwise is false. Fishery officers throughout the region continue to patrol by sea, land and air. They continue to conduct investigations and to work with other policing agencies, the provinces and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to enforce the law. They are highly trained professionals and their dedication to their work is evident now, as it is every day. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:46
No one stopping Maine fishers from poaching N.B. lobster: group
Amanda Johnson, executive director of the Fundy North Fishermen’s Association, says a border boundary dispute has long seen U.S. fishermen sneaking across from Maine to set traps inside Canadian waters. But she says it’s now not being stopped as Canadian fisheries officers aren’t conducting enforcement patrols. That has Johnson worried about overfishing ahead of the New Brunswick south shore’s November lobster fishing season, but also for the safety of New Brunswick fishers fearing the potential for looming confrontations on the water. “Right now, the main issue is that there are no fisheries officers patrolling the water in southwest New Brunswick,” Johnson said. “They are kind of on strike, same as they are in southwest Nova Scotia, and DFO isn’t really disclosing who is on strike and who isn’t. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 18:15
DFO defends cut to herring quota that company claims forced N.B. layoffs
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is defending its July decision to reduce the herring quota in the Bay of Fundy, after a major New Brunswick employer blamed the decision for major layoffs. “We recognize the economic impacts this decision will have on the families and communities that rely on income from fishing and processing herring,” said Lauren Sankey, DFO spokesperson, in an emailed statement late Friday afternoon. Connors Bros., a herring processing company in Blacks Harbour, near St. George, announced this week it’s laying off 20 per cent of its workforce, which is estimated to be about 100 people. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:22
Layoffs at Connors Bros. seafood plant ‘punch in the gut’ for community
Connors Bros., a leading supplier of canned herring and a major employer in southwestern New Brunswick, is laying off 20 per cent of its workers, the company announced Thursday. The plant in Blacks Harbour, near St. George, employs up to 450 people, depending on the season. A Connors spokesperson did not respond when asked exactly how many people had been laid off. A news release from the company blames the federal government’s July decision to cut the herring quota in the Bay of Fundy. “We’ve been operating in this community for over 130 years and this is a heartbreaking decision, but it’s necessary to keep our plant viable moving forward,” Connors Bros. general Manager Chad Baum said in the release. A southwest New Brunswick fishing association is warning of tumble-down effects on the lobster fishery this fall after the herring quota reduction. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 19:00
