Tag Archives: Newfoundland and Labrador
Northern cod numbers may have moved out of critical zone, says federal scientist
Captain Alex Saunders has more experience fishing northern cod than most fishermen. At 81 years old, the fishing captain has fished for cod off the Labrador coast for six decades. This year, he says, was a banner year for that fishery. “There were no codfish in northern Labrador for about 60 years, but this summer the cod were all along the Labrador coast from Blanc Sablan in the south to north of Nain,” Mr. Saunders says. A good catch rate this season meant Mr. Saunders’s crew hauled in 
gillnets every day for weeks, returning to communities such as Pinsent’s Arm, a fishing town of about 50 people along the Labrador coast, to land cod at the wharf. But the season’s quick success also meant its early closing. “On a Friday afternoon they said, ‘Get your gear out of the water Sunday by six o’clock,’” Mr. Saunders says of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ (DFO) decision to shut down the fall northern cod stewardship fishery weeks earlier than planned – a measure to ensure fishing did not exceed season limits. Photos, >>click to read<< 08:33
Harbour Grace shipyard owners try to assure creditors, customers as workers brace for the worst
The owners of a busy shipyard in Harbour Grace are trying to assure creditors as they scramble to save a big employer in Conception Bay North. Meanwhile, dozens of workers are bracing as their jobs hang in the balance. “I got a mortgage. I got vehicle payments. I got two small children at home. A wife. There’s a lot at stake,” electrician’s helper Jake St. George said this week during his lunch break at Harbour Grace Ocean Enterprises. The shipyard has fallen on hard financial times, and a list of creditors owed nearly $16 million have been demanding their money. So in a bid to salvage the business and restructure the operation in order to avoid bankruptcy, the company was granted temporary protection from its creditors last week by the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador. >>click to read<< 16:42
Harbour Grace shipyard enters creditor protection as owners face financial headwinds
One of Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest shipyards, Harbour Grace Ocean Enterprises, has been granted court protection from its creditors as it struggles with a serious cash flow problem. The company is nearly $16 million in debt, and creditors have been demanding payment. Last week, the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador approved an order that temporarily protects the company from its creditors as it looks for a way forward. The court also appointed professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to monitor the company. The shipyard employs 56 full-time employees and is described in court documents as “one of the largest marine vessel, repair, refit and construction businesses in Eastern Canada.” >>click to read<< 13:10
SEA-NL to Become For-Profit Fishery Co-operative
The Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador is looking to change the structure of the organization. SEA-NL has voted in favour of turning the organization into a for-profit fishery co-operative. It had previously been operating as a non-profit professional association. Executive Director Ryan Cleary says while Labrador’s industry is thriving under the co-op structure, Newfoundland’s is struggling under its current structure, so they are launching a steering committee to see what a co-op should look like on the island. >>click to read<< 11:46 >>click to read<< 11:55
Canada’s largest fishing vessel will be ready for 2024, says Baffin Fisheries CEO
A ship being described as Canada’s largest fishing vessel — one that will soon make regular ports of call in Newfoundland harbours like St. Anthony, Harbour Grace and Bay Roberts was launched this week from a yard in Turkey, and the Nunavut-based owners say it’s on track to be harvesting turbot and shrimp from Arctic waters by next year. The vessel will also bear a name that’s quite familiar to ship-spotters in Newfoundland and Labrador: Inuksuk II. Baffin Fisheries currently operates a fleet of three fishing vessels, including the MV Inuksuk I. The vessel is 80 metres long, 18 metres wide, and will be capable of carrying up to 1,300 tonnes of frozen-at-sea turbot or 930 tonnes of shrimp. In comparison, the Inuksuk II is six metres longer than the Calvert, the newest vessel in Ocean Choice International’s fleet. >>click to read<< 14:30
Newfoundland fishermen get ‘best news’ on northern cod stocks in a generation
It’s a technical, scientific change: the Limit Reference Point, a key part of the assessment of a fish stock’s health, has been revised. Because of a change in their scientific method, officials at Fisheries and Oceans Canada now believe that Newfoundland’s northern cod stock has moved out of the critical zone for the first time in decades. When then-fisheries minister John Crosbie shut down most of the fishery in 1992, about 30,000 fish harvesters instantly lost their jobs. It was the biggest layoff in Canadian history. Fish harvesters were given $225 a week for 10 weeks to get by. The moratorium was only expected to last two years, but in the decades since, the northern cod stock never left the critical zone — until now. photos, >>click to read<< 07:44
Canadian Coast Guard ‘rolling the dice’ with offshore search and rescue coverage: SEA-NL
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) says the Canadian Coast Guard is rolling the dice with maritime safety with only a single primary offshore search and rescue (SAR) vessel dedicated to covering the province’s entire offshore area. “In a maritime environment where every minute could be the difference between life and death in SAR incidents, there is no room for any compromise in response capabilities,” says Merv Wiseman, a member of SEA-NL’s executive, and outspoken advocate for stronger SAR services and fishing-vessel safety. “My question is not just why SAR standards have been lowered, but for how long and whether this is the new normal? >>click to read<< 15:56
Northern Shrimp fishing: DFO proposals do not pass muster in the industry
Northern shrimp fishermen from Quebec and the Atlantic wholeheartedly reject the new precautionary approach presented by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) scientists to protect stocks. The fishing associations of Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, industrialists and DFO scientists were gathered during two days for the advisory committee which ended Wednesday in Quebec. Northern shrimp stocks in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence are not likely to improve, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. >>click to read<< 11:47
‘It lives’: The story of Gaultois, a rural Newfoundland community in limbo
When Atlantic Canada’s cod fishery collapsed, it took a number of small towns with it. Gaultois, an isolated community on Newfoundland’s rugged south coast, hung on for decades after the fish vanished and the town’s fish plant closed in 1990. But with fish no longer to be had, the town’s population plummeted from 600 in the late 1980s to fewer than 100. With numbers that low, residents were faced with the question of whether the town was still viable and in July 2022, opted to hold a resettlement vote. Resettlement votes happen often in Newfoundland and Labrador. Small outport communities vote on whether to stay in their rural homes or if they should move to bigger towns with financial assistance from the provincial government. >>click to read<< 10:35
Fishers suffering from seal boom, Senate committee hears in Newfoundland and Labrador
The Canadian sealing and fishing industries have been left to sink or swim while booming seal populations on the Atlantic Canada coast deplete fish stocks and disrupt marine ecosystems, the Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans heard on a recent fact-finding mission. The committee took its in-depth study on the effects of Canada’s seal populations to Newfoundland and Labrador from September 11 to 13, 2023. Fact-finding activities in Elliston, South Dildo, Port de Grave and St. John’s, capped off by day-long public hearings in the provincial capital, provided senators with a detailed picture of the province’s rich history with the seal fishery and the serious challenges domestic sealers and fishers are facing today. >>>click to read<< 11:46
N.L. processors dumped 5 times as much crab in 2023 as they did last year
Newfoundland and Labrador fish processors dumped more than 300,000 pounds of snow crab during the past season — more than five times the amount dumped last year — according to data from the provincial Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture. In 2023, processors dumped 303,202 pounds of crab, compared with 59,239 in 2022 — a 411 per cent increase. Officials have not confirmed the reasons for the increased dumping, but harvesters blame a compressed season and unusually warmer waters. The 2023 snow crab season was marred with conflict from the outset: a six-week standoff over the $2.20-per-pound price that pushed the start of the season well into May, sending harvesters scrambling to catch what they could before cut-off and creating a bottleneck of boats on the water and product at plants. Photos, >>click to read<< 09:46
‘I can’t imagine being anywhere else’: The call of the ocean came naturally for six-year-old Petty Harbour fisherman
In the heart of the vast ocean, just off the shores of Petty Harbour, where the sun danced on the water’s surface, and the salty breeze kissed the cheeks of those who dared to venture, there came a moment that would forever be etched in the memory of six-year-old fisherman Austen Chafe. As the boat gently glided on the waves, an unexpected visitor emerged from the depths — a majestic tuna, gleaming with power and grace. In a split second, the world changed, as the tuna leaped and bestowed upon Austen a gift of seawater, laughter and an enduring love for the sea. “When that tuna splashed on me,” Austen said, his eyes sparkling with the memory, “I felt like the luckiest kid in the world. It’s moments like these that make me love the ocean even more. There’s something magical about being out here, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else.” Born into a family of fishermen, the call of the ocean was as natural as the rhythm of the tides for young Austen. Photos, >>click to read<< 09:34
Crab plant workers have punched their time in spades this season, and are being called heroes
Workers at seafood processing plants in Newfoundland have been working all summer long in an effort to make sure snow crab quotas for the shortened 2023 season are met, and they say they’re ready for a break. “This season has been one of the hardest seasons that we have worked here, because we had to do a lot of crab in a short period of time,” Louise Power, a floor supervisor at the Quinlan Brothers Ltd. plant in Bay de Verde, told CBC News Tuesday. She worked at the plant for 46 years, and has had four days off since May. “We all got through it, and made the season work,” she said. “Right now, [I’m] happy as a lark.” >>click to read<< 11:50
DFO investigates fishing licences for outside control
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) encourages inshore owner-operators who have lost control of their commercial licences or fishing enterprise to contact Fisheries and Oceans, which is actively investigating several cases. “If you are not in control of your boat or licences then contact DFO and have it looked into and made right,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. “By law, licensed inshore harvesters must be independent — solely in control of their enterprises, licences, and catches — and if you are not then SEA-NL encourages you to take control.” >>click to read<< 08:45
The Ties that Bind
Nancy Bowers’ mother fished in the 1980s when it was uncommon for women to be out in boat. Since then, Bowers says, the fishing industry has come a long way. “[If] my mom was alive today and saw all these women that’s actually fishing, she would be mind boggled.” Bowers herself is one of these women. Fisherwomen might be few in number, but they have a strong community. Bowers says what started as a couple of women wanting to stay connected became a group of over 100 fishers. They meet virtually once a month and once in person after the fishing season. Lillian Saul fished in Alaska before moving to Newfoundland. She says she was surprised by how few women fish in the province. “In Alaska there’s tons of women, not only just on boats but also running boats and a lot of different types of fisheries.” Photos, >click to read< 10:40
Shortage of workers and housing causing perfect storm of problems at Makkovik fish plant
The operator of Makkovik’s fish plant says a shortage of workers, and a shortage of places for workers to live, has left the plant unable process crab as normal this season. Keith Watts, general manager of the Torngat Fish Producers Co-op, which operates plants in Makkovik and Nain, says operations in Nain went smoothly this season but work in Makkovik has been limited due to a lack of workers. Watts said the community has an aging workforce and the plant’s remote northern location limits the number of workers it’s able to attract. He’d like to be able to attract temporary foreign workers to work at the plant, he said, but he knows there would be nowhere for them to live. Barry Andersen, Makkovik’s AngajukKak, or mayor, said he knows housing is a real concern in the region, especially when it comes to rentals and other spaces available for booking, like hotels. >click to read< 09:55
FISH HARVESTERS UNION CLAIMS HEALTHY COD POPULATIONS
The Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW) has received reports confirming the presence of healthy cod populations near our shores. The union has been advocating for an increase in the total allowable catch for several years, but their efforts have been largely unsuccessful. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) takes a cautious approach when determining quotas, despite the fact that the pressure on the cod stock from harvesting activities is minimal. FFAW Secretary Treasurer, Jason Spingle, is urging the Canadian government to conduct a thorough stock survey to obtain more comprehensive scientific data. >click to read< 10:22
Fish plants are busy with crab, so here’s how harvesters are selling their catch of cod and are getting creative to sell it
“We’re down here today filleting our fish because we have nowhere to sell our fish,” said fisherman Wade King. “None of the fish plants were buying, so we got a restaurant in Mount Pearl [buying], King Cod.” Snow crab harvesters kept their boats tied up at the beginning of the fishing season in April to protest the price set for their catch. After a six-week delay, the fishery began at the same price that had been set to start the season. But the delay means plants are still busy processing crab when they’d normally be processing cod. King said he’s still without a buyer three weeks into the cod fishery, which is something he’s never seen before. >click to read< 13:14
Crab chaos leads to cod condundrum for Newfoundland and Labrador fishing industry
Chris Button, a fish harvester from Old Perlican, was one those trying to sell his catch at the wharf last week. The problem for Button and the others is that since the cod fishery opened on July 23, catches have been good but not every processing company is buying. Some of them are still busy with capelin and crab. They can’t accommodate cod just yet. Even if some processors are buying, many have a limit on how much they will buy per week from each licence holder. While the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) allows a licence holder to land 3200 pounds of cod each week, many processors are buying only 2,000 pounds a week per licence. That’s frustrating for Button, and others, who have been seeing good catch rates in their cod nets. >click to read< 09:05
Too Many Seals – Canada’s Pinniped Population Problem
Seals in Atlantic Canada eat a lot of fish every day and there is a great deal of them, coming in at nearly 12 million animals. Their voracious appetite, according to experts, is damaging both the commercial fishery and fish stocks. Bob Hardy has spent a good portion of his life dealing with seals in one way or another. Growing up in Battle Harbour, Labrador, Hardy spent some time taking part in the inshore cod and salmon fisheries. After graduating from university, he spent nine years as a researcher before entering the seafood industry wherein he developed the first seal oil capsule that was commercially available in Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2007, he founded Hardy Fish Co., a fisheries consultancy company, where he took part in projects that researched seal oil, meat and by-product utilization. He has also spent time as a member of the Atlantic Seal Science Task Team. Hardy has since drafted a document entitled, Seals Eat Fish, highlighting the impact the large seal population has on fish stocks and the fishery itself. >click to read< 18:56
Fisheries’ union president blasts N.L.’s oil regulator over encroachment on crab harvesters’ turf
At this moment, ExxonMobil’s Hercules rig is drilling about 350 kilometres east of St. John’s, in the Jeanne D’Arc Basin, as part of its oil exploration program but it has pushed crab harvesters out of an area where their catch is abundant, and the union is calling foul. It could be a sign of future friction, warns Fish, Food & Allied Workers-Unifor president Greg Pretty, who is blasting the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board over what he calls a lack of communication and a disregard for the fishing industry. “We were actually shocked to find out that that rig, the Hercules — the drill rig — was actually on one of the most productive crab grounds in that area,” Pretty said Thursday. >click to read< 15:56
N.L. fishing companies in tug of war over towing bill
The dispute between Ocean Choice International and Newfound Resources has now reached the Federal Court, with one vessel being arrested by sheriffs last week, and both sides accusing the other of wrongdoing. Newfound has gone to court, trying to recover the nearly $270,000 plus HST it says it is owed by Ocean Choice, while Ocean Choice has paid $200,000 to Newfound, and is refusing to hand over any more cash, saying the bill is excessive. It all started Jan. 30, while the Newfoundland Lynx was harvesting shrimp for Ocean Choice in the Hopedale Channel, off the coast of Labrador. The Lynx lost propulsion in ice-infested water and issued a distress call. The Canadian Coast Guard was unable to respond, so the Newfoundland Victor, which harvests Newfound’s shrimp quota and was fishing nearby, came to its aid. >click to read< 09:09
FFAW: Conflict Brews At-Sea as Drill Rig Takes Over Prime Crab Grounds
July 21, 2023 – Crab harvesters on the Avalon Peninsula are calling out the oil and gas industry as the Hercules drill rig, operated by ExxonMobil in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin, is in direct conflict with traditional prime fishing grounds. Despite vocal opposition from FFAW-Unifor throughout the consultation process with the regulatory body, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB), the Board and Exxon proceeded with the drill operations during peak fishing time in an especially difficult year for harvesters. “Our members feel this brewing spatial conflict is representative of the continuous disregard for the fishing industry. Expansion of the oil and gas industry needs to be considered alongside the fishery, not in priority to it,” says FFAW-Unifor President Greg Pretty. >click to read the press release< 14:28
Still a lot of crab to be caught in Newfoundland and Labrador
A 2022 report by consultant David Conway, who was commissioned by the province to review the fish price setting system, recommended the industry begin discussions in October of that year to establish a formula for crab prices for the 2023 season. However, discussions between the FFAW and ASP didn’t get going until March, partly because both groups saw a change in leadership over the winter with Keith Sullivan resigning as union and Derek Butler leaving as executive director of the ASP. The decision on prices for this season fell to the province’s Fish Price Setting Panel which used the final offer selection model, where processors and the union each made a pitch on price and the panel had to choose one or the other. >click to read< 13:12
Canada: Positioning for redfish re-opening
Canada’s commercial fishery for redfish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has remaind closed since 1995 to allow redfish stocks rebuild to healthy levels. Now the authorities are positioning to re-open the Unit 1 redfish commercial fishery in Atlantic Canada and Quebec in the near future. The announcement has been made by Minister of Fisheries Joyce Murray that in preparation for a pending commercial fishery, the 2023 experimental fishery for Unit 1 redfish will be increased from 2500 to 5000 tonnes. Twenty-four individuals and groups from Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador have been approved to participate, five of which are Indigenous groups. >click to read< 07:48
‘Unacceptable sacrifice’ – Ottawa extends mackerel moratorium when U.S. continues to fish same stock
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) says a decision by federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray to extend the moratorium on mackerel fishing in Canadian waters is an unacceptable sacrifice when the United States continues to fish the same stock. “How foolish is that?” questions Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. “DFO science is questionable at best, and now without mackerel fishermen on the water again this year there will be even less data.” The federal Minister announced Wednesday a continuation of the 2022 closure of commercial and bait fishing for mackerel in Atlantic Canada and Quebec for the 2023 season. Fishing mackerel for food and ceremonial fisheries will remain open. >click to read< 15:55
The Newfoundland and Labrador Groundfish Industry Development Council are Disappointed with the Northern Cod Maximum Allowable harvest announced today by DFO
“The NLGIDC were hoping for an increase in the harvest level for 2023 based on the extremely successful cod fishery in the 2J3KL area in 2022”, said James Baird, the chair of the NLGIDC. “Weekly harvest rates for the first 4 weeks of this fishery in 2022 all surpassed the highest weekly landings observed in this fishery since 2016”, continued Baird. “Additionally, the lack of science assessments for Northern cod in 2022 and 2023 continue to hinder the development of this iconic fishery and is a cause of considerable concern for the Newfoundland and Labrador fishing industry”, said Paul Grant, the Executive Vice-President of Beothic Fish Processors Ltd. >click to read< 18:48
Opinion: Canada failed the N.L. fishery by Harvey Jarvis
The 2023 crash in the price of snow crab and the 1992 moratorium on northern cod have been talked about as the two major catastrophic events in the Newfoundland Labrador inshore fishery. While I totally agree that the two events have inflicted major damage on those who make a living from our ocean’s renewable resources, in my opinion, neither of them is THE major catastrophic event. In 1949, Newfoundland Labrador signed over control and management of the world’s richest renewable resources to Canada. While Canada was supposed to manage those resources to produce maximum benefit to Newfoundland Labrador, the opposite has occurred. >click to read< 13:17
Conservation must trump profit; SEA-NL calls on DFO to close window on high-grading in crab fishery
Seaward Enterprises Associations of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) has called on the federal minister of Fisheries and Oceans to take immediate action to close a window that’s been opened by processors/buyers to allow for high-grading in the snow crab fishery. “Conservation must trump profit, which is obviously not the case with the processing sector that is out to scrape every last cent from the inshore fleet at the expense of the future health of the stock,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. For years there has been an industry-managed two-price system for snow crab in Newfoundland and Labrador — with a higher price paid for crab with a greater than four-inch carapace (currently $2.25/lb), and lower price for smaller, but still legal-sized crab ($1.90/lb). >click to read< 11:07
Fairness in Scheduling and the Targeted Elimination of the Small-Boat Fleet
Three weeks into the snow crab fishery and dozens of attempts made to work out a fair arrangement for fish harvesters, FFAW-Unifor is calling on the provincial government to better regulate processing companies, issue additional processing licenses, and open the province up to outside buyers immediately to allow inshore harvesters to sell their catch. “Processing companies are engaging in unethical business behaviour to the targeted detriment of the small boat fleet in our province. The fishery may be open with a price agreement in place, but with no avenue to sell, harvesters are still in crisis,” says FFAW-Unifor Secretary-Treasurer Jason Spingle. “Our Union has made every effort this year to work out a fair proposal to ensure all fleets have a fair opportunity to participate in the fishery, but at every turn we’ve only been met with the same fish merchant-style tactics,” he says. >click to read< 15:10
