Tag Archives: Newfoundland and Labrador
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
Union Launches Call for Economic Support for Crab Industry
Today, FFAW-Unifor is launching a campaign for federal support for those impacted by the post-pandemic collapse in the snow crab fishery. The detailed proposal includes income support requests for fish harvesters, fishery workers, and enterprise owners, to address significant income shortages this year and provide the help needed to make it to next season. The fishery is a reliable, sustainable, and important source of economic development for coastal communities with over 7,500 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians relying on the crab solely or mostly for their livelihood. The current crisis can be attributed to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, pandemic stimulus spending in the United States, the Russian/Ukraine challenge and Russia’s takeover of Japanese seafood markets,,, click to read< 09:43
Crab catch price creeps up and plants ramp up as delayed N.L. harvest enters third week
The protests and the rhetoric have somewhat subsided, and the catch price has improved slightly, as Newfoundland and Labrador’s long delayed and controversy-riddled snow crab harvest enters a third week. “It’s been a very smooth start largely due to the state of readiness that producers have been in now for eight weeks,” Jeff Loder, executive director of the Association of Seafood Producers, said Friday. But there’s rarely smooth sailing in the fishing industry, with tensions continuing to simmer between the ASP and the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union, which represents harvesters and plant workers. Some outstanding issues include trip limits for fishing vessels to ensure an orderly harvest and maintain the highest quality, changes in the long-standing policy,,, >click to read< 17:37
N.L. inshore crab boats accuse Royal Greenland of giving them the cold shoulder
In a crab fishing season that has been contentious from the start, allegations continue to be levelled by Newfoundland and Labrador fish harvesters against processing companies. The latest accusation is against Royal Greenland, the Danish-owned company that owns three processing plants in the province. A handful of harvesters took to social media in recent days, posting on the Fishermen’s Forum Facebook Page, that Royal Greenland has been refusing to buy crab from some boats in the under 40 ft fleet. However, Simon Jarding, manager of Royal Greenland operations in Newfoundland and Labrador, says those allegations are not accurate. >click to read< 12:21
Trouble brewing if Royal Greenland doesn’t start buying crab from under 40’ fleet: SEA-NL
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) says enterprise owners in the under 40’ fleet warn there will be trouble if Quin-Sea/Royal Greenland doesn’t start buying snow crab from them, and processing companies are not reined in. “Forget tie-up, someone could be strung up,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. “The 2023 crab dispute is not over yet, and tensions will boil over unless the union stands up for its members, and the provincial government supports small-boat fishermen against the foreign country trying to drive them under.” >click to read press release< 07:26
N.L. group wants increase in northern cod catch from Minister Murray
We could use a bit more cod. That’s the message the Newfoundland and Labrador Groundfish Industry Development Council (NLGIDC) is sending to Joyce Murray, Canada’s minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Jim Baird is chair of the council, whose members include the Fish Food and Allied Workers union and inshore processors, including Barry Group, Labrador Fishermen’s Union Shrimp Co., Beothic Fish Processors and Fogo Island Co-operative Society. He told SaltWire members of the council want the minister to allow a harvest of 17,000 tonnes, or more, of northern cod from the stewardship fishery in zones 2J3KL, along the northeast coast of the province. >click to read < 19:06
Diversification – Rebuilding the inshore fishery and regaining control – Ryan Everard
It is too bad the young, educated people in the inshore have been forced out of the apprenticeship program for the last 30 years when the people on larger boats had a choice. The fishery would be in a much different state today if they had to have a choice. I’m going outside the box and throwing myself out there, but, when people say it’s impossible to represent three different groups, I beg to differ because I have seen it done since 2005, when the PFHCB involuntary forced me out of the program (not out of the boat) because I couldn’t survive on 10k during a hypothetical fishing season that was removed from the industry in 1997. (Besides for new entrants that they should have been trying to retain). >click to read< 08:53
SEA-NL relaunches Pot to Plate; public encouraged to buy snow crab from inshore boats at the wharf
SEA-NL has relaunched its Pot to Plate program to connect inshore boats directly with the public interested in buying snow crab for personal consumption. “Pot to Plate won’t take a dent out of this year’s 121 million/lb crab quota — that’s not what the program is about,” says Pam Patten, a Fortune-based inshore enterprise owner and President of SEA-NL. “Pot to Plate will help build local markets around the province, reintroduce our people to buying seafood at the wharf, and put some cash in the pockets of the inshore fleet — particularly smaller boats,” Patten adds. SEA-NL announced Pot to Plate on April 4th, but the program was immediately delayed due to the snow crab tie-up, which ended on May 19th. >click to read< 11:57
MEDIA RELEASE: Crab Fishery Underway in Newfoundland and Labrador
With an agreement reached, the snow crab tie-up ended on Friday and a fishery is now underway in most areas of the province. The secured agreement is a formula structure that guarantees a lowest minimum price of 2.20 per pound with incremental increases as the Urner Barry market price increases. “To say we are no better off than when the Panel price came out is incorrect. The final offer selection process didn’t give harvesters a formula. But the Union did. Our members’ solidarity did. The value we’ve protected here is extremely important and cannot be overstated,” says FFAW-Unifor President Greg Pretty. >click to read< 19:39
Snow crab producers, harvesters ready to move on from 6-week delay to start of season
“We have a shortened season, we have an increase in quota, and it’s very important that we keep our focus not on what has happened, but where we need to go,” ASP executive director Jeff Loder told reporters Tuesday. Loder did show slight frustration around the length of the holdout, saying both the price of $2.20 and the incremental increases were part of conversations months ago. Although the FFAW wasn’t able to change the $2.20 per pound set by the price-setting panel, President Greg Pretty says the work done in six weeks of holding out, like making sure $2.20 is the minimum price along with incremental increases, is a positive. >click to read< 15:06
THE RECENT TIE-UP – Leadership and protecting Rural Communities – Ryan Everard
To me this tie-up was a lot more than fishing for $2.20 a pound. It was an opportunity to let our stories be told and our voices be heard. It’s about the overall state the industry is in, and it’s about all of us coming together and letting our voices finally be heard. No matter what fleet you are in, or if you wear an apron or oil skins, we need to all come together and remove the rules that are meant to divide us. When I look at the Inshore vs Offshore & Plant- Workers VS Crew members, I don’t see a big difference in any of us other than financially living in three separate worlds. I see families with nine Trap Bert draws vs one, and I see the wife’s, sons, and daughters that helped spread their fish. Just like it was a family affair for our forefathers, I believe it still a family affair for all of us. >click to read< 09:38
Transparency and Taking Control of the Merchants that Controlled our Family Since John Cabot
Just to be transparent and clear on my motives. My only goal is to cap our new boat at the 3 licences its allowed over the next 8 years so my kids have the same right as John and Jane Dos got in the larger fleet. I was forced out of the program in 2008 but I persevered and stayed fishing anyway and now I am a certified Fishing Master that paid for it out of my own pocket rather than depending on government funding to do it. That don’t make me less of a Professional Fish Harvester or less of a Fishing Master. >click to read the rest< by Ryan Everard (Certified Fishing Master)
Future generations
I am the Son of James Everard and the nephew of the late Tom Best. I am a member of what once was the largest inshore fishing family in Petty Harbour known as the “Best Brothers” whom received bravery medals for risking their lives from the Order of Canada to save others who were in distress. Now it’s time we need your help to rebuild the inshore fishery here in Petty Harbour. All our licences are leaving the community to Large Boat fishing family’s because the rules in the professionalization program are designed to help them grow and in turn destroy us. >click to read< 18:07
Deal reached in Newfoundland and Labrador crab fishery, harvesters to start fishing
A bitter standoff that shut down Newfoundland and Labrador’s lucrative snow crab fishery for nearly six weeks came to an end on Friday. The union representing inshore fishers and plant workers announced its negotiating team had reluctantly signed a deal with the group representing seafood processors to start the fishery. The deal guarantees prices would not fall below $2.20 a pound, the price fishers were protesting in the first place. Shortly after the union announced the agreement, the provincial government issued a news release saying the deal was the culmination of a meeting that day between the union, the processors association and Premier Andrew Furey, who thanked the two parties for working together. >click to read< 07:56
Newfoundland and Labrador: OFFER SIGNED TO START CRAB FISHERY
This morning, the FFAW Snow Crab Bargaining Committee reluctantly agreed to sign off on a final offer from ASP to start a crab fishery this year. The offer guarantees a minimum price of 2.20 and includes incremental increases as the Urner Barry price increase, which ensures the price will not drop lower regardless of potential market drops. The agreement was made on the stipulation that Premier Furey publicly commit to revamping the final offer selection (Panel) process and work towards a formula prior to the 2024 season. >click to read the press release< 11:56
Crab fishery stalemate creating fear and uncertainty in Newfoundland fishing towns
The days of mounting fear and unease in Humber Arm South, N.L., feel like 1992, when the federal government ended the province’s cod fishery after stocks had collapsed, said Humber-Shears, the town’s mayor. “I was a teenager during that time, but it’s just that eerie kind of feeling. It’s an eerie silence,” she said. “People are really starting to fret over, ‘Where am I going to go to find work? How am I going to feed my family? How am I going to pay my mortgage?”‘ Crab fishers in Newfoundland and Labrador are refusing to fish after prices were set in early April at $2.20 a pound, a sharp drop from last year’s opening price of $7.60 a pound. The fishers say it’s not enough to make a living, and so far they haven’t budged. >click to read< 10:03
Pretty over his head: FFAW leader unaware inshore fishery excluded from Competition Act
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) says the president of the FFAW-Unifor is over his head in calling for the Competition Bureau of Canada to investigate the inshore fishery when much of the sector is excluded from the act. “It’s shocking that Greg Pretty doesn’t know that the only industry in Canada that’s pretty much excluded from the federal Competition Act is the inshore fishery,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s Executive Director. “It’s no wonder the six-week tie-up has been such a circus with nothing to show for it.” Only fish pricing in this province is excluded from the Federal Competition Act. SEA-NL wrote Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in May 2022 (letter below) to request that then-proposed amendments to the Competition Act (which were to tackle anti-competitive conspiracies between competitors that hurt workers) include fish pricing. >click to read< with the letter. 20:35
Snow crab harvesters ‘at wits’ end’ during protest outside union building – suggest fisheries minister should resign
Snow crab harvesters say their patience with the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union has run thin, and made their voices heard at a protest outside its St. John’s office Thursday. Around 100 protesters stood in the office’s parking lot to seek response from leadership, tired of a lack of updates from the union. When it was clear that FFAW leadership wasn’t going to make an appearance at the protest, fisherman Jason Sullivan addressed the crowd. “They’re the biggest bunch of cowards you ever see 
in your life. They won’t come and tell us what’s going on…. They’re gonna say ‘sit tight and keep waiting and keep waiting.’ Waiting for what?” Sullivan said. “It just goes to show, you know, the complete lack of ability to negotiate on the FFAW’s behalf. I mean I wouldn’t let them negotiate my phone bill.” 2 Videos, >click to read< 17:47
‘We got to go fishing’: More Newfoundland crab boats set sail as FFAW ramps up demands over prices and processing
Rod Rowe and his brother own two boats between them, with about a half million pounds of crab on offshore licences, and 12 crew members depending on these boats for their season’s wages. Before anyone suggests it, he added, their boats, the Atlantic Sound and the Avalon Run, are not “company boats.” While the Rowes and their crew were loading ice and bait today, the executive of the FFAW was preparing for a late-afternoon press conference. The union, in its press release and press conference Wednesday afternoon, accused the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) of trying to break the union. photos, >click to read< 08:59
PROVINCIAL PROCESSING SYSTEM BROKEN, OUTSIDE BUYERS FOR ALL SPECIES NOW
Six weeks into a provincial shutdown of the snow crab fishery and no movement on the minimum price from the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP), FFAW-Unifor is calling for a complete overhaul of the province’s processing industry starting with immediately allowing outside buyers for all species. The FFAW-Unifor Snow Crab Bargaining Committee has agreed to sign off to start a crab fishery at the current minimum price on the condition that the provincial government immediately allow outside buyers and permit harvesters to truck-out their own product for all species without restrictions. “This tie-up has become about more than just about a minimum price of 2.20 per pound, it’s about the stranglehold these companies have on our province,” says FFAW-Unifor President Greg Pretty. FFAW-Unifor has requested a response from Premier Furey by 3:00pm today and will hold a press conference at 3:30pm. >click to read the press release< 13:12
Premier Intervening – La Scie divided as harvesters wait for resolution to snow crab standoff
Mayor Marlene Regular said Tuesday things are tense, with fishermen wanting to earn money for their families but also wanting to keep their boats tied up in protest of the $2.20 catch price. “We’ve got some that want to get up and go. They want to get up in the morning, they want to go to work,” she said. “We got more that want to stand with their fellow fishermen, which is to be expected, but we don’t know their situation. Like, you can look at someone and say, ‘Oh, they’re well-to-do. They don’t mind having to stay in.’ But there’s other people, you don’t know their situation, when they look at their kids. What do you do? Do I look at my kids, or do I look at my fellow fishermen, right? It’s a big choice.” It’s difficult to see people on opposite sides of the issue, she said. Photos, video, >click to read< 17:37
Crab Negotiations Still Ongoing – Premier Intervenes in Crisis
Negotiations took place all day today, with Premier Andrew Furey intervening between the FFAW and ASP. The Premier’s intervention today signals the extent of the current crisis and the need for action to find an agreeable solution for harvesters. The Bargaining Committee has been clear, as they’ve been over the past several weeks, there is no willingness to fish unless companies move above the 2.20 minimum price. Discussions are planned to continue this evening between the two parties along with Premier Furey. The Premier has committed to make changes to the process and that next season will not be the same – promising to work towards a pricing formula that will ensure fairness, transparency and stability for the industry. However, an immediate solution is still needed to get the fishery underway this year. As noted, work will continue this evening and further updates will be provided when available. Courtney Glode, FFAW-Unifor
Facing mounting bills and a vanishing season, some crab fishermen are defying the union and heading out to sea
It’s been more than a month since crab fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador decided to keep their boats docked in protest of this year’s catch price of $2.20 and for some, the tie-up has gone on long enough. Terry Ryan of La Scie is one of them. He and his son, who work together, have decided it’s time to head out on the water, defying the advice of the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union. “We gave it the good fight when we supported the tie-up that was orchestrated by Jason Sullivan,” he said. “All we’re getting out of this now is lost fishing time, lost money. We’ve got bills to pay, bank payments to make, and we’ve come to the conclusion that $2.20 is better 
than zero. Zero is your revenue off crab if you don’t fish crab.” Fellow La Scie fisherman Jimmy Lee Foss plans to keep waiting, though, calling $2.20 a “devastating” price. “I’m kinda fighting for my life here. that’s what I feel like,” he said. La Scie is divided, said Foss, and everyone has to make their own decisions — and he plans to keep holding out. Video, >click to read< 17:12
Governments and bureaucrats can fix the N.L. inshore fishery by consulting directly with harvesters
In 1992, a government of Canada MP loudly responded to demonstrators by saying, “I didn’t take the fish from the God damn water.” In 2023, a government of Newfoundland and Labrador MHA told demonstrators, “There is nothing I can do about fish pricing.” Those two statements are indicative of, past and present, attitudes of politicians toward the N.L. fishery. In 1992, the northern cod fishery was shut down because of lack of cod to harvest and in 2023 the industry is being shut down because of issues around pricing. For a few years now, fish harvesters have been pointing out problems with the price-setting system but those in control ignored their concerns and nothing was done. >click to read< by Harvey Jarvis 11:05
