Tag Archives: Northumberland Fishermen’s Association
“There are a lot more boats coming and bigger boats,” Tensions rise after suspected sabotage of Eskasoni fishing boat
The RCMP are investigating the apparent act of sabotage at the St. Peter’s Canal and have copies of recordings from video cameras there. The Eskasoni fishermen were catching lobster under the banner of a moderate livelihood fishery. While the right was acknowledged by the Supreme Court of Canada in its 1999 Marshall Decision, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has yet to reach an agreement with the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs on how to implement it. Meanwhile, tensions rise as First Nations fishermen on the Northumberland Strait, Cape Breton, Eastern Shore and South Shore have started to fish outside of the normal commercial seasons. >click to read< 07:44
OPINION: #NoPipe activists won’t pipe down
Lobster traps are out of the water now, as fishermen along the Northumberland Strait wrap up a successful season. The wharves are quieter than they were a year ago, when 200 fishing and pleasure boats and 3,500 people readied for the #NoPipe Land and Sea Rally on July 6 in Pictou Town and Harbour. From three provinces and Pictou Landing First Nation, opposition to Northern Pulp’s proposal to discharge 60-80 million litres of treated pulp effluent daily into the Northumberland Strait was visible and strong. >click to read< 08:48
Feds to conduct environmental assessment of Boat Harbour cleanup
Nova Scotia’s biggest contaminated site will get a federal environmental assessment before the cleanup begins. The decision was based on submitted comments and the possibility that carrying out the project may cause adverse environmental effects, the federal government said in a news release late Friday night. Northern Pulp’s waste treatment plant at Boat Harbour is scheduled to close in January 2020, as laid out in provincial legislation passed by the Liberals in April 2015. The pulp mill has said it needs a one-year extension to get a replacement plant up and running because it cannot operate without a treatment facility. Premier Stephen McNeil has refused to extend the deadline of the closure. >click to read<14:42
Lobster Fishermen say $6M in taxpayer dollars for N.S. effluent plant is conflict of interest
Nova Scotia taxpayers have contributed $6 million toward design work and engineering studies for a new wastewater treatment plant that will handle effluent discharged from the Northern Pulp paper mill in Pictou County. Those against the plan to dump what comes out of the facility into the Northumberland Strait are not happy the province is picking up part of the cost. Those against the plan to dump what comes out of the facility into the Northumberland Strait are not happy the province is picking up part of the cost. “It’s a conflict of interest. A direct conflict of interest,” said Ronnie Heighton, a lobster fisherman and president of the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association.>click to read<15:50
Fishermen ask MLAs to avoid another costly mistake with Northern Pulp effluent
The government of Nova Scotia has been working closely with Northern Pulp on a proposed new effluent-treatment facility for the mill. At least $300,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent on designing the proposed system that would discharge millions of litres of pulp effluent into the Northumberland Strait every day. Our fishing industry will be directly affected, but we were not consulted about the design, and we have received no response to a request to meet with the provincial environment minister. Ronald Heighton, President, Northumberland Fishermen’s Association >click to read<11:20
Changes to act mean more fishing wealth headed back to Pictou County
A local fisherman is cheering proposed reforms to the federal Fisheries Act that he says will bring more industry profits back into Pictou County. The changes mean that fishermen may only hold one licence for each species and must make their own catches, taking wealth away from big fishing corporations in favour of local independent owner-operators. That’s according to Ronnie Heighton, a River John fisherman and president of the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association. >click to read< 10:40
LETTER: Need thorough, unbiased environmental study
I’d like to address publically, the situation in Pictou County involving Northern Pulp and the subsequent closure of Boat Harbor by 2020 with regards to the ‘replacement’ treatment plan which ultimately includes a pipeline for the treated effluent to be discharged into the Northumberland Strait which is part of the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.,,, It should also be noted that the new home of the end of the purposed pipeline is the heart of LFA 26. (Lobster Fishing Areas – there are 41 LFA’s in Canada, of them, LFA 26 as a whole is amongst the highest producers in tonnage of annual lobsters landed). I’m highlighting lobster as this is the main source of revenue for the 1000 plus fishers that fish this zone commercially. John Collins, Alma Road click here to read the story 18:48
Lobster prices expected to be ‘highest ever’ for start of season
Prices at the wharf for lobster taken form the waters in the Northumberland Strait are expected to fetch between $7 and $7.50 per lb., said Ron Heighton, president of the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association. Heighton said the fishermen won’t know for sure what they will be paid until likely sometime this week but based on the higher-than-normal prices being paid elsewhere, wharf prices are also expected to be up along the north shore. At the beginning of last year, processers and buyers were paying about $6.50/lb. for market-sized lobster compared to about $5.75/lb. for the same period in 2015. click here to read the story 17:08
Northumberland Fishermen’s Association wants carapace size increase
For over two years, the local Northumberland Fishermen’s Association has been wanting an increase in lobster carapace size from the Minister of Fisheries and for two years they’ve waited for an answer. “They’re dragging their feet,” says Northumberland’s Fishermen’s Association President Ron Heighton. In early 2015, the association met with Fisheries and Oceans and other fishing organizations to discuss and agree to potential changes to the lobster industry in order to increase the carapace lobster size within a two-year window. At that time, after a ballot vote was distributed among all the lobster fishers in lobster fishing area 26A in Nova Scotia with the majority voting for an increase in carapace size. The carapace is the part of the body between the lobster’s eyes and its tail. Fishermen who catch undersized lobster have to throw them back. Two years later, there has been no decision reached by Fisheries and Oceans about implementing a size increase for the upcoming lobster season, Heighton said. Read the story here 14:23
26A Lobster season still delayed
Ron Heighton, president of the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association, said the ice is gone from the local area but the start was delayed until Monday at 6 a.m., because fishermen from the southern portion of P.E.I. were opposed.“They were worried about a little bit of ice,” he said. “We’re ice free but they (DFO) wouldn’t let us go ahead of them. I mean, we don’t share the same bottom so there’d be no impact, right? “We got bullied into it,” he said, because Fisheries Minister Gail Shea is from P.E.I. Read the rest here 19:40
Fisherman must abide by agreement involving licence buyout
A Cape John fisherman has been ordered to abide by a civil agreement he signed with the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association four years ago that involved his participation in the lobster buyout program. In a recently released decision from the Supreme Court of Canada, Robert Lloyd Patriquin has been ordered to turn in his core licence as well as any existing fishing licences he currently has in his possession since he agreed to the terms of the buyout program by signing a contract with NFA in 2011. Read the rest here 13:16
