Tag Archives: Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board

TSB: Island Lady likely sank quickly and with no warning

Unable to examine a vessel that cannot be found, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Wednesday it cannot say what happened to a small fishing vessel that disappeared last year off the coast of southern Labrador. Marc Russell and Joey Jenkins of Mary’s Harbour were last seen Sept. 17 aboard the Island Lady, which fished from Mary’s Harbour. The pair had headed out to fish for cod. “The TSB’s investigation into this occurrence could not determine with certainty the cause of the disappearance of the Island Lady,” the board said in a statement Wednesday. >click to read< 14:42

Labrador Shrimp Company Partnership Brings 70 EPIRBS to Harvesters

Seventy commercial fishing enterprises in southern Labrador between L’Anse au Clair and Cartwright will receive an EPIRB. This is made possible through a living memorial to two young harvesters who lost their lives while fishing on the F/V Island Lady on September 17, 2021. Marc Russell, aged 25 from Mary’s Harbour, and Joey Jenkins, aged 30 from Lodge Bay, failed to return home to their community and were never found. The Labrador Shrimp Company is spear-heading the project in collaboration with the Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Harvesting Safety Association (NL-FHSA), Fish Harvesters’ Resource Centre (FRC), Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board (PFHCB), and the Fish Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW-Unifor). >click to read the press release< 13:52

Personal locator beacons – New coalition is making the devices cheaper for fishermen

There have been 20 fatalities in the province’s fishing industry over the past 10 years, and the bodies of five of those fishermen have never been recovered. So the Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Harvesting Safety Association has partnered with the Fish Harvesters’ Resource Centre, the Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board, and the Fish Food & Allied Workers union to subsidize the cost of 2,500 beacons. Video, >click to read< 09:20

DFO’s vessel length restrictions are hurting business and putting fish harvesters’ lives at risk

Patey’s Venture has the look of a well-designed fishing boat, with smooth flanks meeting a nicely-curved bow. Yet there’s something amiss, an anomaly that’s as impossible to ignore as a missing tooth in an open-mouthed smile. For the Pateys, who needed a boat with some extra deck space to handle crab pots, it was more economical to buy and reconfigure a used boat than invest in a new boat. The Pateys had a licence that put them in the under-40 LOA class. Patey spent several thousand dollars to eliminate those two feet,  “Our boat was an excellent boat. And when we … followed the regulations set by DFO we made her worse than she was,” photos, >click to read< 11:10

‘It’s not possible to be independent and arm’s-length when you’re practically married and living under the same roof.’

FISH-NL writes Premier with ‘serious concerns’ over relationship between FFAW and provincial corporation that runs fish harvester registration,,, “The head of the Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board has said the board ‘operates independently and on an arm’s-length basis from the FFAW’ when that is clearly not the case,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. “Not only is the certification board located in the same Richard Cashin Building in St. John’s as the FFAW-Unifor, but the two organizations have owned the property together since 2009,”,,, >click to read< 13:00