Tag Archives: Sipekne’katik First Nation
Project Magnet – Stakeouts and microchipped lobster: Inside DFO’s probe of a First Nations fishery
Under the cover of darkness one night last October, a pair of federal fisheries officers in a boat slipped across Nova Scotia’s St. Marys Bay and began to haul up 28 lobster traps belonging to members of the Sipekne’katik First Nation. They carefully planted identifying microchips on some of the lobster inside and then dropped the traps back into the sea. The covert work, in some of the most lucrative lobster grounds in Canada, took about four hours and lasted until 2:42 a.m. The aim was simple — to confirm allegations roiling wharves in southwest Nova Scotia that lobster being caught under Indigenous food, social and ceremonial licences was being illegally sold as part of an off-season black market. >click to read<08:46
Mi’kmaq woman to challenge lobster fishing rules
Cheryl Maloney is gearing up to go lobster fishing. She doesn’t have a commercial licence and she won’t be using one of the food and ceremonial purposes tags she is eligible for as a member of the Sipekne’katik First Nation. What the longtime organizer for indigenous and women’s rights has is a 1999 Supreme Court decision stating that she has the treaty right to make a “moderate livelihood” off the resources the Mi’kmaq traditionally exploited. When she lands her lobster on a South Shore wharf, Maloney plans to invite Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the RCMP to come and watch her sell them. click here to read the story 11:15
