Northern Cod Stock Growth Continuing: Report
Reasons Cited Include Low Fishing Levels, More Capelin
Amid all the worry and fighting surrounding the province’s declining shellfish fisheries over the past couple of years, the Northern cod stock has been quietly emerging from near annihilation and reclaiming its traditional ocean grounds and annual migration routes.
And while those with a stake in the fishing industry search for a way forward in a world with less crab and shrimp to share, some have been turning their gaze toward the ...
Nova Scotia Says No to ‘Franken Salmon’ but GMO Foods All Around Us
There’s a big push globally to have all seafood labelled by its origin, how it was caught, by what means and if it is under sustainable management.
While Atlantic companies and fisheries have become part of the project simply because they had to if exporting to most foreign countries, I’ve yet to see a label attached to fresh Atlantic salmon steaks or portions in local grocery chains stating where the salmon came from.
Does everyone know that most are cage-reared and were fed copious ...
Achieving Extraordinary Results
Last month, I talked about the productivity problem we have in our industry and illustrated how that translates into low incomes for industry participants.
Specifically, I showed how output value per person employed is very low compared with the fishing industry in Iceland and the food industry in Canada, among others. If people in our industry want to have better incomes, we have to improve our productivity and that will require change — innovation, in other words.
A recent report ...
What Will Climate Change Mean for Future Fisheries?
Climate change offers both opportunities and risks to established and emerging fisheries and aquaculture enterprises and the communities they support.
ClimeFish is a four-year project largely backed by the European Union. This project has, at its core, the goal of providing sound advice to guide management decisions to ensure that seafood production can increase in areas and for species where there is potential for sustainable growth under climate change.
The ClimeFish consortium of ...
The Fishery Needs a Call to Arms
On Thursday, March 3, 2016 I attended a rally in St. John’s protesting the shrimp cuts to the inshore fleet.
After having spent years with others in the late 80s fighting to save the cod fishery from destruction by the offshore fleet on the cod spawning grounds, I thought to myself it is déjà-vu all over again.
The cod collapsed because the politicians did not listen to common sense and 30,000 people lost their jobs — did the managers learn a lesson? I don’t think so. For a while ...
World Oceans Day 2016
June 8 is officially recognized by the United Nations as World Oceans Day. Each year, an increasing number of countries and organizations mark this day as an opportunity to celebrate our world ocean and our personal connection to the sea. World Oceans Day raises awareness about the crucial role the ocean plays in our lives and the important ways people can help to protect it.
Thousands of leading aquariums, governments, conservation organizations, schools and individuals around the world ...
What’s in a Number?
The number 111 is an interesting one.
Tolkien’s hobbits call it eleventy-one and it’s how tall in feet the Statue of Liberty stands. It’s also the emergency number you dial if you’re in New Zealand.
The number 111 also holds significance for DFO shellfish technician Darlene Fiander. It’s the number of days she spent at sea in 2015. If you strung all of her trips together, it would be like spending January 1 to April 21 on the water.
“If I’d listened to my mother’s ...
LIFO — A David and Goliath Shrimp Conflict
For several months, the Canadian Association of Prawn Producers (CAPP) has been conducting an advertising blitz in province-wide media extolling the “virtues” of the offshore factory freezer trawler shrimp fishery.
The major fisheries policy issue at stake in this David and Goliath conflict is whether or not the federal government will continue to apply a Last-In First-Out (LIFO) policy that could lead to the elimination of the inshore fleet sector, onshore shrimp plants and certain ...
Northern Cod Will Need More than a FIP, it Will Need the Unity of All Stakeholders
July 2, 2017 will mark the 25th Anniversary of the cod moratorium in Newfoundland, which halted fishing on what used to be the largest single cod stock in the world.
The collapse of Newfoundland’s Northern cod, which at one time provided harvests of over 800,000 tonnes per year, has been the poster child for the seafood sustainability movement.
The moratorium was a dramatic shutdown of a major industry that had defined Newfoundland for over 500 years. The cod fishery was lost due to a ...
The Collector — Part I
Garry Smith is an impressive man in several ways.
At 6’7” he definitely stands out in a crowd. He is literally head and shoulders above the rest. He has to bend down to get through standard 6’6” doorways and he can’t even fit into compact cars.
The 63-year old veteran fisherman, who grew up in Gooseberry Cove, Trinity Bay, now has homes in Clarenville and St. John’s. How much time he spends in each depends on the time of year.
During fishing season, he lives in Clarenville ...
