Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us: American author Hal Borland.
So good readers, were any lasting lessons learned in 2018 that will better the fishery of the future?
What events transpired over the last 12 months that could impact the way the commercial fishery evolves in the years and decades to come?
Perhaps the best analogy one could use to describe the fishing year that was is to compare it to the 2018 weather — harsh, turbulent and always unpredictable.
And speaking of rough weather, lobster fishermen in Southwest Nova Scotia started the 2018 season with poor weather, delaying dumping day and it continued right through the valuable winter fishery.
Two winter storms packing hurricane-force winds, combined with smaller gales, kept lobster fishermen ashore more than on the water in southwestern Nova Scotia.
But when they could get out, the catches were very good, but the weather created many challenges. The weather was comparatively mild, with not a great deal of ice and snow, but wind conditions and power outages were unprecedented. It led to the most challenging fishing conditions due to high winds and storm conditions in recent times.
The 2018 news on groundfish, notably Newfoundland cod, was not positive.
The year started out with much optimism due to signs of a stock recovery, with many industry stakeholders predicting a significant commercial fishery might be very close.
However, the return of a viable commercial cod fishery in the waters off eastern Newfoundland suffered a major setback.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) 2018 science assessment for 2J3KL cod, also known as Northern cod estimated a 29 per cent single-year decline in the spawning stock biomass. A one-year projection predicted a high probability of continued decline in the stock for 2019.
DFO said the overall stock level is at 37 per cent of the level needed to open a commercial fishery. A key reason for the decline appears to be natural mortality.
What a difference a year makes. The previous cod stock assessment indicated the spawning biomass had increased to around 40 per cent of the precautionary threshold and was expected to grow each year.
As a result of the negative stock trend, DFO had to take action and announced that the 2018 stewardship fishery management approach would include measures to ensure catches are distributed throughout the season and not exceed 9,500 metric tonnes, a 25 per cent reduction relative to 2017.
While commercial harvesters endured a substantial quota cut, the always controversial recreational groundfish fishery in the province was left relatively unscathed. The only notable change was a reduction in the number of fishing days — a total of 39 days, down from 46 days in 2017.
It also looks like quota cuts are on the horizon for the Georges Bank groundfish fishery. Recommendations from the Canada/U.S. Georges Bank Transboundary Management Guidance Committee (TMGC) included a 25 per cent cut in haddock quotas, a 32 per cent cut for cod quotas and a 53 per cent cut in yellowtail flounder quotas for 2019.
But all news concerning Atlantic Canadian groundfish was not negative in 2018.
The fishery for many species off southern Nova Scotia (valued at more than $55 million in 2016/17) is relatively stable. Target species such as halibut, silver hake, winter flounder, redfish and some haddock are reportedly in good shape in fishing areas 4VXW.
Speaking of redfish, this seemingly forgotten fishery is on the verge of a major resurgence.
As recently as 2010, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) recommended the species in the Gulf of St. Lawrence stock be listed as endangered and threatened. But something remarkable happened from 2011 to 2013 that allowed for extraordinary recruitment of the small groundfish.
DFO is excited by the amount of redfish it is tracking off Newfoundland’s west coast in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, estimated to be in excess of 2.5 million tonnes of fish in an area referred to as unit 1. Many industry insiders are quietly positioning themselves for what could be the next big thing in the Atlantic Canadian fishery. There are rumours a full-scale fishery might be launched in 2020 or 2021.
For now, DFO has set aside a 2,500-tonne experimental redfish quota in the Gulf for the purpose of testing fishing gear to minimize the capture of undersized fish, as well as to collect other scientific data.
However, the prospects of another, valuable, red-coloured species is completely the opposite — the 2018 season for Northern shrimp was another challenging one.
In early 2018, DFO held a technical briefing regarding the Northern shrimp stock assessment and has been the pattern over the last decade, the news was not good — particularly in the beleaguered shrimp fishing area (SFA) 6, where the majority of the inshore shrimp fishery takes place.
DFO scientists announced that in the all-important SFA 6, the fishable 2017 biomass had declined to 87,300 tonnes from 104,000 tonnes in 2016. In comparison, the 2006 biomass was 785,000 tonnes.
This continued decrease meant the SFA 6 biomass would stay within the critical zone.
As a result, DFO announced a 16 per cent cut to the inshore Northern shrimp quota in fishing area 6 — meaning the total allowable catch for SFA 6 went from 10,700 tonnes in 2017 to 8,730 tonnes in 2018 — a reduction needed to achieve a 10 per cent exploitation rate.
The cuts in SFA 6 have been dramatic over the last few years. In 2017 the total allowable catch (TAC) was cut by 63 per cent — from 27,825 tonnes in 2016 to 10,400 tonnes. In 2015, the TAC was 48,196 tonnes. And to make matters worse, more shrimp quota cuts are anticipated for the upcoming 2019 fishery.
The only shred of good news for the 2018 SFA 6 fishery was that this year’s price increased from $1.25/pound to $1.46/pound.
As for another commercially valuable species, snow crab, many anticipated further quota declines for 2018. However, to the surprise of many, the year started on a somewhat positive note when DFO announced the fishable biomass off Newfoundland (NAFO areas 2HJ3KLNOP4R) was still at a low level, but had shown some small signs of improvement and should be on par with 2016 stock numbers, bucking a trend that demonstrated declines each year. Snow crab landings most recently peaked at 53,500 tonnes in 2009 and have since gradually declined to 34,000 tonnes in 2017, their lowest level in two decades.
But like many things in the fishery, this small glimmer of hope was later dashed when it was announced the overall 2018 quota would be cut by 17 per cent. DFO reduced the snow crab total allowable catch (TAC) for the Newfoundland and Labrador Region in 2018 to 28,975 tonnes.
In 2017, the TAC was 35,419 tonnes, an overall quota level decrease of approximately 22 per cent from 2016.
The N.L. snow crab prospects for this year already do not look good. In a series of recent public meetings with harvesters, DFO has already stated that current science is showing the abundance of snow crab is at its lowest level in 25 years and new biological information shows crabs aren’t growing to a fishable size.
Unfortunately, the N.L. crab fishery was not the only one facing difficulties in 2018.
To say the past year’s snow crab fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was a challenging one, would be an understatement.
The 2018 season was delayed in opening by the presence of heavy ice in the bays and ports of the region. And once the fishery finally opened, catch rates were much lower than last year.
However, the biggest disruption to the valuable fishery was the closure of crab fishing areas due to the arrival of right whales in the Gulf. At least 18 North Atlantic right whales were found dead in 2017 — 12 found in Canadian waters and six in U.S. waters.
On top of this, DFO also announced new fishery management measures for gear configuration for the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab fishery aimed at reducing risks to endangered North Atlantic right whales and help ensure their survival.
As is often the case, the politics surrounding the fishing industry is, many times, as turbulent as the weather itself — and 2018 was no exception.
More than a few eyebrows were raised when Jonathan Wilkinson was appointed the new Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard on July 18. The Member of Parliament for North Vancouver replaced the oftentimes controversial Dominic LeBlanc
It would be an understatement to say that numerous decisions by New Brunswick native LeBlanc, now the Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs, did not exactly endear him with numerous sectors of the Atlantic region’s fishing community. He faced heated scrutiny over such things as marine protected areas and right whale protection protocols, to name a few, over the course of his portfolio.
But probably one of the most controversial files LeBlanc was involved with involved awarding an allocation of 25 per cent of the Arctic surf clam quota to the Five Nations Clam Company.
But Wilkinson later scrapped that deal and announced that the remaining 25 per cent of the 2018 and 2019 Arctic surf clam TAC would be made available to the current licence holder, Clearwater, with a view to identify a new participant for the 2020 fishery.
In a related matter, close on the heels of Clearwater getting its quota back, the federal Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion reported that he has found former Fisheries Minister LeBlanc to be in conflict of interest related to his decision to pursue issuing an Arctic surf clam licence to the Five Nations Clam Company.
Ocean-related, environmental issues were also front and centre in 2018. From the federal government’s plan for expanded marine protected areas to more offshore oil exploration on Nova Scotia fishing grounds, many harvesters were worried about being squeezed out of traditional grounds.
In fact, it was ironically Earth Day (April 22) when BP Canada Energy Group ULC (BP Canada) spudded its first exploratory well in the Scotian Basin, after being given authorization the day before by the Canada Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NSOPB).
The N.S. fishing industry is also worried about a proposed 10-year seismic project that covers basically the entire Scotian Shelf and the Scotian Slope. The plan involves an area extending from approximately 40 kilometres from the southern coastline of Nova Scotia to 350 kilometres offshore.
But some environment-related stories did have a positive outcome.
After sitting on the seafloor for 33 years, the oil was finally removed from the sunken paper carrier Manolis L.
The Manolis L, which sank to a depth of more than 70 metres in 1985 off the northeast coast of Newfoundland, lay dormant until April 2013 when cracks in the hull, coupled with a powerful storm, allowed some fuel oil to reach the surface. Since then, the Canadian Coast Guard had been monitoring the vessel and conducting pollution containment operations.
When the Manolis L sank in 1985 it was estimated to be carrying 462 cubic metres of oil.
And finally, one could not wrap up the year that was without mentioning the fate of the Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL).
The fledgling labour organization has survived to fight another day and pledged that it is not going away any time soon.
FISH-NL announced this declaration in late 2018, despite the Oct. 1 decision by the N.L. Labour Relations Board to finally dismiss the organization’s certification application.
Submitted to the Labour Relations Board on Dec. 30, 2016, FISH-NL’s application for certification included membership cards signed by 2,372 inshore harvesters, collected over a two-month certification drive from more than 300 communities around Newfoundland and Labrador. The upstart labour group needed to sign up 40 per cent of the province’s inshore fishermen to trigger a vote away from the rival Fish, Food and Allied Workers union (FFAW).
Throughout the entire process, the FFAW maintained that its membership list contained around 10,000 harvesters and that FISH-NL never did sign up enough fishermen to trigger a vote.
However, despite the ruling setback, FISH-NL stated that it has surpassed its goal of signing up 500 dues-paying inshore harvesters and will push forward with a convention and second certification application in 2019.
So, as Environment Canada has forecasted a stormy 2019 for this region, the outlook for the fishery this year looks equally unpredictable. As for what will transpire this year, let’s hope all hands have their radars working.
