Federal Government Unveils Plan for Protecting Right Whales
Last year, an unprecedented number of right whales died in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
To protect these whales from further harm, the Government of Canada put urgent measures in place, which included shutting down the snow crab fishery in the area to minimize gear entanglements, increasing surveillance, and implementing a slowdown on large vessels to avoid collisions. Today, Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard and Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport, ...
MSC Certificate Suspended for Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Snow Crab Fishery
The MSC certificate for the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence (SGOSL) snow crab trap fishery in Canada has been suspended today by certifier SAI Global (SAIG).
In an expedited audit the certifier concluded that based on new information including the Incident Report on 2017 right whale mortalities in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the fishery no longer meets the MSC Fishery Standard related to Endangered, Threatened and Protected species.
As a result of the MSC certificate suspension, when the ...
DFO Reports Poor N.L. Salmon Returns
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is deeply concerned about the latest Newfoundland and Labrador Atlantic salmon stock assessment.
During a March 5 technical briefing, DFO reported that the 2017 assessment was the second year in a row with significant declines in returning salmon.
In 2017, 80 per cent (or 12 of 15) of rivers monitored by DFO showed declines of more than 30 per cent in total returns compared to the previous five to six years. This placed those rivers in the critical ...
A Glance at Aquaculture and Fisheries Co-operative Business Models
Co-operatives are particularly well-suited as a business model in smaller communities where aquaculture or fisheries are taking place, so that the maximum number of residents in those communities can benefit.
The advantages of such organizations, when well-structured and managed, are that they respond to members’ needs, focusing on enhancing production and incomes of members, through innovation, best practices and market access.
Most readers will be familiar with credit unions (financ...
Search and Rescue Lifeboat Station to be Based in Old Perlican
Above photo: Newfoundland M.P., Churence Rogers
The federal government recently confirmed an earlier promise to build a new Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue Lifeboat Station at Old Perlican, N.L. to allow for better response to marine emergencies on the east coast of Newfoundland.
The Bay de Verde Peninsula was selected based on identified gaps in the Coast Guard’s maritime search and rescue response capacity as well as an anticipated increase in vessel traffic in the ...
Snow Crab: The Claws Tell the Story
In the 1950s and 1960s, if you were fishing for cod around Newfoundland and Labrador you might get a little crabby if a nuisance snow crab, also called queen crab, was tangled up in your gillnet.
Today, it’s a completely different story. That snow crab brought in $275 million last year, making it the province’s most valuable fishery.
Due to the significance of the fishery, it is important to understand as much about snow crab as possible.
Dr. Darrell Mullowney has worked with the ...
The Survival and Patience of Job – Part IV
Life for Job Goudie and his family would never be the same after the explosion that killed his friends Rollie Weir and Ralph King on Monday morning, May 29, 1978.
Job barely survived, but there must have been times following when he wondered if survival was indeed a blessing. His struggle to live had only just begun when the Dobbin brothers pulled him from the ocean in Little Bay.
For weeks, doctors could do little or nothing to fix his broken, fractured and mangled bones. Because his ...
DFO Announces New Gulf Crab Fishing Regulations
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans recently announced new fishery management measures for gear configuration for the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab fishery that will reduce risks to endangered North Atlantic right whales and help ensure their survival.
These new fishery measures take into account feedback that was shared at the Ministerial Roundtable on North Atlantic Right Whales hosted by DFO Minister Dominic LeBlanc in Moncton, New Brunswick on November 9, 2017.
The ...
Captains Calling for More Enforcement in P.E.I.’s Fishing Industry
Fishermen from the western region of Prince Edward Island want to see more enforcement officers on the docks and out on the water.
Captains from P.E.I.’s Prince County Fishermen’s Association (PCFA), most of whom fish lobster in Lobster Fishing Area 25, in the western part of the Northumberland Strait, recently issued a public call for more DFO officers to be stationed in their part of the province.
They argue that their area is simply too big for the current number of officers to ...
