No Dead Whales in the Gulf — Now What?
For many fishermen, the 2018 snow crab fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence will probably be filed away as one to forget.
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 2017.
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 had been ...
The Twine Loft – February 2019
Passed On: Bruce Wareham – Arnold’s Cove, N.L. Founder and Chairman Icewater Group of Companies
Wareham, 75, passed away on January 4 after a brief battle with cancer. He was a long-time senior executive with National Sea Products Ltd./High Liner Foods Inc. and later founder and chairman of the Icewater Group of Companies. During his 55-year career in the seafood industry, he was a leader in innovation, adaptation to change and quality-focused seafood processing. Bruce was a long-serving ...
On the Waterfront – February 2019
Crew Safe After Dumping Day Vessel Sinking
The opening day of lobster season unfortunately did not go without incident.
The four-person crew of the Charlene A. escaped injury after the lobster boat sank on dumping day in early December. The crew members were rescued by another lobster vessel.
The Charlene A. began taking on water about 1.5 kilometres off Hacketts Cove, N.S., shortly after leaving the wharf at 7 a.m. The crew turned around and started heading back to port, but the vessel ...
Time for Commercial Cod Fishery to be Opened
The fish in the photo I provided have spawned many times causing millions of eggs to be distributed in the ocean leading to perhaps millions of cod like this in the spawning biomass.
So, the question needs to be asked once again, why are we still in a cod moratorium?
Here are my thoughts on this question and it comes down to poor science. Codfish are back in historical numbers and beyond. The cod biomass has reached its limited food supply and if the regulators want the cod biomass to ...
Important N.S. License Freeze Issue Overlooked
While 2018 has left us, many significant fisheries announcements took place during the last year.
The two I felt got little action from the Nova Scotia fishing industry were the right whale lobster closures and the announcement that the N.S. provincial government would no longer be issuing new seafood buyers/processors licenses — an indefinite freeze on new entrants.
My old trusty dictionary states that the meaning of freeze is an act of holding or being held at a fixed level or in a ...
Canadian Lobster Sector Lands a Jumbo Opportunity with the Canadian Fish and Seafood Opportunities Fund
This year the Lobster Council of Canada (LCC), the only cross-sectorial, cross-provincial industry association for lobster, has an unprecedented opportunity to fulfill our mission, to increase demand and price to fortify economic sustainability, rewarding everyone within the Canadian lobster value-chain.
The announcement came in early December of the long-awaited Canadian Fish and Seafood Opportunities Fund (CFSOF), a funding program to support the LCC’s important work. We must work ...
Quality – Again
In recent columns, I suggested that our industry is facing a very serious crisis, due to decreasing landings of our main commercial species (with the notable exception of lobster) and a shrinking workforce.
That means we need to do more with less. If we can’t catch more fish, we need to obtain more value per fish.
If we have fewer people, we need the people we do have to produce more output per person. I have also suggested how that might be done.
In this column, I will talk about ...
Moratorium Continues on New Fish Buying, Processing Licenses in N.S.
An ongoing licensing policy review by the Nova Scotia Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries is expected to keep the freeze on the issuance of new licences for fish buying and processing in the province for at least another year.
The moratorium was initiated a year ago after concerns were expressed by the industry over a number of things, said Minister Keith Colwell in an interview, including “grandfathered licenses,” and what are commonly referred to as “bingo card” licences.
As ...
Experimental Redfish Fishery ‘Too Much, Too Soon’
Concerns are being expressed that an experimental 2,500-tonne redfish fishery underway in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is “too much, too soon” for the Unit 1 stock that is showing positive growth.
“This hurts all the Maritime provinces,” said Jan Voutier, finfish manager at Louisbourg Seafoods in Nova Scotia, one of the biggest buyers and producers of redfish from the Gulf.
“This is being driven by non-participants in the industry that had none or very little participation in the ...
Possibility for a Busy 2019 Ice Season
Navigating the ice-filled water of Atlantic Canada is no easy task.
However, keeping the shipping lanes open to commercial and fishing traffic is not exactly a walk in the park either.
One of the Canadian Coast Guard’s (CCG) primary roles in this region is icebreaking.
The CCG recently provided its annual technical briefing outlining the upcoming ice season.
Brad Durnford, superintendent of ice operations for the Atlantic Region, said it is possible the 2019 ice season could be a ...
