day : 01/01/2022 11 results

Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board Holds First Open-Pen Salmon Farm Boundary Amendment Hearing

The case has been made both for and against an application by Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd. for a boundary amendment to their marine finfish licence and lease (AQ#1039) known as the Rattling Beach site in Annapolis Basin, Digby County. The public hearing for the application, held Nov. 15 to 18 in Yarmouth, was the first ever public hearing on an open pen salmon farm held by the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board (ARB). “Within 30 days of a hearing, the Board will issue a decision, including ...

3Ps Cod Stock to Remain in Critical Zone Until 2024

A year ago, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) announced that cod stocks off the southern coast of Newfoundland, in NAFO area 3Ps, were in bad shape and in the critical zone (38 per cent of the limit reference point (LRP) of 27–53 per cent) Jump ahead a year and unfortunately, nothing much has changed. In DFO’s November 19th 3Ps assessment, cod biologist Karen Dwyer confirmed what many had already speculated, that the cod population in the region has not demonstrated much ...

Unit 1 Redfish Access and Allocation Decisions Expected in 2022

Who’s going to get how much of the anticipated Unit 1 redfish bonanza in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is expected to be announced in early 2022 by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). “The Department launched formal consultations with stakeholders on September 15 and 16 to help determine access and allocation for the potential fishery. Meeting participants were provided with a questionnaire that is to be submitted to the department by November 29, 2021. To supplement the questionnaire, the ...

Strong Industry Turnout at 7th Edition of North Atlantic Fish and Workboat Show

The 7th biennial edition of the North Atlantic Fish and Workboat Show took place on November 19 and 20 at the Mary Brown’s Centre (formerly the Mile One Centre) in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. This year’s event welcomed 3,251 industry buyers from across Newfoundland and Labrador. The Mary Brown’s Centre was filled with local and international exhibitors showing the latest technologies and services available to the commercial fisheries, fish processing, aquaculture and other ...

This Lobster Season, Just Wear a PFD

Above: Capt. Andrew Titus of Mersey Seafoods sporting his personal floatation device dockside, October 2021. Contributed photo   The preparation is over and Nova Scotia’s two largest lobster fishing areas’ (LFAs 33/34) captains and crews are now catching the prized crustaceans. For months, fishermen have been fixing gear, getting life rafts inspected, doing oil changes, arranging for bait and so much more to what some say is an endless list of things to do before the traps ...

Northern Labrador: The Forgotten People

A few generations ago, as the population of Newfoundland grew, there wasn’t enough fish to sustain us all, so we started building schooners, not only to fish the Grand Banks, but to migrate further north. We moved north to a thousand miles of coastline with sparsely populated communities on the Labrador Coast for the rich catches of cod and salmon. Many built fishing rooms called stations where they would return with their families every year, shipping their fish back to the Island each ...

Fish Audit Confirms Fish Negligence

A new fish audit released by Oceana Canada confirms, yet again, that the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery is being basically abandoned by the federal government. The current audit exposes that Canada is failing the wild fisheries from coast to coast — with just one third considered to be healthy. The findings include the fact that nearly one in five stocks are critically depleted, including the Northern cod. Nearly 80 per cent of stocks lack a rebuilding plan and the health of a third of ...

Weak Rope Policy Puts Harvester Lives and Livelihoods at Risk

When a bureaucrat in Ottawa formulates a policy about fishing gear in Newfoundland and Labrador without first consulting with fish harvesters in the province, that policy is established in ignorance. That is exactly what is happening with the Department of Fisheries and Ocean’s (DFO) new “weak rope” policy that it plans to implement in 2023. The weak rope policy is the result of the possible impact that the death of a right whale, due to entanglement in fishing gear, could have on ...

The Twine Loft – January 2022

Passed On: Rick Purdy – Rockville, N.S. fisherman Purdy, 61, passed away on November 17. Born on February 27, 1960 in Rockville, he was the son of the late Frank and Doris (Earle) Purdy. He worked on the ocean, fishing for lobster and dug for clams in the summer.   Passed On: Christopher Munroe – Port Medway, N.S. fisherman Munroe, 61, passed away suddenly on November 17 at the South Shore Regional Hospital, Bridgewater. Born in Liverpool, he was a son of the late Harold and ...

Public Opinion Versus Public Policy

While some of you readers sitting at home might look back at 2021 as a smouldering carry over of the dumpster fire of a year that was 2020, the same can’t be said about the fishery on the east coast. In fact, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many fishermen are reporting that they just had one of their most successful seasons ever. Record or near-record prices for key species such as snow crab and lobster had a lot to do with that, not to mention steady and consistent catch rates. ...