“We Lost Our Admiral, But We Are Staying On Course”
Fishing Industry Reflects on Life and Impact of Christian Brun
Michel Richard’s voice was filled with emotion and pride as he spoke about Christian Brun, the executive director of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union.
Brun, 46, was killed in a head-on collision in Miramichi, N.B., Dec. 5, 2016, leaving a void in both Richard’s personal and professional life.
In the weeks since his death, the organization has been moving forward, continuing with the work started under Brun’s leadershi...
Fishing Industry Participants Working to Help Their Own
When Stewart Franck began working with the Fisheries Safety Association of Nova Scotia (FSANS), he said seeing a fisherman wearing a personal flotation device was a rare thing.
Now, five years after getting the conversation going about implementing safe fishing practices in the commercial fishing industry, it is the opposite.
“It’s at the point now that fishers that don’t wear the PFDs are in the minority,” said Franck, the executive director of FSANS.
When asked how the ...
First Nations Family Receives Captain and Crew of the Year Honours
“We work as a team.”
It’s a simple statement, but one each crew member of the Sea Predator repeats over and over when they talk about their work as fishermen.
Captain Billy Francis and his crew — comprised of his sister, Jamie Parker and her husband, Larry Parker — were recently honoured as Captain of the Year and Crew of the Year by the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs Secretariat in the Commercial Fisheries Award category.
They were given the awards by Ken ...
Once a Farmer at Heart, Man Builds Family Fishing Enterprise
Pictured above: Members of the Ellis family: Kathyrn, Carolyn, Diane and Stephen.
Stephen Ellis had planned to be a farmer.
The youngest of 10, he wanted to farm the land that had been in his family for generations.
But sometimes life takes you in another direction.
For Stephen, now 60, that direction was to the water and fishing off the coasts of all four Atlantic provinces.
From his early beginning as a deckhand on his father’s lobster boat to owning five fishing boats, ...
Recommendations for Fishing Vessel Regulations, Safety Slow to Change, Says TSB
Each year, fishermen lose their lives while working in the fishing industry in Atlantic Canada.
Whether it be drownings, going overboard, boats sinking or being involved in accidents, the tragedies continue to occur.
The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) statistics show on average there is at least one loss of life per month in the fishing industry.
Marc-Andre Poisson, director of marine investigations for the Transportation Safety Board says that is too many.
The TSB investigates ...
N.B. School of Fisheries Working to Improve Industry
The building the New Brunswick School of Fisheries calls home may look dated from the outside, but the work that goes on in inside its brick walls and beyond certainly isn’t.
Marcel Godin is a coordinator with what is commonly known throughout the province and beyond as the School of Fisheries.
In his corner office, he works on developing and providing courses and training for commercial fishers, courses Godin himself took at the school in the mid-1990s.
This has been the mandate of ...
New Technology May Help Determine Bluefin Tuna Stocks
Department of Fisheries and Oceans research scientist Dr. Gary Melvin is leading a study into determining how abundant bluefin tuna are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
In mid-September, Melvin and researchers conducted hydroacoustic studies in North Lake, Prince Edward Island to obtain data on bluefin populations.
The crew deployed an underwater, multi-beam sonar technology to locate the tuna.
Melvin wants to see if the sonar can accurately define not only the number, but the size and ...
N.B. Fishermen Take on Challenges of Herring Fishery
Billy Francis says when he was offered the chance to take part in another fishery, he couldn’t say no.
But he adds it’s a fishery he knew little about and admits he has a lot to learn and is willing to give it a try.
The 40-year-old has been fishing lobster for two decades, working his way up from deckhand to captain.
After the Esgenoopetij First Nation in Northeastern New Brunswick signed a fishing agreement with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans a year after the fallout of ...
From Tragedy Comes Hope: Mother of Tabusintac Victim Taking up Cause of PFDs for Fishermen
It has been two years since Line Duvall lost her son to the ocean — two years that she has mourned and grieved, questioned why, over and over again.
She still doesn’t know the reason she lost her son Samuel Boutin, that cold May morning, nor will she ever know.
Instead of focusing on the why, she is focusing on remembering the son she loved so much and trying to make a change so others may not have to suffer the same fate.
Boutin was celebrating that weekend and he decided to go ...
N.B. Fishermen Seeing More Large Lobsters in Their Traps
Fishermen in Northeastern New Brunswick’s Lobster Fishing Area 23 were pleased with the extra bonuses they found in their traps at the end of the season.
Over the last two weeks of fishing, fishermen were finding larger than usual market-size lobsters in their traps.
Almost on a daily basis, boats were arriving back at wharves with lobsters that weighed anywhere from two-and-a-half to five pounds. The largest caught at MacEachern’s Wharf in Tabusintac was an impressive eight pounds....
