The implementation of a bycatch data collection system for Lobster Fishing Areas (LFA) 33, 34 and 35 by the 2018/19 harvest season was a key focus at the second annual Southwest Nova Scotia Lobster Forum in Yarmouth.
Hosted by the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association, the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, the Coldwater Lobstermen’s Association and the Scotia Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association, more than 100 fishermen from all three LFAs attended the forum, which dealt with numerous topics and industry issues, but none quite so pressing as the need to develop the framework and implementation for a bycatch data collection system in the lobster fishery.
“This has to be done for a number of reasons,” said Chris Hudson, president of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association. “MSC (Marine Stewardship Certification) requires this and without MSC we don’t ship overseas. We get no price.”
The other main reason is a requirement from DFO in order to comply with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA), signed in 2010 by Canada. The 46 countries that signed the agreement met for the first time last May in Norway.
“If DFO is going to be implementing policies and industry is not participating in the process, we will be eating what we are given,” Hudson said. “This is no easy task. This is a major thing for industry. It’s going to take a huge concentrated effort by all groups to make this work.”
A workshop, that was part of the forum, posed two questions to participants: Do you want industry to create a bycatch plan or do you want DFO to do it for you? Also, if you want industry to create the plan what would you like to see in it?
The response to question one was “unanimous,” said facilitator Arthur Bull.
“You don’t want DFO to do this.” He said there was a general consensus that the associations should lead that process. “It wasn’t unanimous but pretty close.”
“It gives the government and the associations a pretty good idea of what industry thinks,” and something to go on moving forward.
Kathy Johnson photo
The four associations who organized the forum have been working together since the summer to create a proposed framework for bycatch data collection, data entry and logistics coordination for the development of a bycatch monitoring program for the three LFAs.
Taking the lead are the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association and the Cold Water Lobstermen’s Association who are proposing to jointly facilitate the program through their offices.
With a DFO requirement that one per cent of the trips be monitored, what is being proposed is an average of one trip per vessel during the season, which would work out to 1.5 per cent of the total trips being monitored, Hudson explained. Vessels chosen at random would carry a trained technician to collect data at sea at a cost less than current observer programs.
“It’s a case of not as bad as it sounds,” Hudson said. “At the end of the day you might have to take someone once or twice during the season.”
Going forward, the two associations will be submitting a proposal to the federal government’s new Fisheries Innovation Fund to ask for funding for the project. DFO area director for southwestern Nova Scotia, David Worley, encouraged fishermen, organizers of the forum, as well as the new lobster fishermen’s association, Brazil Rock 33/34, to continue working together on the framework over the winter with the goal to be able to inform licence holders what’s coming for next season by spring.
“We’ve got some time here,” Worley said, adding if it’s “industry driven it has a better chance for success.”
