Back to Basics
Researchers Prepare for More Ocean Activity in Placentia Bay
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has a unique opportunity to survey the marine environment to see what it looks like before human interaction and marine traffic increase in the Placentia Bay area.
Kate Dalley is a biologist, who was raised in Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador, by two biologists. “There was never any question that this was what I was going to do. My studies are in ecology, which is understanding ...
Fisheries Science Failures on Full Display in 3Ps Cod Projections
Cod still remains “fish” in Newfoundland and Labrador, but the optimism of growing cod stocks in the past few years has been tempered.
Newfoundland once had one of the world’s great cod stocks on the Grand Banks and in the 2J-3K NAFO area off the northeast coast of Newfoundland and off Labrador.
According to George Rose of Memorial University, one of the world’s foremost scientists on Atlantic cod, the collapse of the stock in the early 1990s was precipitated when most of the ...
Valuing the Ocean
One way or another, most of the people reading this column earn their living from or because of the ocean.
As that indicates, the ocean is a valuable resource. But it is easy to take that resource for granted and not appreciate the value we get from it.
The ocean represents about 70 per cent of the earth’s surface. Scientists tell us that humans evolved from creatures that migrated out of the ocean onto land a long, long time ago, so we owe our very existence to it. And it has played a ...
Is Federal MPA Plan Too Aggressive and Short-Sighted?
With 2019 now in the rear-view mirror, fishing industry stakeholders are looking ahead to the next decade and are anxiously awaiting new federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan to start work on her new portfolio.
As you will see on page 22 of this month’s Navigator, the Nova Scotia Member of Parliament for South Shore-St. Margaret’s recently received her marching orders from her boss, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
There is nothing earth-shattering in her mandate letter — ...
Thinking Big
Comparisons are often made between the fisheries in Iceland and Atlantic Canada.
I have made such comparisons in this column and others have made them, as well. In these comparisons, Iceland is usually considered a model we need to follow.
There are good reasons to make such comparisons.
Historically, Iceland’s fishery was similar to ours in Atlantic Canada. We harvested the same species in similar quantities and competed in the same markets. The major difference was that Icelandic ...
2019: A Calming of the Tempest?
“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day”: American poet Edith Lovejoy Pierce.
So good Navigator readers, what final entries will you be adding to your 2019 journal, while cracking the spine on your new 2020 memoir?
What was the overall tone of your 2019? Could it be summed up by the normal terms associated with the fishery in Atlantic Canada — including adject...
Wrong to Compare Aquaculture to Agriculture
This is in response to a letter to the editor by Mark Lane, executive director of the N.L. Aquaculture Industry Association, where he is supporting the fish farms in the ocean, regardless of the damage they cause and I can understand why, that’s what he is getting paid for.
I too am a proud citizen of this province and grew up harvesting the ocean and the land and the two are as different as chalk and cheese, especially what has happened this year on the South Coast.
When farmers lose ...
World Fisheries Day: Highlighting the Challenges for a Sustainable Future
November 21 was World Fisheries Day.
It is a day to recognize what the fishery means to our communities, our province, our country and the world.
The fishery is what brought many settlers to Newfoundland and Labrador and over 500 years later it remains the industry that sustains much of our rural and coastal communities. Tens of thousands of people are directly and indirectly employed by the fishing industry in our province.
In rural Newfoundland and Labrador, the crew member, the ...
Aquaculture Versus Capture Fishing
In September 2019, something like 2.6-million fish died in aquaculture farming operations on Newfoundland’s south coast.
The event caused quite a stink — both literally and figuratively. And the media was full of stories, most of which were based more on emotional rants than they were on facts and reality. Because of that, I thought it would be worth putting some things in perspective, to reduce the heat and shed some light on a very significant issue.
As a starting point, it may be ...
Sustaining Rural Communities – Part II
Last month, I talked about the imminent threat to the fishing industry in Atlantic Canada due to young people leaving rural communities.
I suggested that rural communities are being depopulated because the old ways of doing things don’t provide young people with the opportunities, incomes or lifestyles they want.
Keeping the young people — or attracting them to return — means we need to create new opportunities that can provide better incomes and more appealing lifestyles. This ...
