As was reported in the April issue of The Navigator, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has officially agreed to a recommended rollover of the 2015 Northern shrimp quotas.
In March, in the midst of a ramped up protest movement by the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW-Unifor), the offshore and inshore shrimp fleets unexpectedly approved a plan that would see no cuts to shrimp quotas in fishing areas off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2015 — notably in critical northeast coast Area 6.
The DFO quota rollover involves:
- a total allowable catch (TAC) rollover in Shrimp Fishing Area (SFA) 0 at 500 tonnes;
- TAC rollover in SFA 4 of 14,971 tonnes, which includes a 1,700 tonnes Section 10 allocation, and a by-catch of P.Montagui of 4,033 tonnes;
- TAC in SFA 5 will increase from 20,970 tonnes to the 2013 level of 23,300 tonnes. Allocations to quota holders will also be reinstated to 2013/2014 levels and
- TAC rollover in SFA 6 of 48,196 tonnes.
However, despite the agreed-upon quota rollover for 2015, the much-debated and controversial last in, first out (LIFO) policy still remains in existence — with no solution in sight.
As part of its shrimp quota announcement, DFO highlighted the fact it feels LIFO is a fair policy; “The Last In, First Out policy, known as LIFO, was introduced in 1997 after significant consultation and has been included in every Northern shrimp fisheries management plan for more than 10 years. It has been consistently communicated to stakeholders that should there be a decline in the abundance of the resource, new participants/allocations would be reduced or removed from the fishery in reverse order of gaining access — last in, first out. LIFO was also reviewed by a third-party independent reviewer in 2012 who confirmed that the Department was appropriately applying the policy when required in a fair and transparent manner.”
Both the FFAW and Newfoundland and Labrador government have vowed to keep fighting for the abolishment of the controversial policy.
