Above: Fish harvesters from Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove recently gathered at the town’s community centre to speak with representatives from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Photo by Nick Travis
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) recently held a series of community outreach meetings in select towns in Newfoundland and Labrador, including Petty Harbour.
Many fish harvesters at these meetings were concerned about the very short cod season in 2022. With no squid and capelin fishery, there were higher levels of participation in the cod fishery than 2020 and 2021.
Alongside the higher levels of participation in the cod fishery, some harvesters were further exacerbating the short-lived season by overrunning their weekly fishing limits.
Tony Doyle, the Vice-President of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union Inshore Council, said that the harvester’s weekly limits should be able to be carried over to the following season to properly manage overruns.
“I know it’s quite a different kettle of fish because crab is a quota fishery, but we have an agreement with DFO that if I go over a certain number of pounds, they’ll take it off next year’s quota,” said Doyle. “Fishermen now are saying, ‘well why can’t they do the same thing with the cod?’ If I go over by 200 pounds one week, 300 pounds the next week and 400 pounds the next week; by the end of the season, I’ve gone over by 1,000 pounds. Now next year I have to catch 1,000 pounds less.”
The fish harvesters of Petty Harbour, who harvest in the 3L NAFO division, fish with traditional handlines and traps — no trawling and very few gillnets.
Some fishermen in the area believe that because of this setup, they’re being treated unfairly by DFO regarding weekly limits. Many harvesters in the community agreed that alternative handline quotas should be afforded to those fishing with handlines and advocated for its use as a sustainable alternative to more modern fishing practices.
Another issue presented by many in Petty Harbour was the short notice given to harvesters about their crab quota for the upcoming season.
Harvesters noted that while their counterparts in other parts of Atlantic Canada might know their quota a few weeks in advance of harvesting, people in Newfoundland and Labrador often are unaware of their quotas until a couple of days prior to the season.
“You find out three or four days before the fishery opens, or sometimes just the day before the license is available, so you don’t really know what your quota is until you pick up your license on the DFO system,” said Doyle. “It’s been like that for a long time, and I don’t know how to fix it.”
DFO held two subsequent virtual outreach meetings via Zoom, in which harvesters from around Atlantic Canada could air their concerns and grievances and get feedback from DFO.
A concern some harvesters had was DFO’s implementation of electronic logbooks.
Starting in 2024, the government has noted that they intend to begin to transition to a paperless system. With the aging population in the fisheries, many are concerned that electronic logbooks will make logging their catch data difficult for those without a working understanding of computers or smartphones.
A large portion of harvesters attending the meetings also brought up the idea of Newfoundland and Labrador switching to a 30-day registration, in which vessels would be able to register licenses for 30 days before being able to switch to another vessel. Currently, DFO regulations in Newfoundland and Labrador have a 12-month registration for vessels. The rest of Atlantic Canada, however, is in line with the 30-day registration.
Some are worried that switching to a 30-day registration will take away second vessel registration for licenses. One harvester brought up that in order to fish lobster, he needs to be able to have his 22-foot speedboat registered to his lobster license to be able to navigate the landwash amongst thousands of lobster pots to fish for lobster inshore, a task that his 35-footer would not be able to accomplish.
Another harvester brought up that 30-day registration has nothing to do with the designation policy, calling the potential loss of second vessel registration “fearmongering.”
Others commented that from what they’ve been told out of Nova Scotia, where 30-day registration applies, is that the regulations have seen larger players buying up licenses from smaller enterprises. One harvester said, “there were 90 boats out of Digby harbour, now they’re down to 40 because people are going around buying up scallop license after scallop license and fishing them within the 30 days.”
DFO noted that while each policy is a separate issue, they also overlap.
DFO commented that in part of a review of the inshore fishery, there has been a national push for all provinces to fall under the same regulations. The department representative noted that harvesters should get the message across to the government about whether N.L. should have the same rules as other regions, or whether “our rules have developed differently.”
