“Do you want to make a contribution to the stewardship of Canada’s three oceans and its aquatic resources?”
While it might not be the most passionate and enthralling call to arms ever uttered around the globe, the majority of stakeholders in Canada’s fishing industry are in agreement that it is about time such a question has been posed to our budding scientific minds.
The aforementioned question is the opening line in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ (DFO) new recruitment campaign ad. That’s right science types, DFO wants you.
To its credit, thus far, the Justin Trudeau-lead government has been living up to the commitment it made in the ministerial mandate letter when it pledged to “restore funding to support federal ocean science and monitoring programs, to protect the health of fish stocks, to monitor contaminants and pollution in the oceans and to support responsible and sustainable aquaculture industries on Canada’s coasts.”
In May of this year, former Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo announced $197 million for the hiring of new scientists and technicians to replenish the depleted resources at DFO.
The federal department called this campaign the largest single recruitment toward restoring ocean science. DFO will hire 135 research scientists, biologists, oceanographers and technicians through a national recruitment campaign in the following core areas of research:
Assessment of aquatic resources (including fish stocks, marine mammals and species-at-risk)
- Dynamics of aquatic invasive species
- Aquaculture-environmental interactions
- Ecosystem health, including approaches for ecosystem modelling and ecosystem-based management
- Conservation management of aquatic biological diversity
- Ecosystem stressors and evaluating their impacts on aquatic ecosystems
- Biological, chemical, physical, and fisheries oceanography, both coastal and offshore
This initiative is a far cry from 2013 when former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government announced more than $100 million in cuts from DFO.
Ottawa’s commitment to prop up the down-trodden and beleaguered science branch of DFO must also come as welcomed news to groups, such as the Newfoundland and Labrador government, which, over recent years have been unilaterally undertaking and funding fisheries research on their own.
In fact, the Newfoundland and Labrador government remains the only province in Canada to solely fund its own offshore fisheries research. Last fall it announced a further $2.6 million to enable the Marine Institute’s Centre for Fisheries Ecosystems Research (CFER) to continue its operations and research activities, including the charter of an offshore fisheries research vessel.
The province said at the time the funding being provided to CFER for 2016-17 will allow it to charter the Irish Marine Institute’s state-of-the-art fisheries research vessel, RV Celtic Explorer, for a sixth consecutive year to support its continued research and focus on surveys, stock assessments and sustainable fisheries, ecosystems structure and change, climate and fisheries influences and species biology, ecology and behaviour. Given the current financial crisis in the province, the Newfoundland and Labrador government must be somewhat relieved to know that the overseers in Ottawa will once again be taking up the fisheries research charge.
The naysayers out there, and there are sure to be many, might say that it will take years to rebuild the science knowledge and reputation of DFO — and to a certain extent, they might be right. Good, solid fisheries science takes time, hard work and a lot of patience. But you have to start somewhere and it appears this is a positive first step. You can’t have science without scientists, the same as you can’t catch fish without fishermen.
Once DFO has completed the recruitment and hiring process, then the real work begins — the allotment of the new expertise now on staff and list of specific fisheries to be focused on. Rumour has it that cod research will be getting an influx of human resources — and that will be welcomed news to those eyeballing the recovering Atlantic groundfish stocks — particularly off Newfoundland.
Let’s hope this revitalization of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ science branch is just the beginning of better things to come. Every stakeholder involved with the fishery in Atlantic Canada will tell you the industry is changing and evolving quickly — biomasses are fluctuating, water temperatures are warming and valuable, sought-after species are on the move. In order for DFO to properly manage this multi-billion dollar industry, good, accurate scientific data is needed.
As well, DFO should be looking to tap into and promote the good fisheries research being done by universities and academics across the country. It is always good value for taxpayers’ dollars to access research that is already being undertaken.
DFO need only to look to its colleague to the south, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NOAA Fisheries recently announced more than $11 million in academic grants to fund projects that address the needs of fishing communities, optimize economic benefits by building and maintaining sustainable fisheries, and increase other opportunities to keep working waterfronts viable. The applications recommended for funding fall into these seven priorities:
- Aquaculture
- Fishery data collection
- Techniques for reducing by-catch and other adverse impacts
- Adapting to climate change and other long-term ecosystem change
- Promotion, development and marketing
- Socio-economic research
- Territorial science
DFO science has been one of the traditional lightening rods for problems in the industry. This sudden hiring spree is not going to suddenly solve the multitude of challenges facing today’s fishery, but it is a step in the right direction and at least shows that an attempt is made to right many of the wrongs of the past.
