In the 1980s, I spent 10 years fishing out of Makkovik, Labrador, where the catch was mostly cod and a by-catch of turbot.
For years I would land annually approximately 240,000 pounds of turbot, but that would later drop to 40,000 pounds per year. When the fish got scarce for the Newfoundland offshore draggers, they were sent up north.
They were heard talking on their radios about how small the turbot was and didn’t know if they could sell it when they get back. They were catching the turbot that were small and escaping our nets, but did not get a chance to grow (caught by the draggers).
Then the Canadian Government also licenced many factory freezer shrimp trawlers (or draggers) under the guise of partnerships with native groups to enhance their way of life. However, these groups got a small percentage of the wages and profits and the rest went to the foreign countries who owned the boats.
The next year when I returned to Makkovik, I was told by a local person, who had fished with me, why there is no turbot. He was on the shrimp trawler all winter fishing off Cape Makkovik and every tow they made dragged up 10,000 pounds of baby turbot as a by-catch and was dumped.
These trawlers operated 24/7, 365 days a year. By the time the cod disappeared, the turbot had gone as well.
From October 28 to November 12, 1992, I was an observer aboard the M.V. Gadus Atlantica, a research vessel chartered by the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The vessel performed 140 half-hour tows over roughly 240 miles of ocean floor. A lined cod trawl was dragged in depths ranging from 50 to 550 fathoms.
The amount of fish we caught, including all species, you could take in the back of a pick-up. It was that bad. The scientists didn’t expect to find a big lot that year, but they were very disappointed that they didn’t find more.
In 1991, I spend part of the summer fishing out of St. John’s on the Grand Banks because there were no fish anywhere else. I soon found out there were no fish on the Grand Banks either.
The only fish were in the 3NO NAFO Division and that was reserved for the foreign countries, the very ones who destroyed our great cod stocks. There were longliners that ventured in that zone and got good catches, were caught by the coast guard and towed into St. John’s where they were arrested and their catches were taken. At the same time the foreigners were out there fishing away with the blessings of the Canadian Government and NAFO.
The moratorium put 30,000 people out of work, including myself. A lot of businesses went bankrupt and some of our communities disappeared like Harbour Deep, Little Bay Islands and many, many more are hanging on by a thread.
For many years we were only allowed 39 days a year to catch a cod to eat. Out of that time, if we were lucky we got about 20 days fit to be on the water.
Minister Hutchings stated, “we have to abide by the NAFO agreement.” Why is that?
It took 34 years for the cod to come back so that we can harvest 18,000 metric tonnes and it took 34 years before the people of Northern Labrador could find one to eat.
These foreign countries are a bunch of pirates, and we owe them nothing. It is time for us to put people in government who are working for us and not for those who have destroyed our fishery and way of life. How much longer are we going to stand by and allow this to happen?
Wilfred Bartlett
Conception Bay South, N.L.
