“The rebound of redfish stocks is a true success story and shows how conservation efforts are critical to maintaining fisheries. I’m looking forward to working with stakeholders in Atlantic Canada and Québec to promote a prosperous and sustainable commercial fishery.”
This quote by Joyce Murray, the former Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, was included in a June 21, 2023, DFO press release announcing that in preparation for a pending commercial fishery, the 2023 experimental fishery for Unit 1 redfish would be increased from 2,500t to 5,000t.
According to DFO “the experimental fishery, which has been in place since 2018, provides important data on redfish stocks and gives participating harvesters the opportunity to test sustainable fishing gear that protect the stock, such as gear that minimizes capture of undersized fish.”
For those stakeholders with a vested interest in redfish, this experimental fishery has been the appetizer, while they wait anxiously for the main course — the reopening of a Gulf commercial fishery.
Since DFO started dangling the redfish commercial carrot several years ago, it was inevitable that the interest in the growing redfish stock in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and portions of the Cabot Strait would continue to increase.
Over the last few years, many facets of the Atlantic Canadian fishing industry have been quietly whispering and speculating on the growing redfish population in the Gulf. And grow the stock has.
As The Navigator has reported multiple times, Unit 1 redfish has been under moratorium since the 1990s with the exception of the index and experimental fisheries. Unit 1 includes Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Divisions 4RST and 3Pn + 4Vn. The redfish fishery in Unit 1 consists of two redfish species that occur in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Laurentian Channel areas — deepwater redfish (Sebastes mentella) and Acadian redfish (Sebastes fasciatus).
According to DFO, due to strong survival rates in 2011, 2012 and 2013, the biomass in Unit 1 has grown substantially to reach an average volume of 2.8 million tonnes for S. mentella and 420,000 tonnes for S. fasciatus.
Most recently, the FFAW-Unifor raised the spectre of redfish as part of a buyback proposal for Gulf shrimp licenses, in combination with a proposal for commercialization of the Unit 1 redfish fishery for the same fleet.
“The reduction of licence numbers, combined with the transfer to a commercial redfish fishery, will allow that fleet to survive into the future,” the FFAW petitioned Lebouthillier.
But, the question remained: when will DFO be pulling the trigger on this resurrected commercial fishery?
Well, current federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier and her department answered that question on January 26, during an announcement in Rivière-au-Renard, Québec.
“In recent years, Northern shrimp stocks in the Estuary and northern Gulf of St. Lawrence have reached critical levels, while redfish abundance has reached levels that allow commercial catches to resume. That is why, after 30 years, Minister Lebouthillier announced the return of the commercial Unit 1 redfish this year. To this end an allocation of the redfish TAC will be available to shrimp harvesters. To further reconciliation, a dedicated pool is being created to support indigenous community participation in the fishery,” stated a DFO press release.
Leading up to this much-anticipated announcement, some redfish stakeholders were quite anxious about what the minister would eventually announce — none more so than Nova Scotia.
Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Kent Smith recently told the CBC that he hoped that DFO would not change historical redfish allocations held by companies in his province.
“I would like for our quotas to be respected, and particularly with this one, when our companies were the ones that pioneered this industry from the get-go,” Smith told the CBC.
In an Oct. 17 letter to Lebouthillier, Smith wrote, “to change these established allocations would bring significant economic hardships to these Nova Scotia-based fleets and the hundreds of jobs in coastal Nova Scotia communities that they support. Furthermore, the apparent trend of altering long-standing quota agreements threatens to destabilize investment in seafood infrastructure, market and product development.”
And right now, it looks like Nova Scotia’s concerns were heard.
Nearly 60 per cent of the new 25,000t quota will remain with the Nova Scotia and Québec offshore companies with historic ties (and quotas) to the redfish fishery.
This realization brought a firm, but predictable, response from the union representing a large portion of Gulf shrimp harvesters after it was learned that the inshore, coastal-based fleet will be allocated less than 25 per cent of the Unit 1 redfish.
“Today’s announcement was a clear signal that the department has signed, sealed and delivered the abandonment of coastal communities and the tens of thousands of individuals who rely on sustainably managed fisheries,” says Greg Pretty, FFAW-Unifor President. “The Liberal government had an opportunity to provide long-term economic sustainability to thousands of fish harvesters and plant workers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and instead they’ve decided to buy corporate votes.”
“It’s alarming how blatantly this government has given up on Atlantic Canada and community-based fisheries. Inshore, owner-operator fisheries provide long-term economic sustainability for rural Canadian communities, and this decision today is contrary to how Canadian resources should be managed,” stated Jean Lanteigne of Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels (FRAPP).
So, what happens now?
Every stakeholder in Atlantic Canada with a connection to redfish has been waiting with bated breath for the resurrection of this groundfish fishery — at the same time knowing that some of them were bound to be disappointed at the outcome. But where does it go from here?
The unions representing inshore harvesters will almost certainly endeavour to make this a federal election issue. Will federal opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, who is already leading in the polls in Atlantic Canada, latch on to this opportunity to secure the support of more inshore fishermen by promising to overturn the allocations? You know it is already being discussed within the inner circles of the Conservative Party.
The saga that is redfish is far from winding down — in fact, it is just heating up. Stand by.
