It’s one of the smallest species being fished in Newfoundland and Labrador waters, but this spring it is the subject of one of the biggest controversies to be had in the province’s fishery in years.
Shrimp has become a key stock in maintaining the fishing industry in waters off the north and northeast parts of the island and southern Labrador.
But the shrimp stock has been in decline for a number of years and a stock status update released in February by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) shows a sharp decline in the fishing biomass, particularly in Shrimp Fishing Area (SFA) 6, which is fished by both the inshore and offshore fleets.
Those two fleets in recent years have been in conflict over a DFO policy of Last In, First Out (LIFO), which basically means the inshore fleet will lose a higher percentage of quotas as they are reduced due to the declining stock.
Katherine Skanes, DFO shrimp research scientist in St. John’s, said the latest information shows the fishable biomass in SFA 6 has declined by 41 per cent since the previous report.
“This is the sharpest decline we’ve seen,” she said. “Forty-one per cent is quite significant.”
There are similar rates of decline in SFAs 4 and 5.
In 2007, a precautionary approach framework was agreed upon by DFO, the provincial government and fishing industry stakeholders.
“During that meeting there were two levels of female biomass agreed upon,” Skanes noted. “There was a level around 79,000 (tonnes) and a level of 212,000, so if the level is above 212,000 we would consider that healthy. If it’s between the 79,000 and 212,000 we consider it cautious. And if it’s below the 79,000 we consider that critical.
“So right now, it’s in the cautious zone, but it’s very close (at 89,000 tonnes) to the 79,000 level.”
DFO Minister Hunter Tootoo has called for a full stock assessment of the shrimp resource and a review of the LIFO policy. That stock assessment was to occur in April. The LIFO policy review, which will need consultations from various groups, was to be done as soon as possible.
The shrimp fishery was set to open April 1 in SFA 6.
The whole controversy sparked a new importance on a meeting of the Northern Shrimp Advisory Committee that was held in St. John’s in early March.
Sylvie Lapointe, Director General for Fisheries Resource Management and chair of the Northern Shrimp Advisory Committee, said the March meeting was well attended by all stakeholders.
“We met to talk about a number of management issues, so the first major piece was getting some views from committee members and recommendations on what the review of the Last In, First Out policy should look like, what the terms of reference should be,” she said.
“And then DFO science provided the results of the update of the science they did for SFA 4, 5, and 6, and another key discussion was whether or not while we await the results of a full stock assessment — which will be taking place in early April — a key discussion was around what interim management measures should be put in place to allow the fishery to continue, and there were different views, obviously, around that.”
At that meeting the Fish, Food and Allied Worker’s (FFAW-Unifor) and other inshore interest groups recommended there be no fishing in SFA 6 until the conclusion of the full stock assessment, as well as the conclusion of the LIFO review. The offshore sector advocated for an interim quota in SFA 6 that will allow them to continue fishing over the next few months while decisions are made.
Lapointe then briefed Tootoo on what occurred at the meeting.
“There were some major areas where there was no real consensus of views,” she said. “There was consensus on a lot of the aspects of LIFO review in that people want it to be external, they want to be fair and transparent and open. Whatever process gets put in place they want extensive consultations. They want it done right, but at the same time they want it done as quickly as possible because of the uncertainly this is all creating amongst the industry.
“Having said that, there were differences of opinion on who should do that review.”
Lapointe noted, however, decisions were needed to be made in advance of the April 1 opening of the fishery, and that included either halting fishing until the outcome of the full stock assessment, or interim quotas to allow the fishery to continue until the full assessment is complete.
DFO notes that the shrimp fishery in SFA 6 began in the late 1970s with total allowable catches (TACs) increasing through the mid-1990s to mid-2000s primarily due to the development of the inshore fishery. The resource began showing signs of decline in 2009.
But increased fishing effort may not be the only thing contributing to the decline.
“We’ve done extensive research on the amount of predators and the environmental impacts, and from what we can see in the environment now, it is more favourable to groundfish, cod,” Skanes said.
“And with the increase of cod then predation increases and we’ve done studies of stomach contents of groundfish from our survey and we can see the impact they are having has increased in recent years.
“Cod prefer capelin because capelin is a more energy dense food source, but the amount of shrimp eaten by cod has been generally increasing.”
FFAW-Unifor says the inshore shrimp fishery supports about 250 fishing enterprises, and more than 1,500 workers in 10 shrimp processing plants.
The Canadian Association of Prawn Producers says there are about 700 workers tied to the offshore fleet, 75 per cent of which live in Newfoundland and Labrador. Offshore licence holders include aboriginal groups, co-operatives, and small and medium-sized Atlantic Canadian companies.
The TAC for the 2015/16 fishing season was 48,196 tonnes, all of which was expected to be taken.
