Reflections on More Than 40 Years in the Industry
This will be my last column in The Navigator.
I am retiring from the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation (CCFI) at the end of September.
In one way or another, I have been involved in the capture fishery for over 40 years. For my final column, I will reflect on events in the industry during that time.
Opportunity
As I consider what has happened over the past 40 plus years, the first word that springs to mind is opportunity. Although that may surprise some people, the fact is we ...
Be Careful What You Ask For
There is an old saying that comes in many different variations.
A common one is, “Be careful what you ask for, because you may get it in greater measure than you expect.” It is a warning that what you ask for may not actually be good for you.
The origins of that idea go back at least to the book of Elijah in the Old Testament of the Bible. It is also in Aesop’s Fables, the world’s best-known collection of morality tales, dated to around 260 B.C.
But Elijah and Aesop likely just ...
Meeting Specifications
These days, nearly all commercial food products are grown, harvested, cut and packaged in accordance with specifications.
Governments specify the minimum requirements that must be met to ensure consumer health and safety. Food retailers, restaurant operators and other food service organizations specify additional requirements to ensure their products will be attractive to consumers, meet targeted price points and fit into their production and distribution systems. Both sets of specifications ...
Our People Problem — Part II
Last month, I wrote a rather lengthy column about the “people problem” we have here in Atlantic Canada.
In this month’s column, I thought I would bring a sharper focus to the issues I discussed.
As I pointed out in last month’s column, the problem is not just that we have a diminishing workforce, even though that is a serious issue. In many ways, the diminishing workforce is merely a symptom of much deeper problems that need to be addressed. If we only try to treat the symptom, we ...
Challenges and Opportunities
In previous recent columns, I suggested Canada’s capture fishing industry is facing a very serious crisis, due to decreasing landings and a shrinking workforce and we need to be thinking about how to deal with it.
The industry in Newfoundland and Labrador is also likely to see a big increase in the cost of electricity, due to the behind-schedule and over-budget Muskrat Falls hydro-electric power development.
Faced with this situation, there are four directions we need to pursue, ...
Cod: Building the Fishery of the Future
It was my distinct pleasure to attend the two-day cod workshop in Gander on November 28 and 29, 2017.
We are indeed fortunate in this province to have a unique teaching/industry hub in the Marine Institute. The staff of this Institute and the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation had put together a very effective two-day forum of cod industry speakers.
The material presented on the United States cod market by the Icelandic and Norwegian speakers was revealing. There is just “no ...
Filling the Gaps
On November 28 and 29, 2017, the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation (CCFI) hosted a very successful conference on the theme Cod — Building the Fishery of the Future in Gander.
The presentations from that conference and the audio recordings of the different sessions are available on our website at http://www.ccfi.ca/codconference/presentations.asp.
In last month’s column, I talked about what we heard at the conference. As an overall conclusion, I suggested that the ...
Changing Markets
We catch fish because we can sell them and earn an income.
We don’t intentionally catch fish for which there are no markets.
We can earn a better income, if we have a better understanding of what markets want and are willing to pay for and if we then organize ourselves to provide it.
It’s also important to understand that markets change over time, sometimes because of changes in what customers want — or can be enticed to buy — and sometimes because of changes in what can be ...
Cod – The Challenges in Building a New Industry
Last month in this column, I said the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation will be holding a conference in Gander on November 22 and 23, 2017 on the theme, Cod — Building the Fishery of the Future.
Since then, however, we have had to change the dates to November 28 and 29, because one of our key speakers would not have been available on the earlier dates. Please note that change.
This month, I will talk about some of the challenges in building the new industry that will be discussed ...
25 Years After the Moratorium
July 2017 marks the 25th anniversary of the announcement of the moratorium on fishing Northern cod off the northeast coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, in NAFO Divisions 2J3KL.
It is worth noting that 1992 was just 15 years after Canada obtained a 200-mile exclusive economic zone, with widespread expectations that we could increase our fish catches substantially but resources would still increase in abundance over time, due to good Canadian management.
However, the 1992 moratorium was ...
