Study Reveals Halibut May Be Put at Risk by Redfish Fishery
A new study based on satellite tagging and interviews with fish harvesters has revealed a potentially negative impact between halibut spawning grounds and a potential redfish fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
According to researcher Rachel Marshall of the Fisheries and Marine Institute, the study started as a tagging study on halibut off the west coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) division 4R. The goal was to work with fish harvesters...
Status Quo for Atlantic Halibut TAC
While the total allowable catch (TAC) remains unchanged for Atlantic halibut in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (NAFO area 4RST) for the 2022/23 season, the TAC for Greenland halibut has increased by 19 per cent.
A TAC of 2,400 tonnes has been established for 4RST Greenland halibut, up from 2,025 tonnes for a one-year period starting May 15, while the Atlantic halibut TAC has been set at 1,716 tonnes.
The increase in Greenland halibut quota “is consistent with the precautionary approach ...
Status Quo for Gulf Halibut Fishery
There will be no changes to the Atlantic halibut fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (4RST) for the 2020/21 season, with the TAC set the same as last year at 1,492 tonnes for the one-year period from May 15, 2020 to May 14, 2021.
Out of that, a 60-tonne allocation has been set aside under Section 10 of the Fisheries Act to support the industry/Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) longline survey and tagging project that covers the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence and its estuary from 20 ...
Happy New Year
This issue of The Navigator marks the beginning of another new year.
It’s a good time to reflect on the past, assess where are and think about the future.
Like most people involved in the fishery in Atlantic Canada, I am a member of the baby boom generation. That means I can reflect back over several decades of involvement in this industry and even a few earlier decades, when I was growing up and hearing about things going on around me. It has been quite a ride.
I can remember the ...
Ropeless Fishing Gear Technology Surfaces Once Again
The conservation efforts of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to protect North Atlantic right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence continue to delay, interrupt or even shut down numerous valuable fisheries.
To date, fisheries involving snow crab, toad crab, rock crab, lobster, whelk, turbot, winter flounder and halibut have, in some way, been negatively impacted by new right whale-related restrictions. As long as right whales continue to be seen in the Gulf, such restrictions will ...
Understanding Fish Stocks
Marine Institute Home to OCI Industrial Research Chair for Fish Stock Assessment
Dr. Noel Cadigan has been named the first Ocean Choice International Research Chair in Stock Assessment and Sustainable Harvest Advice for Northwest Atlantic Fisheries.
The new chair is an investment of $2.5 million from industry, government, academia, donors and the Marine Institute (MI) to advance the way fish stock assessments for the Northwest Atlantic fisheries are conducted.
Housed at MI, it is only ...
On the Waterfront – October 2017
Marine Institute Receives Funding for Eelgrass Restoration
Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard recently announced that the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador will receive $4.7 million over five years for a project to help restore eelgrass ecosystems in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
The Marine Institute is the first group in Newfoundland and Labrador to receive project funding through the fund.
The ...
Fishery Alive and Kicking in South Western Nova Scotia
Contrary to popular opinion, the commercial fishery in southwestern Nova Scotia is far from comatose and is indeed alive and kicking.
You don’t have to look too far to prove this point.
Some boat builders are booked up for the next four years as fishermen — especially lobstermen — are opting for the big 50-footers so they can extend their fishing grounds and time.
A lobster buyer in Meteghan River, who employed some 70 or so workers four year ago, now has 300 on the payroll and ...
Bad News Month
P.E.I. Fishermen Slapped With Two Tough Decisions in May on the Lobster and Halibut Fronts
Just when things were starting to look a little rosy for fishermen in Prince Edward Island the other proverbial shoe dropped in May.
Within the span of a month, the Island’s fishing industry received a triple-barreled blast of bad news in the form of a clawback of halibut quota gained last year, the return of a quota allocation system for the same species that the Maritime provinces consider unfair ...
FFAW Calls on Federal Government to Establish Fair Gulf Halibut Quotas
Halibut harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador are calling on the federal government to address the previous government’s wrongs by establishing fair quota allocations for Gulf of St. Lawrence halibut.
This week, representatives of FFAW-Unifor will make a presentation to the Gulf Groundfish Advisory Committee reviewing halibut allocation decisions made since 2007.
“Previous sharing agreements have resulted in significant and disproportionate reductions in quota for Newfoundland and ...
