As you might have noticed from the cover of this magazine, The Navigator is celebrating 20 years of being the authoritative source of trusted, accurate and reliable information on the fishing and marine industries in Atlantic Canada.
Being such an important source of information, not to mention a chronology (See feature on page 54) of the fishing industry, is something The Navigator takes very seriously. Over the last two decades, this magazine has established itself as the go-to read for industry trends and developments — both positive and negative.
The Navigator’s loyal reader base — made up of harvesters, processors, plant workers, politicians and numerous other stakeholders — have come to expect and rely on this magazine to not only cover the issues, but explain the economical, ecological and social impacts related to this ever-changing and complex industry known as the fishery.
As already stated, one of the goals of such a far-reaching magazine is to act as a written chronology for, as many will agree, a diverse and complicated business.
As the Atlantic Canadian fishing industry of 2017 deals with the impact and challenges of such topics as a booming lobster industry, dropping of European Union tariffs and shrinking crab and shrimp quotas, it is always interesting to turn back the clock 20 years and revisit the pressing issues of the day.
For many readers, they will not be surprised that the major topic discussed in the very first editorial of The Navigator’s inaugural issue is one that is once again making headlines today — the east coast groundfish fishery.
On page 2 of Volume 1, Number 1, managing editor Ted Warren wrote the following ironic paragraphs:
“In the months and years ahead, we’ll do our best to provide a voice for the men and women who make the fishery work. Sure, we’ll talk to the politicians and the other heavy hitters who are in key decision-making positions. But for the most part, we’ll try to focus on the ordinary individuals who actually generate the wealth.
Say what you like about the root causes of the groundfish collapse. Foreign overfishing. Changing environmental conditions. Bad data on stocks. Blundering politicians. All of the above and a host of other factors undoubtedly contributed to the crash.
But the most fundamental of all the mistakes can be found at an even more basic level, in the failure of those charged with managing the resource to accept the input of those who know it best. As long as the management debate remains confined to the same narrow group of politicians, bureaucrats and scientists, we’ll continue to repeat the same painful mistakes that led up to 1992. With, undoubtedly, increasingly disastrous results.
It is our earnest hope that this new monthly magazine will provide a lively and informative forum for the larger group of people who actually make the industry work. In so doing, we hope to contribute to the development of a sustainable industry which can provide viable long-term support for the rural economy on which Newfoundland is based. We are, both as an industry and as a province, fishing for a future. We’ll all have to pull together to ensure we don’t let that big prize slip through our fingers again.”
One cannot dismiss both the prophetic nature and irony of those words penned two decades ago. Once again, as in 1997, the industry in Atlantic Canada finds itself on the precipice of major changes.
When The Navigator first hit the streets, harvesters were still in the process of transitioning from the cod fishery, which had sustained this region for centuries, to new, valuable species such as snow crab and Northern shrimp.
Now in present day, things appear to be moving full circle and another resource transition is on the horizon.
No longer can some harvesters can rely primarily on shrimp and crab.
Earlier this year, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) announced a 63 per cent cut to the inshore Northern shrimp quota in Fishing Area 6 — meaning the total allowable catch for SFA 6 went from 48,196 tonnes in 2015 to 27,825 tonnes in 2016, to 10,400 tonnes announced for 2017. This amounted to a 78 per cent quota reduction over two years.
Shortly afterward, in the wake of the extensive cuts to Northern shrimp, DFO announced that the 2017 snow crab total allowable catch (TAC) for the Newfoundland and Labrador Region would be 35,419 tonnes, an overall quota level decrease of approximately 22 per cent from 2016.
Ironically enough, just as shrimp and crab quotas were being cut, last year witnessed the first substantial growth in a Newfoundland northwest coast cod fishery for many years. The 2J3KL fishery moved away from the three-week individual quota (IQ) based system (5,000 pounds round weight per licence holder), to a regime that included an extended season, weekly landing limits of now up to 5,000 pounds, elimination of individual quotas and removal of the requirement to fish within the fishermen’s home bay. In other words, a cod fishery is emerging from the ashes of 1992.
So, what does the future hold for the Atlantic Canadian fishery? How will it look five years from now? How about in a decade or two? Given the change and high and lows witnessed over the last 20 years, one would require more than a high-powered crystal ball to make those predictions. The only constant about this industry is change.
But one thing will be certain — as the fishery moves forward and continues to evolve, The Navigator Magazine will be right there to continue to chronicle the changes for all to see read — now and into the future.
