The Harper Conservatives have opened the door to allowing direct commercial turbot fishing – a move that would present serious conservations issues while pitting fishermen and provinces against each other, Liberal Fisheries Critic Gerry Byrne and Quebec MP Denis Coderre said today.
“It’s troubling that the Harper Conservatives are looking at allowing a directed fishery for turbot, something that has always been an essential bycatch allowance for the otter trawl fleet,” said Mr. Byrne.
“If this is allowed to happen, 450 tonnes of turbot would no longer be available for bycatch by the otter trawl fleet when it conducts directed fisheries for shrimp and certain other groundfish species. Where would the bycatch for these other fisheries come from if it is being used as a directed fishery? More fish would have to come out of the water and that would be a serious conservation issue.”
The MPs were reacting to the fact that Conservative Fisheries Minister Gail Shea has refused to deny that otter trawlers, or draggers, will be allowed in the region’s Greenland Halibut, or turbot, fishery this year.
Fixed gear fishermen, already struggling because of the economic downturn, are particularly concerned that the minister is about to change the previous and longstanding arrangements that allow turbot to be caught by the otter trawl fleet but only as a bycatch in other fisheries. Turbot has never been subject to a directed fishery.
“It’s absurd to think that when we’re experiencing the worst economic crisis in a generation, Minister Shea thinks it’s a good time to throw the industry into chaos by pitting fleet against fleet and province against province in terms of having to renegotiate historical share arrangements,” said Mr. Coderre.
“That is exactly where this would go, and with just 450 tonnes to spread throughout an east coast fleet otter trawl fleet of this size, the benefits to any one stakeholder would be marginal while the costs to the industry would be monumental.”
The Liberal Party of Canada is asking minister Shea not to create such unnecessary divisions in the fishery at this time and to protect conservation efforts by limiting any new capacity from entering as a directed fishery.
“We should be fostering greater partnership among fleets and provinces, not creating the circumstances of unnecessary conflicts between them,” said Mr. Byrne.
