According to Fisheries Ministry the landed value of Newfoundland and Labrador’s fishery reached some $500-million in 2007. There was an increase of 6.2 percent in snow crab landings created a 70 percent surge in the crab fishery’s value to harvesters. Shrimp landings reached over 6.8 percent with modest price increases.
Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout said in a statement that the authority has places a great deal of focus on addressing the issues in the industry. But David Cassell, owner of the 65-foot dragger Ocean’s Friend thinks that there is nothing so rosy about it because the fishermen get little money. He informed the condition has become so worst that they have to drive away their crews.
Cassell said that the fishermen asked not to ship product off the Island. He added that the fishermen are on a rock with half a dozen buyers that have banded together to down the price of our raw material. Fishermen have been asking the province to allow them to sell their product out of province for decades.
Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ (FFAW) union president Earle McCurdy sound different regarding the selling product out of province. He argued that outside buyers will wipe out the plant workers jobs so the fishermen shouldn’t bear the cost of the policy. He suggested that government should fund a licence-buyout programme so that some fishermen could get out and the remaining would get larger quotas.
