Fishery Products International (FPI) Ltd. in May announced the layoff of 600 workers at its flounder processing plant in Marystown, Newfoundland. The move came only days after provincial Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Gerry Reid had expressed misgivings about FPI’s commitment to processing all its fish within the province.
The action was described as a “voluntary withdrawal from harvesting yellowtail flounder” because of an especially high bycatch of American plaice, currently under a Canadian federal moratorium, according to company CEO Derrick Rowe. FPI’s action closes the fishery five weeks ahead of schedule.
The impact on the area is “devastating,” said Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union. “This was quite a blow. When 600 people get pink slips, everybody gets very worried.” He added that the difficulty is compounded by the fact that the flounder fishery is closed during the summer months for spawning. The fishery is scheduled to reopen in September.
“With this kind of fishery, it’s virtually impossible to avoid a bycatch of American plaice, small as it might be, when you’re fishing fo0r yellowtail flounder,” McCurdy said. “The plaice bycatch needs to be increased, even if it’s only a fraction of what it used to be, so that a reasonable fishery can take place. The more plaice there are and the more widespread they are, the harder they are to avoid.”
“Of course we will want to get back on the water as soon as possible with the least amount of disruption to our operations, to our employees and to our customers,” said FPI’s Rowe. “However, we have made a collective decision to do the right thing on a timely basis. Even though our crews are seeing relatively high levels of American plaice this year, it is still a species that is under moratorium, and above all, we must ensure that we are in compliance with conservation measures.”
“What makes this so frustrating,” countered McCurdy, “is that we’re not allowed to fish because there’s too much fish.”