A territorial dispute between inshore fishermen from Prince Edward Island and herring seiners from New Brunswick has continued from last season to this. And a compromise introduced this season by Canadian Fisheries and Oceans Minister Geoff Regan has satisfied no one.
P.E.I. fishermen maintain that the seiners are being allowed to fish too close to the island’s shorelines and are imperiling not only herring stocks but other stocks including lobster. The New Brunswick seiners maintain that they are simply exercising their right to fish under the federal government compromise. They also say that the herring stocks are healthy enough to allow them to use purse seines.
By mid-November, with the season winding down as the herring moved away, there was no blockade of New Brunswick trucks carrying fish, and there were no reports of violence or arrests – unlike last season, which featured all three.
However, New Brunswick fishermen were refused groceries or fuel service at Souris, so New Brunswick Fisheries Minister David Alward attempted to bring food overland to the fishermen. He was asked to turn back by RCMP officers who feared an increase in tension at the Souris wharf. There were reports that New Brunswick truckers arriving to load fish were bringing food as well.
On the Prince Edward Island side Premier Pat Binns announced that the provincial government was commencing legal action against the Government of Canada “to seek a resolution to a number of outstanding fisheries disputes. The disputes relate to not only the herring seiner boundary line, but also to the unfair and inequitable allocation of a number of fisheries species including Bluefin tuna, snow crab and gulf and northern shrimp. ”
As part of the announced compromise Fisheries Minister Regan did move the line farther offshore — but not far enough according to Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association spokesman and herring representative Terry Carter, himself a fisherman.
“We were hoping that he’d move the line back to where it was originally before the mistake,” Carter said. “You know, with the agreement signed in the 80s, the fish were wiped out. Then the stock began to come back. Now, it’s being wiped out again.”
No representative of the seiners could be reached, but Robert Hache, formerly a spokesman for the Gulf Seiners Association and now a fisheries consultant based in Bathurst, New Brunswick, couldn’t disagree more.
“The herring stocks are healthy,” Hache said, and he called Regan’s compromise measure “meddling.” He added, “Nobody has gained anything [by Regan’s move],” and he blamed the difficulties on “partisan politics over what’s right for the fishery.”
One politician he did have praise for was Alward, the New Brunswick minister. “He tried to do the honorable thing, and I admire his courage,” Hache said.