Canadian Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn came away from the September annual meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) with major reforms that some media reports described as having “teeth.”
At issue during the session in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, was the problem of foreign overfishing on the Grand Banks, and media reports also had Hearn threatening to walk if serious enforcement changes weren’t made.
DFO spokesman Steve Outhouse declined to go that far, but he said, “The Minister instructed his officials that Canada was not prepared to accept anything less than a revolutionary overhaul of NAFO practices that would actually clamp down on illegal fishing. Because that new arrangement was reached, it’s not really useful to speculate as to what we would have done if changes hadn’t been made.”
Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW), based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, has often called NAFO ineffective and “toothless.” Of the reforms he said, “We’ll have to wait and see how it works out in action. Certainly, the overall outcome was positive.”
He added, “Actually, the most positive development was when the federal government invested serious money into surveillance vessels.”
At the close of the meeting Hearn said, “I am pleased to announce that NAFO will finally have tools to deal with those who jeopardize the health of the stocks, for short-term profit.”
He continued, “While there will always be room for improvement, these changes go a long way towards giving NAFO the teeth it needs to fight overfishing. The proof of political will on the part of Canada and our international partners will be evident in the coming months as we implement these changes.”
According to information provided by DFO, the NAFO changes include: