Prince Edward Island inshore fishermen got some good news from Ottawa in August as the lobster season in the Northumberland Strait go off to a mixed start.
The good news was that Canadian Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn announced that the boundary line protecting an “exclusion zone” from New Brunswick seiners would stay put.
The boundary line dispute had been settled in PEI’s favor in 2005 by then Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan, but in July New Brunswick Fisheries Minister Rick Doucet had asked Hearn to revisit the decision.
Early In August Hearn replied, “Seiners will not be permitted to fish within the 25-fathom line off the coast of PEI.”
Noting that tensions have arisen between the inshore fishermen and the seiners he said, “In the coming months, I will be calling on all the players to come to a common table to have this discussion. In the interim, I have provided a limited opportunity for seiners in the Baies des Chaleurs and I call on all the fishery to proceed in an orderly fashion. It is only with civility and the common objective of a viable fishery for all that we will be successful in the long term.”
He continued, “I have always been committed to the inshore fleet and I will not waver in that commitment. It has been and will continue to be the core of Canada’s fishery.”
“We appreciate that Minister Hearn continues to enforce the exclusion zone,” said Ed Frenette, executive director of the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA). “However, it’s now time to begin discussions about excluding large seiners from all of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.”
He continued, “The issue here is the future of the inshore fishery, that the technology is too harmful to the future of inshore fishermen and their communities. We feel that these types of technology should not be allowed in the Gulf.”
Frenette added, “Those large vessels are all corporate owned and certainly not operating in the best interests of small fishermen and their communities. This is as much of a cultural issue and resource issue against the whole idea of profit.”
Frenette also said that PEIFA would be working with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia inshore fishermen to develop “a common stand.”
Set day for the Northumberland Strait lobster fishery was scheduled for August 9 but delayed two days because of stormy weather. On the basis of a few days observation Frenette described the landings as “not bad.”
He added on August 15, “Our concern, though, is the price. Right now the guys are going fishing without knowing what they’re going to get paid.”