I have a letter here from one of our members in the Eastern Fishermen's Federation, a well-respected fellow fisherman of ours. It's to his MP, Mr. Greg Thompson. He goes on to say:
Dear Mr. Minister:
Last weekend at our regular meeting of the Eastern Fishermen's Federation...we had your assistant present to hear our concerns regarding the Department of Transport's implementing the new Canadian Shipping Act and the effects it will have on our fishery. Also present was Transport Minister Cannon's assistant. We are trying to be sure that our concerns are getting directly to the people in charge. We had hoped we had achieved that. However, the “wharf telegraph” tells us that our representatives may not get to meet with Minister Cannon at the upcoming meeting of CMAC in Ottawa in November.
We need your help in making sure that our concerns get to the ears of the decision makers.
When I started in this industry over 50 years ago, our concerns were weather and fish availability. Today, added to these are changes and expenses of rules put on us by the DFO. Some years ago, DFO ran short of money—a result of that was downloading responsibilities to us, the fishermen. A virtual “cottage industry” has grown up around the supply of information to DFO that they should be doing themselves. Dockside monitoring companies, people hired to count dead fish, “Hail in, Hail out” expenses carried on the backs of fishermen. “Harbour authorities” and attending expenses are passed on to us with no legal authority to collect said expenses. “Black Boxes”—we each have various electronic devices that tell us where we are when fishing. DFO needs to know also. We pay for the “black box”; we also pay to turn it on and off, plus $80 a month while it is in use. Next year they want us to put on CFV numbers or our names on our lobster buoys. With 300 lobster buoys it is going to take considerable time and some expense to do this, never mind that our buoys are already colour coded. Never mind that the regulation they wish to enforce does not mention our particular fishery. This makes it more convenient for them. It does not do it for us.
Now, along comes Transport Canada. Transport Canada is a much larger department than DFO. Fishery is a small part of Transport and being small sometimes makes it easier to fall through the cracks. On the first going off it was life preservers, flares, life rafts, etc.—things that some fishermen already had—practical things. Next comes MED (Marine Emergency Duties)—two days in a classroom with attendant expenses. One day in a pool to see how a life raft opens and how to get in and out of it. You get a certificate for this—which needs to be updated; medical tests with approved doctors and costs associated; a new radio and a two- or four-day course on how to turn it on and off, etc.
Now comes “Stability Booklets”. I have a vague idea what a stability booklet entails. I know the cost is between $10,000 and $12,000 each. I also know that what I see with my eyes and feel with my feet as the boat goes through the water tells me more what needs to be done than words and graphs in a booklet. We use the word “feel” to describe what our boats are doing while they are under way. We know how they feel when they are “light” (unloaded) and how they feel loaded and every way in between. This is how we fishermen survive. You learn to feel, to be part of your boat and your boat a part of you, and if you don't you don't survive. If you cannot learn that, you do not survive in this business. Most fishermen having a choice will not take a boatload with lobster traps away from the wharf when the wind is blowing—
Two years ago, DFO delayed the opening of the fall lobster fishery due to an unfavourable weather forecast for setting day. I applauded them then, and I applaud them now. That was “common sense” applied. Unfortunately, “common sense” is a coin in short supply when dealing with bureaucracy. Our vessels are divided into different categories, and at first glance, it may seem we would be exempt from some of the proposals. However, up close, it appears in the case of stability booklets, they are aiming at all of us.
I have licences to fish for six species. Due to moratoria, economic affordability, I am down to using two--lobster and scallop. Lobsters, certainly, scallops when economics allow it. Most fishermen are satisfied to take from the resource what they need. I resent it when some bureaucrat with an agenda far different from mine raises the threshold of that need. The only way we can cover increased costs is to kill more fish! Given that stability booklets are recommended for all, at somewhere around $200,000,000 total, I am fearful that there is not that many extra fish in our waters to pay for it.
Mr. Minister, as the Member of Parliament for Charlotte County--an area with a long history in the fishing industry, please help us get this message to the right ears that the Stability Booklets are an expense the industry cannot afford--the purchase price is the sustainability of the stocks. Thank you.
This was written by Allen Abbott. He's the director of the Fundy Weir Fishermen's Association.