Good morning everyone.
My name is Lorenzo Méthot. I am secretary of the Association des membres d'équipages des crabiers de la Gaspésie.
I would like to begin by giving you some brief background information about the crab fishery from 1980 to 1989. At the time, there was a great deal of competition. Many crabbers had more traps in the water than what was authorized by the legislation. Some traps stayed in the water over the winter and the fishers would recover them in the spring, in order to have more traps to fish. That was the case until 1989, when the crab catch fell, because the fishing harbour was too big. I am not telling you anything you do not already know. This is just some background information.
In 1990, in order to open up the fishery, DFO decided there would be individual quotas for each boat, so that the crab stock could be rebuilt; this was the case until about 1996. After that, the Asian markets started demanding a better quality of crab. As a result, companies wanted better quality crab. For most of the fleet, this was the beginning of the practice of grading and dumping different categories of commercial crab.
A little later, the First Nations entered zone 12 with additional cash that allowed them to purchase boat licences. In order to integrate aboriginal fishers into the fishing system, several traditional fisher helpers were laid off and received no assistance from the federal government. After that, the fact that non-traditional fishers were able to secure crab allocations in zone 12 resulted in a surplus number of traps, which is why we are at the same point now that we were in 1989.
There is also the white crab fishery until July. At every meeting we have held, we have always said we want that fishery to be closed at the end of June, but they have never wanted to do that. Throughout the last decade, DFO has allowed Aboriginal fishers to continue to harvest fish until the end of July. In 2010, coming at the same time as reduced quotas, that was the last straw. With the blessing of the same troublesome party, the transfer of quotas to other boats once again led to many crew members being laid off and several boats remaining in drydock, where they are likely to stay.
After the fishery opened in 2010—there is white crab this year—four weeks passed before the fishing areas were closed. According to crew members, the significant decline in the resource is due to excessive fishing effort, too many people, too many traps and too much white crab fishing.
Nowadays, with the new boats and the new so-called Japanese cages, fishers harvest three to four times more than was the case before, in the traditional fishery. In my view that has not been considered.