Evidence of meeting #113 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was whales.
A recording is available from Parliament.
The Chair Mr. Ken McDonald (Avalon, Lib.)
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our regular fisheries and oceans committee meeting. I want to try to get started as quickly as possible because time is very limited, and I want to try to make sure we get all the statements from everybody who is appearing, both by video conference and here in person, on the record.
First of all I would like to, of course, welcome some new members sitting around the table. On the Conservative side I would like to welcome Ms. Rosemarie Falk to the committee.
Mr. Ken McDonald (Avalon, Lib.)
It's great to see you.
As an observer for now, we have Ms. Karen Ludwig from the Liberal side.
We have witnesses representing various organizations here today. From Association des crabiers acadiens, we have Robert Haché, general manager. From the Fisheries Council of Canada, we have somebody who is no stranger to the committee, of course, Paul Lansbergen, president. From the Grand Manan Fishermen's Association, we have general manager Melanie Sonnenberg and, I believe, project manager Bonnie Morse. From the Maritime Fishermen's Union, we have the president, Carl Allen, and the chief executive officer, Martin Mallet.
By video conference, we have from the Fundy North Fishermen's Association, Maria Recchia, executive adviser, and as well by video conference representing Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels, we have Jean Lanteigne, director general.
Everybody has a presentation to go with, and hopefully they won't take too long so we don't have to miss out on any of the presentations.
With opening remarks, we'll start off with Association des crabiers acadiens and Mr. Haché.
Robert Haché General Manager, Association des crabiers acadiens
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My remarks today represent the position of all partners in New Brunswick's snow crab industry as regards the problem of right whales, including fishermen's and processors' associations.
The fishermen's associations include the Association des crabiers acadiens, the Association des pêcheurs professionnels crabiers acadiens, the Crabiers du Nord-Est, the Maritime Fishermen's Union — my colleague Martin Mallet who is here is one of its representatives — and the Association des transformateurs de produits de la mer du Nouveau-Brunswick.
This position is based on our experience in the snow crab fishery in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2018. It reflects our analysis of the situation and explains how we hope right whales will be managed in 2019. In short, we are hoping for better management of right whales to ensure that the snow crab fishery can operate smoothly, and that the whales are effectively protected in the 2019 season.
We drew a number of lessons from the events in 2018, when we faced major logistical challenges and an extremely difficult fishing season. These events had negative social and economic impacts on our region. In particular, the processing plants had a hard time with the crab catches being unloaded so quickly, which sometimes led to backlogs. In many cases, this shortened the working period for factory workers, thereby reducing their eligibility for employment insurance. That is the most significant negative impact on the fishing industry in 2018.
Last year, we had another problem, when industry members were excluded from the Fisheries and Oceans Canada decision-making process. There was very little communication between that department and the fishing industry from late fall 2017 to the time the decisions were made. This of course seriously undermined the confidence of the fishing community stakeholders.
In making these recommendations to your committee and to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, we hope to encourage real cooperation with the department. Our primary motivation is to achieve peaceful coexistence between right whales and crab fishers.
Not everything was bad in 2018, far from it. Certain management measures that were implemented at the start of the crisis last fall, following good consultations between the department and the industry, were very effective and should be maintained.
The first was setting a common date for the start of the fishing season.
The second was restricting ship speed.
The third was labelling the ropes and buoys, so we can now determine the origin of a rope in which a whale is caught. If the rope is from the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, we can know that now, which is important in managing the situation. In the whole of the Maritimes, however, ropes only have to labelled in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. This is unacceptable to us and we are taking this opportunity to tell you that.
The fourth is the requirement to declare any equipment loss to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. We lose traps every year. Until last spring, however, we were not required to report losses to the department and we do not really make any effort to recover them. This year, the regulation requires us to declare the loss of those traps, and that is a very good step.
The weekly meetings with Fisheries and Oceans Canada during the season are the fifth measure. These meetings have been useful, and we think they should be maintained.
Last but not least is locating and removing the ropes floating in the water. In 2017, there was a very high biomass of crabs in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, leading to a marked increase in fishing, and therefore much greater use of traps. Since this was unplanned, the quality of the ropes used and the way they were laid was not the best. As a result, there were a lot of ropes floating in the water that year, and since whales feed on the surface, they picked up the ropes on their way. So it is extremely important for there to be as few ropes as possible or for them to be vertical in the water.
In addition, in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, it is important to start the fishing season as early as possible in the year. That means freeing the seaports in northern New Brunswick of ice as soon as possible and not opening the fishery until all fishermen and fleets can put out to sea safely. This is problematic because it involves compromise. It would be possible to start fishing earlier in some places than in others, but the important thing to us is for all fishermen to begin the season safely.
The closure areas are managed according to the presence of whales. In 2018, certain areas were closed arbitrarily, when there were clearly no whales to be protected. What we would like going forward is to make sure there is more than one whale in a given area before fishing is closed, which would be a more flexible strategy for managing closure areas.
Whales concentrate in some very important crab fishing areas. Here is what we are dealing with: the whales feed where the crabs are located. So we have to deal with that and try to please everyone. Whales tend to go to certain areas to feed and stay there for several days, if not several weeks. The whales arrive and hunt, looking for the best source and highest concentrations of food. It can take three to five weeks for the whales' movements to stabilize until they find the best place.
These movements can be tracked and used to ensure that the right fishing areas are closed, that is, those where the whales are in need of protection. To this end, we are asking the department to use the additional data gathered in 2018 as soon as possible to model the movements and presence of whales in the gulf this year. Unlike last year, the department now has much more data on the presence and real movements of whales in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. What we would like is for that data to be used to model how and when the whales entered a given area, and what they did there. These models could then be used to verify other possible closure scenarios for 2019.
We believe there is more than one way to manage this effectively, and we have to find a way to verify various hypotheses.
Mr. Ken McDonald (Avalon, Lib.)
We're going to have to cut it off there. We're over time. Hopefully in the questioning round you'll get across any points that you didn't....
I'll remind all witnesses that they can submit a written submission as well.
General Manager, Association des crabiers acadiens
That is essentially it for my presentation.
Mr. Ken McDonald (Avalon, Lib.)
Thank you.
Next up for presentation by video conference is Jean Lanteigne, director general at Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels.
Jean Lanteigne Director General, Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels
First of all, thank you for inviting us here today to provide our suggestions and comments on this very worrisome topic.
Since beluga whales are mostly in the St. Lawrence estuary, which is not a usual fishing area for us, are recommendations do not pertain to that species.
It is very clear to us that the mass movement of whales is attributable to climate change. In our opinion, water temperature and food sources are the two factors accounting for the significant presence of these mammals in the gulf. Given the behaviour of these mammals, any kind of human presence on the water is a risk to them. The easy solution would be to ban all human activity on the water, but we all know that is unrealistic. So we have to find approaches that allow for coexistence.
Marine activities include shipping and the traffic from cruise ships, ferries and pleasure craft. There are also oil extraction activities, and of course commercial and sport fishing.
How do these activities affect the behaviour of each species? We are just beginning to learn that. In 2017, 12 right whales died in Canadian waters. Because two of them died after getting caught in fishing gear, fishermen have taken much of the blame for the possible disappearance of the right whale. No need to look further, dear Watson, we have found the culprits!
It is not that simple though. Why did the other 10 whales die? The committee must learn why those whales died and the results of those necropsies. Without getting into a debate about who did what, let us look closely at what the fishing industy can do.
The first idea is very simple: fish only when there are no whales present. In the early spring, when the ice melts, we fish for snow crab. Can this practice be improved? We say it can. But the government has to want to work with the Coast Guard or private companies to free the fishing ports of ice.
Those opposed to this idea argue that this would entail additional costs. Our position is that it would allow us to stop fishing earlier, which would substantially decrease aerial surveillance costs. The costs would probably be the same in the end, but the possibility of incidents would be significantly reduced.
Mr. Ken McDonald (Avalon, Lib.)
Mr. Lanteigne, the bells have started ringing and the lights are flashing, but to keep going I have to ask for unanimous consent. We will go for a certain amount of time before we have to leave to get back to vote.
Director General, Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels
First, to preserve the economic benefits for each community, a single opening date for everyone must be maintained. Opting for different dates depending on which ports are ice-free would lead fleets to leave their usual home ports.
Second, still with a view to maximizing fishing activities before the right whales arrive, we maintain, as do the other zone 12 crab fishermen's associations, that static or dynamic closure areas should not be imposed before the right whales arrive. While there is room for improvement, the monitoring strategies are effective enough to detect the arrival of the right whales in our fishing areas. Within 96 hours, the fishermen can move their traps to areas where there are no whales.
Third, further study and documentation is needed regarding the coexistence of marine activities—in our case, fishing in the presence of marine mammals. Each species behaves differently in the presence of boats and fishing gear. To allow for this coexistence, we have to train fishermen and educate them about these new realities. In our opinion, there is very little such training at this time, and educational institutions must be encouraged to create such programs. The more fishermen understand the importance of protecting not only marine mammals, but biodiversity in general, the more easily and the more quickly we will secure their cooperation.
Fourth, what would have happened if one or more whales had died this year? Would we have lost our markets? Do we have a plan? Many people applaud the fact that no right whales died this year as a result of the very strict measures taken. In our opinion, we were just very lucky, as we were very unlucky in 2017. We need a real action plan and strategies to deal with a potential incident. In this regard, it is extremely important for Fisheries and Oceans to work quickly with the industry to regain the Marine Stewardship Council certification that was lost this year. That would send a signal to markets that we take the situation seriously, and above all that we have taken corrective measures to retain it. We must have one or more strategies to deal with potential whale mortalities. We cannot simply cross our fingers and hope for the best.
Fifth, we have to look out for fishermen's safety. The measures implemented this year forced some fishermen to change their fishing practices a number of times. Many of them had to move their traps often. You have to understand that the resource at the bottom of the sea is not like vegetables in a garden that grow everywhere equally. In addition to lower catch rates at the start of the season, the inclement spring weather forced fishermen to step up their fishing activities and to work in dangerous conditions. We are lucky there have been no tragedies at sea. Any strategy must consider fishermen's safety, which we consider non-negotiable.
I would like to point out in closing that we endorse the recommendations to be presented later on by our colleagues from the Maritime Fishermen's Union — Mr. Mallet will be making a presentation — and the Association des crabiers acadiens.
Thank you all for giving us this opportunity to submit our ideas and comments.
Colin Fraser West Nova, Lib.
Mr. Chair, in order to make sure we get to the vote on time it's probably a good time to leave it there for now.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
We have guests who have travelled a long way and we've already delayed them.
Mr. Ken McDonald (Avalon, Lib.)
We have no control over that, Mr. Doherty, you know that. There's 22 minutes left before the vote.
Red Deer—Lacombe, CPC
We can hear from one more, and I'd like to hear from somebody at the table not video conferencing, if that's okay.
Mr. Ken McDonald (Avalon, Lib.)
I need unanimous consent to continue.
Do I have unanimous consent?
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
You can have it for one more, yes. Go ahead.
We can hear from somebody at the table.
Mr. Ken McDonald (Avalon, Lib.)
All right.
Next up on my list, of course, is the Fisheries Council of Canada. We have Mr. Paul Lansbergen, whenever you're ready.