Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today. I'm here representing the members of the Fundy North Fishermen's Association. Our members fish primarily for lobster, scallops, herring and halibut in the Bay of Fundy.
First I want to talk about our experience with ghost gear. In our region, it is rare to see an endangered whale during our lobster season. For us, the major threat to these whales is ghost gear. That's gear that has been lost and is therefore present in the waters during the summer and fall when the whales are present.
Fundy North has been retrieving and working to minimize the creation of ghost gear for over 10 years in our region. We collect information on where gear has been lost, retrieve it using large grapples, and reuse, repurpose and recycle what we find. We also collect end-of-life fishing gear from our members, give traps to landscapers to build retaining walls, and rope and nets to crafters and recyclers.
We have spent a huge amount of time educating neighbouring industries about how to avoid destroying lobster gear. These industries include the shipping industry, the salmon aquaculture industry and tourism. Together we have developed protocols and legal agreements to govern how we work together on the water to prevent the creation of ghost gear. Although we have had many successes, these industries have little incentive to follow the agreed-to protocols.
When ghost gear entangles a whale, it is seen as the fault of the fishing industry. Although the fishing industry is at fault for some gear loss, we bear the blame for the entire ghost gear problem. If we are ever to adequately deal with this, we need DFO to work with us to reduce or eliminate gear loss from neighbouring industries.
To date, we have been alone in trying to convince these industries to do the right thing. We have protocols in place, but when they are not followed, there are no repercussions. We submit compensation claims to the companies, but they are never paid. We need government's help with this if we are ever to be successful.
We are also trying to set up an ongoing fund for ghost gear retrieval, with contributions from the fishing industry and these neighbouring industries. It would be great if government could assist us in managing this fund, and perhaps match the funds that we raise. The money would be used to build grapples, and to pay fishermen to retrieve large snarls of ghost gear, which is a very dangerous and highly skilled job.
I also want to say a few words about data collection on gear loss. It is now mandatory for fishermen to report all lost gear to DFO. While this is an admirable initiative, there are some serious problems with this protocol.
Firstly, there is no mechanism to report lost gear that has been retrieved. In our region, fishermen lose gear during the fishing season, but most of that is recovered. Much is found during scallop fishing and returned to the owners. Believe it or not, it is illegal for scallop fishermen to bring the found lobster traps ashore. They do it anyway, because it's the right thing to do.
We also have a program where fishermen can retrieve their own lost gear just after the season ends, if they register with our association and communicate with our local C and P officers. We also do targeted cleanups of ghost gear hot spots, periodically. The vast majority of our lost gear is retrieved within six months in our district, but DFO is only collecting numbers on gear that is lost. This will artificially inflate the ghost gear problem and gives us a further blemish on the world stage.
There are already inflated ghost gear estimates in the public view. For example, an ENGO from Nova Scotia did a study estimating the magnitude of the ghost gear problem. They used data on replacement lobster tags. They made the assumption that every replacement lobster tag was a lost trap and came up with an obscenely high number of annual gear loss.
What they did not realize was that fishermen request replacement tags for many different reasons. They may be moving into deeper water mid-season, and instead of taking the time to re-rig traps with longer ropes, they get new tags and switch to other traps already rigged with longer lines; or they may get new gear between the spring and fall season. The vast majority of replacement tags are not because of lost gear.
If we are going to collect data on this, it must be good data that represents the situation; otherwise, we will only damage our reputation and potentially our markets.
As a final word on box closures, around 2010 a very unusual event occurred here. We had two right whales in our district just before the start of our fall lobster fishery. Luckily, they moved out before the season began, but we were told that if they did not move out, the start of our lobster season and that of the neighbouring district would be delayed.
In this instance DFO was considering closing two lobster fishing districts to protect two whales. The box closures are much preferable to this, but they must be done appropriately and effectively. There is no reason to impact the fishing industry if the measure is not helping to protect the whale. This can only be achieved by working closely together with the fishing industry.
In my opinion, Canada and the Canadian fishing industry have done an awful lot to protect endangered whales and should be commended for it. We can always do better, but that will only be achieved if we work together on solutions that make sense.
Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today.