Evidence of meeting #56 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 mpas.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Thank you.
Either Mr. Jenkins or Mr. MacPherson, do you feel that these protected areas could play a role in helping certain depleted marine species and populations recover?
10:15 a.m.
President, Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association
Yes, I believe it probably will. For the scallop buffer zones that were implemented in 1997, part of the reason we did that in 1997 was to protect habitat for lobster, rock crab, and things like that.
Yes, it will help, but the big thing we're very concerned about right now is that if we're going to do marine protected areas, we don't want the displacement of fishers. If there's displacement of 10, 15, or 20 fishermen, they have to go someplace else to make a living. That's the number one thing on our radar right now.
There is an impact from the seals that are in the gulf and the strait right now, and nobody seems to want to address that.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Okay. Thank you.
In my short time, I think I will move to ask Mr. Nickerson a question about the Fisheries Act.
Were you consulted on the Fisheries Act changes?
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
That's a pretty important piece of legislation, and you weren't consulted on that.
10:15 a.m.
Fish harvester, As an Individual
No. Again, we're a small business. For something like that, obviously you have to be up to date in your affairs, but again, being a small business, it's difficult to arrange that in your schedule. That requires people reaching out to us, not us reaching out to them.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Absolutely.
You also mentioned, I think, that your company started in about 1988.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
If we're not to protect areas, what would you recommend to avoid...? I think we could call the northern cod crash a disaster. It affected thousands of lives and families. How do we avert those sorts of disasters if we don't use protection?
10:15 a.m.
Fish harvester, As an Individual
Again, as I mentioned for our EA licence, we are the sole harvesters of the red crab. It's in my own best interests to protect myself. I could go out, take five vessels, and demolish the population in one year if I wanted to, which was already done 20 years ago with the red crab fishery. Over 20 years, now that the crab fishery has rebounded, I know that I have to make sustainable efforts in prolonging the fishery as long as I can. That takes stakeholders to identify what's important in the fishery—science and information.
10:20 a.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
You're saying that there are certain methods and management techniques that are important for particular areas.
10:20 a.m.
Fish harvester, As an Individual
That's right. Each person, each stakeholder, has their own needs and their own reasons for protecting their fishery. You can't just quantify everybody together and say “this will fit everybody”. It's not like that. It's a jigsaw puzzle.
10:20 a.m.
NDP
10:20 a.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Okay. How much do you think is enough in terms of how the government has set these goals for Canada of 5% and 10% of their oceans?
10:20 a.m.
Fish harvester, As an Individual
Again, I can't comment on that. The only thing I can comment on is that for my competitor to the south of me, the Atlantic Red Crab Company out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, their fishing grounds were revoked from them. All of a sudden, he was out of business. Now they're in legislation to try to get back their fishing grounds. It looks like they will be successful.
10:20 a.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
I was going to ask if our P.E.I. Fishermen's Association felt that the 5% and 10% targets were adequate.
Would you look at increasing those targets? Is there a point where there's too much protection?
10:20 a.m.
Executive Director, Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association
I think the key is that we don't know the parameters of how they're assessed. Again, I'll go back to a point we made earlier. If conditions change within an MPA, is there going to be flexibility to relocate some of those zones for the best outcome for the fishery?
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
April 11th, 2017 / 10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Bernadette Jordan Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I hope to share my time with Mr. Finnigan.
First of all, before I go to questions, I would like to remind committee members that rules of the House apply to rules of committee, which means that you cannot acknowledge people in the balcony or gallery who are here just as observers. I would just like to put that on the record.
Mr. Nickerson, because you've had to move your fishery, the red crab fishery, have you been able to compensate? Is there another area where you're able to fish that produces the same type of fishery you had before the benthic area was addressed?
10:20 a.m.
Fish harvester, As an Individual
Again, at that time we looked at a 50% cut in our fishing area.
Since we spent the last summer moving around and doing more science, we've been able to find a bit more crab. We're finding crab in areas where, historically, there was never crab before. Of course, this one was not so bad. We were able to justify being able to keep fishing. What will come in the future is definitely the scariest part for us.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Bernadette Jordan Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you.
Mr. LeBlanc, one of the things I've heard consistently throughout all of the studies that we've done is that there's a lack of trust between DFO and the industry. I'm just wondering how we address that. It seems like such a huge problem. It's something that nobody seems to want to tackle, yet it's something that you've talked about quite a bit. How do we work towards building that trust back between DFO and the fishing industry?
