Evidence of meeting #5 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was information.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have quick questions here. What happens to the fish? Of the herring that are harvested and used for roe, what happens to the remainder of the fish? Does it go to other uses?
9:35 a.m.
Acting Regional Director, Resource Management and Aboriginal Fisheries Branch, Gulf Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I have part of an answer. The carcasses that are left over are used sometimes for bait, frozen for bait, or they're sent to fish meal plants.
9:35 a.m.
Acting Regional Director, Resource Management and Aboriginal Fisheries Branch, Gulf Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
That's right. Yes.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
9:35 a.m.
Acting Regional Director, Resource Management and Aboriginal Fisheries Branch, Gulf Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I can't answer that question.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Could we get that answer for the committee, please—not necessarily today, but provided back to us for the study? I think that's a key component. If they're simply being sent for fish meal when they could be better used for bait, we need to look at what's happening with the supply chain.
Recently the MSC certification for herring on the international market was voluntarily given up by Canada because of the state of the stocks. What effect is that going to have on the value of the stocks that are being marketed when they lose that certification? It troubles me to see that this stock has just continued to decline, yet we see no sound efforts to rebuild it.
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Fisheries Resource Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I would start by saying that the decision as to whether or not to seek an eco-certification is one taken by industry, and a variety of factors play into that. Depending on where harvesters or exporters are sending a particular product, there is more or less dependence on eco-certification. Suspending or not seeking eco-certification has varying degrees of impact depending on the market, and it can sometimes be a commercial decision to no longer pursue that because of costs associated with maintaining that certification. If the market to which you're exporting doesn't really require it, then there can be commercial reasons for not seeking it.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
There must be negative effects on the value of the export without that certification.
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Fisheries Resource Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Again, there are certain markets where this has no impact at all.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
But there must be markets that we were selling to that require it, I would assume.
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Fisheries Resource Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I don't know the specifics.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Wow. Okay.
One of you mentioned that there are no limits on the seal harvest, so there's no restriction on the number that could be taken, but we know that there is a limited market because of the European ban on seal products for no ecological reason. It's simply for a social reason that the market has been shut down.
Is the department working on any sort of an education plan to remove that European ban on seal products?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Fisheries Resource Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Certainly that is an ongoing issue. There are—
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
We're hearing so much about ongoing issues and ongoing science. With all due respect, I see members around the room rolling their eyes. What is actually being done in concrete steps?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Fisheries Resource Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I can't speak to that. My part of the department is not engaged in market access.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Who could we bring in who could speak to those aspects?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Fisheries Resource Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
The department could identify someone who could do that.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
I'm going to go back to some of the questions that were provided to us by the analysts.
What factors can explain the lack of stock rebuilding despite reduced fishing pressures? Why isn't the stock coming back? You reduced fishing pressures and you think that's the biggest cause, so you've taken that step. Why aren't they coming back? Is it too much of a precautionary principle being applied and you're not able to experiment with other opportunities?
9:35 a.m.
Manager, Population Ecology Division, Maritimes Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
To date, science has not identified a single issue that would explain that result. There are a number of things that come into play.
There is continued harvest, so there are continued removals both in the commercial fishery and in the bait fishery.
Then there's a second aspect, and that's the productivity aspect of the population itself, the ability of herring stocks to rebound on their own. We have seen relatively low recruitment of new individuals coming into the population. We've seen low individual growth. In fact, in southwest Nova Scotia and the Scotian Shelf, the Gulf of Maine and the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, we've seen some of the lowest growth rates in our time series.
If you think about it from first principles, if animals are growing more slowly, they're taking longer to age, and they're not producing as many young. It's possible that the overall ability of the populations to replace themselves is lower than it has been in the past.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
That's pretty obvious, but what are they feeding on—
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Mr. Arnold. You are way over time.
Mr. Cormier, you have five minutes or less, please.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Thank you. I'll speak in English or French.
When I think of that fishery, I think of my father, who was a fisherman all his life. I even had the chance to fish with him on his boat.
I have two questions about the stocks.
What was last year's quota for area 16B, in my region? Was it met?
9:40 a.m.
Acting Regional Director, Resource Management and Aboriginal Fisheries Branch, Gulf Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
If we're talking about the spring spawners—
9:40 a.m.
Liberal