Evidence of meeting #16 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was commercial.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Once all the crabs have been weighed, if you decide to take some of them for your own consumption or for other people, are you able to do so? Is there a procedure for doing this?
President, Association des crabiers acadiens
Once the catch has been unloaded from the boat, it is impossible to take any crab.
President, Association des crabiers acadiens
If we want some crab, we have to say so before it gets weighed.
Liberal
President, Association des crabiers acadiens
The deduction is noted in my log book.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I know we are touching on this topic quickly and briefly, but would you say that illegal landings are much harder to undertake in the crab industry than in the lobster industry?
Director general, Association des crabiers acadiens
It's a bit of a double standard. When the landings are not weighed at the dock, you can go to two different docks and there will be two different weigh-ins to get around it one way or another. That's the case with lobster fishing. With crab fishing, it's very limited. Any illegal landings really have to be done outside the designated docks or by some other means.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
In your industry, among your traditional harvesters, have any of your harvesters ever been caught making illegal landings? Has this ever happened?
Director general, Association des crabiers acadiens
Not to my knowledge. There have been cases of three or four crabs being taken, but not large quantities. It was not a major issue and it really is a small minority. With the penalties currently in place, there's no possibility of that happening.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I only have six minutes of speaking time, but I will come back to this subject later and ask you the question again.
Do you think the fines are high enough when someone is caught with crab, lobster, or anything else? Do you think these fines are high enough to deter people from doing it again?
Director general, Association des crabiers acadiens
Not at all. The impact of illegal landings on the stock is truly harmful in the long term. Illegal landings affect the reproductive capacity of the stock and future recruitment. Every crab removed from the population is a crab that will not be able to reproduce. Snow crabs reproduce in December, with moulting in February and March. When illegal activity occurs and large spawners are removed from the crab population in addition to the allocated quota, the stock is over-harvested. In the long term, this results in reduced recruitment and genetic weakening of the stock.
Liberal
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, everyone. I want to thank the witnesses who travelled here, as well as those joining us remotely.
Mr. Vacher, I want to advantage of your observations, because you are a crab and lobster fisherman in the Sept-Îles sector, and you were a fisheries officer for seven or eight years. When you go to sea, do you see any illegal fishing?
Commercial Fisherman, As an Individual
I regularly see illegal lobster fishing. It's common.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
What do you do when you see it?
Commercial Fisherman, As an Individual
I often report illegal fishing to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. I have called fisheries officers to tell them that so-and-so is out there in such-and-such a boat. Quite often, I know the person's name. I simply report them.
The only time fisheries officers intervened was in the case of a person who did not have indigenous status. Most of the people who do this are people who have indigenous status. They are not necessarily associated with a band council. They do not live in an indigenous community. It's not fishing—
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
How do you know they are not associated with the band council? What checks are you doing to determine this?
Commercial Fisherman, As an Individual
I call the director of indigenous fisheries in my region and ask him if a certain person is fishing for food for him, and he tells me that he doesn't even know that person, that they do not fall under his band council's jurisdiction.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Once the band council informs you that these fishermen are not authorized, you contact the fisheries officers. What happens next?
Commercial Fisherman, As an Individual
Quite simply, no action is taken, no investigations are being conducted, and fisheries officers are leaving the case closed, as if we had not filed a complaint.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Do they tell you why they are not intervening?
Commercial Fisherman, As an Individual
There are often reasons. I asked this question at the lobster advisory committee's most recent meeting, and the fisheries officer told me they had limited resources and they were therefore unable to work on all the files.
