Evidence of meeting #27 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 fish.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Yes, you referenced it. That's why I want you to elaborate more on it. Things were going well, in your words, and then you mentioned the problem was from a management-induced issue.
Fisherman, As an Individual
When you add capacity to a fishery and have the capability to catch more fish, it's obvious that something is going to happen if you don't want to add more eggs. That stands to reason with any fishery. If it was a lobster fishery and you add more licenses, you have to add more recruitment somehow. Am I correct?
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
In the time I have left, could you give your opinion to the committee on this? You referenced that going forward, we need responsible management practices. How would you describe a responsible management practice? I would like your opinion about the spring herring as well as the mackerel.
Fisherman, As an Individual
We can't repeat what we did. It's plain and simple.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Expand a bit more about repeating what we did. What did we do? What went wrong?
Fisherman, As an Individual
Let's go with the mackerel. There was never a closure in the mackerel until there was added effort. When you add effort, all of a sudden the TAC is.... Well, the TAC wasn't being met before either, so maybe it was science. I don't know what caused it.
When we started catching the TAC, things went to pieces. We weren't seeing the fish coming back to the spawning grounds. We've seen it. I was probably one of the first to see it. As a gillnetter, we're the first to see the reduction. We're also going to be the first to see the improvements.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
Mr. Morrissey, I'm afraid I have to jump in here because we're past time. There will be another opportunity to ask questions.
Mr. Deschênes, you have the floor for six minutes.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon to all my colleagues.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here.
Mr. Collin, we'll talk about the future together, but I just want to look back for a moment, to the 2022 moratorium, which was announced at the last minute and which, of course, put the members of your association in a hell of a tough spot.
Later on, in February 2023, the chair of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans sent a letter to the then minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. That letter suggested to him that when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans orders a complete closure of a fishery, it should negotiate a financial compensation package or other equivalent supports for fishers whose incomes depend entirely on that fishery.
Have you, the Regroupement and the fishers you represent been contacted since 2023 to talk about financial compensation of that kind?
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
No, we were completely ignored.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
You did have meetings recently with regional directors of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, didn't you?
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
Yes, but like they're telling us, they're merely the messengers. They don't make any decisions, they send our requests higher up and then they provide us with their answers.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
There's never been any openness to financial compensation.
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
No, there's never been.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
We're going to talk about mackerel. You say that your fleet should have priority when new emerging fisheries are opened. What do you mean by that?
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
What I'm saying is that we deserve to fish. Those fishers deserve to fish. We were pushed aside for virtually no reason. We don't know why.
There's no doubt that, if it's possible to put these fishers back on the water, they're ready to go. The boats are there. These jobs were lost in a region that's already very poor. So we're going to do everything we can to get those jobs back.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
What kind of state are your members in? How are they doing?
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
After five years without pay, five years with no income in a business, they have to rebuild everything. They've lost their crew and their expertise, they've lost their deckhands who work with nets. Working with nets is the most dangerous part of fishing. So they're going to have to start over. If they don't get back on the water, they lose the expertise too. If the fishery reopens one day, who will fish with nets? That expertise will vanish if they don't get back on the water.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
You also made another suggestion, that a commercial mackerel fishery be reopened, but in a regulated manner. Explain to us what you mean.
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
A commercial fishery doesn't mean we're harvesting large amounts of fish. It can be amounts similar to those in the bait fishery. When we talk about a commercial fishery, it's just that it's already structured. We already have invitations to participate, ELOGS, catches and dockside weighing. If scientists want to have fish, they're given fish right on the dock. Commercial fishing is really the only way to get data. That doesn't mean that we're overfishing and catching large commercial quantities. For the government, it's a different type of fishery, but it's the only fishery where you can get scientific data.
You can ask anyone, but there was never any scientific data on the bait fishery last year. The sampling is really not good at the outset. People who are at all involved in science and academia know that when sampling isn't good at the outset, there's no point in going any further, since the study is completely flawed.
As was said earlier, the studies were done in the middle of Chaleur Bay by 15 fishers. We wanted to get an idea of the Atlantic with the large seiners, because there were observers at sea on those boats. Two groups of fishers were used, namely fishers in Chaleur Bay and fishers in Newfoundland and Labrador, to draw a picture. It's incredible. It's not scientific. For a skewed science job like that, you'd get zero as a mark. Literally a zero, nothing more.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Are any of your members currently making observations?
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
Yes. I managed to assign some of our members to two projects to gather data. However, it comes from the Atlantic. Quebec hasn't done any research projects. So we're going through New Brunswick, because fishers were needed in northern New Brunswick. It turns out I was able to assign two fishers to those projects. To them, the quantity is there. I was on the water all summer too.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Mr. Collin, what do you mean by “the quantity is there”? What is the data saying?
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
With our tools and fish finders, we're able to see mackerel. Right now, when you leave any dock, anywhere, at any time, you can put your line in the water and pick up fish, I guarantee you.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
When you say “any dock”, what area are you talking about?