Evidence of meeting #36 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 year.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Central Newfoundland, NL
Why can't you speak to it? You're the director of science.
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
My role is to advise the minister through the best science available based on scientific data collected in the water and so on. It's not based on any policies or assumptions for the decision in terms of the management—
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Central Newfoundland, NL
How can the American science vary so drastically, when it comes to Atlantic mackerel, from the science of Canada? How can there be such an offset?
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
It's because the Americans are doing overall assessments for two different components, which isn't the same as in Canada, where we assess only the northern component. In fact, the Americans have used our Canadian data for their assessments. The difference between the two is that they look at the overall mackerel, both the northern and southern—
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Central Newfoundland, NL
Are the Americans fishing the northern component right now?
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
They're fishing mostly the southern component, which is the one that has seen signs of improvement recently. They are fishing a portion of the northern component as well right now. That's part of the science advice to come. We'll do projections based on different assumptions on the rate of—
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Central Newfoundland, NL
Are you certain where the mackerel that migrate through Canadian waters overwinter?
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
That's part of the uncertainty for the science advice. When we give advice, we use a range of hypotheses explicitly to account for the fact that, right now, we don't have the right tools to be able to separate the fish—
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you. I think we're coming to closing this session.
Did you finish what you had to say, Mr. Vigneault?
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Just quickly, it's ongoing research. To date, we have not been able to develop the genetic and analytical tools that will help us separate the fish on U.S. grounds.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you.
I now go to Mr. Klassen for the Liberals for five minutes, please.
Liberal
Ernie Klassen Liberal South Surrey—White Rock, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for being present here with us today.
Mr. Davis, there was, as you know, a lot of talk around fishers in 2025 and the overabundance of a return, which was unprecedented from my understanding. You talked about organizations that were involved in the decision-making process, in-season especially, and I'm wondering what factors are considered when making those decisions.
Regional Director, Fisheries Management Branch, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Thank you for the question.
I'm going to work with the assumption that we're talking again about Fraser sockeye here and the in-season process associated with that fishery, but please correct me if I'm off base.
In terms of factors that would go into considering what kinds of fishing opportunities we provide, first and foremost, our job is meeting our conservation objectives. I mentioned that we develop an escapement plan each year for Fraser sockeye. That escapement plan will define what our conservation objectives are and how much of each management unit for Fraser sockeye we're attempting to get back to the spawning grounds. Once we can assess what kinds of choices might support our conservation objectives, we would also be considering the priority of providing opportunity for first nations food, social and ceremonial fisheries and then also providing commercial and recreational opportunities.
The other thing I'll mention is that this is a fishery that's managed under the auspices of the Pacific Salmon Treaty, so another consideration is how we manage in a way that is consistent with the treaty in terms of providing opportunities for both Canada and U.S. harvesters.
Then one other thing is that, particularly when it comes to in-river fisheries, we're conscious of the fact that, number one, we want to manage the rate at which catch is happening when we know that catch will need to be constrained. If, for example, we had all fisheries opened at once, the rate of catch might be something higher than we think would be appropriate to ensure that we don't overshoot the allowable catches we set.
Number two, [Technical difficulty—Editor] there are some operational and practical constraints of having [Technical difficulty—Editor] open at once in a constrained waterway. We often assess some kind of sequencing of the opening so that each sector, when it has an opportunity, can effectively undertake its opportunity without interference or the potential for conflict with other sectors on the river.
Those would be examples of some factors that we would consider.
Liberal
Ernie Klassen Liberal South Surrey—White Rock, BC
I have a second question that's not really related to that but related to the salmon run of the Fraser River. I have a lot of colleagues who have raised the issue of dredging. Does that have an impact on the opening and closing of the season?
Regional Director, Fisheries Management Branch, Pacific Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
There is dredging that can occur in the Fraser River. In considering when dredging would happen, part of that is assessing when it is best to avoid or reduce, to the greatest extent possible, impacts on fish and fish habitat so that we are doing our best to mitigate any negative implications for fish or for fisheries.
Liberal
Ernie Klassen Liberal South Surrey—White Rock, BC
Thank you.
Mr. Vigneault, our government recently announced a move to increase mass marking for hatchery-raised salmon. This has been a major ask from the recreational fishery in B.C.
How will this impact sport and recreational fishing, as well as the opening season and the tourism sector in B.C.?
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Yes, mass marking is a tool to enable selective fisheries. It's used to a small extent now in southern B.C. and the ongoing science work to look at the details of the interception in areas that have ongoing mark-selective fishing or where it is proposed, like in Owen Sound, as we discussed. All that science work will support a decision to enable larger access of mark-selective fisheries.
The other component of it is to have the science and capacity to mark the fish, because having a large proportion of the aquaculture fish marked depends on that capacity. It allows the opportunity for the mark-selective fishery. It allows records to be kept for whether targeted fish are kept, which are those raised from the hatchery, or are put back in the water, like the salmon stocks that we want to protect.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much, Mr. Vigneault.
I now go to Mr. Champoux.
You have the floor for two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Williams, we ran out of time earlier, so you weren't able to answer my question. I was talking about the possibility of setting an opening date earlier, as requested by gulf crab harvesters.
If we had a fixed opening date decided in advance, would DFO and the Coast Guard be able to work with that? They would know the fishery opens on that date, so they would take the necessary measures and make the necessary equipment, such as icebreakers and so on, available to ensure access.
We don't control the science. Obviously, we don't control the water temperature. Lots of different factors come into play. From a logistical standpoint, if the opening of the fishery was planned for a fixed, specific and predetermined date, would that be feasible and would it enable folks to anticipate the kind of problems that came up this year?
Senior Director, Resource Management - Operations, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Thank you for your question.
Indeed, many of the dates that we have, not only for snow crab in the gulf but also for most fisheries that we manage, have set season dates, which are agreed to in advance and don't vary from year to year. There are others that are open all year long, through regulation, and then the regional director general of that region can vary, through a variation order, the opening date or closing date, based on the conditions at the time and in consultation with harvesters.
The short answer is yes, absolutely, and in most cases, we do that.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
It seems like it's an equipment problem at this point.
Do you think something will be done this year to ensure that people don't find themselves in the same situation next year?
It seemed like there were equipment issues. It just wasn't where it was supposed to be so the fishery could be opened on the scheduled date.
Is this going to happen again? Are people looking at concrete measures to prevent this as of next year?
Liberal
Senior Director, Resource Management - Operations, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Thank you.
Indeed, we look at this in advance of the season and study it after the season—if there have been issues—to try to make sure equipment is available so we don't repeat issues like that.