International Trade Committee on May 21st, 2024

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Sproul, approximately how many people do you represent? How many jobs does this entail?

[Colin Sproul]

We represent nearly 200 fishing families along the Nova Scotia coastline in the Bay of Fundy, and they employ nearly 750 fishermen.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Okay. We can see that this industry plays a key role on a local and regional level. Presumably, important industries are found throughout a number of marine regions. As a result, a crisis in this industry could have a fairly significant impact on many jobs.

Consider again the danger of American protectionism. We know that a decision will likely be handed down concerning the right whale. Another issue is the boycott of seal bait for lobster fishing.

Do we need to keep an eye on anything else, apart from these two factors?

[Colin Sproul]

I would also note that some of the mitigation measures that are taken within Canada to mitigate right whale entanglements have had, and can have, extreme effects on our industry. All fishing in an area can be prevented. We're right in the middle of a crisis right now in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, due to the presence of a right whale at the start of a very important lobster fishery for the economies on the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick.

I think the protection of the whales is certainly a duty of Canada and of the industry. However, because it's a duty of Canada and Canadians, I think the government needs to consider support for industries that are incredibly affected by that. That support can take the form of financial support, but it can also take the form of better science, better observation and better overflights to determine when whales are in an area and importantly, when they've left an area and where exactly they've been sighted, so that fishermen can still retain portions of a closed fishing area to make a living. The loss of an entire season or the loss of the most lucrative part of a season for whale protection is not something that many fishing families can recover from to come back the next year.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you. I'll go to Mr. Cannings for two and a half minutes, please.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Okay, I'm going to turn back to Dr. Brown.

You indicated that perhaps Canada and the United States have similar regulations and measures that they're promoting, but that in the United States there wasn't as much enforcement. Is that correct?

[Dr. Moira Brown]

Yes, I'd say it's correct to say there isn't as much enforcement, but the measures are not exactly the same. For example, in the U.S. they use what they call the sinking groundline rule in pot fisheries, so you have a number of pots on the bottom in a trawl, like charms on a bracelet, and there's groundline that connects all of those pots. They required all of their fishermen to use rope that would sink and sit on the bottom. Many U.S. colleagues are of the opinion we should also use that in Canada.

We use different measures in Canada that are tailored towards the Canadian fisheries, and I would say I think the one thing that's important is there has been some progress made on rope-on-demand technology and other modifications, but this is something that really needs an infusion of money to allow the fishermen to get the gear in their hands and practise with it. We work locally with some rock crab fishermen who get shut down when right whales appear around the Bay of Fundy. They are now in a position where they can actually switch over to some rope-on-demand gear that we loan them and keep fishing when the right whales show up.

Right whales do aggregate in feeding areas, but they also have to migrate through other waters to get there. We have the feeding areas fairly well identified in the gulf. Some of these whale sightings, as Mr. Sproul referred to, are right whales that are seen migrating. We do need a little bit better science and a little bit better surveillance to see if those whales are persisting in that area. If there is a short-term closure, that's one thing, but if that closure goes from 15 days to a seasonal closure, it really wipes out a community's effort to be able to harvest, especially lobster.

I think more surveillance in these areas, especially this time of the year, when the animals are just migrating through and moving into the feeding areas, would be really useful in terms of helping fishermen live with the right whale challenge, especially in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you. We have a species here that is very sensitive, very vulnerable. Populations seem to have increased until about 2015—I just looked at a trend line—and they've been declining ever since.

After all these measures we're taking, why is that population still declining? Is it still vessel strikes and entanglements, or is there something else going on with ocean temperatures or something like that? What's causing that continued decline?

[Dr. Moira Brown]

It is vessel strikes and gear entanglements, but it's also climate change, so the population basically grew from fewer than 200 animals to almost 500 by 2010. Then we started to see a decline that has coincided with increasing temperatures in the Gulf of Maine that affected their plankton and meant that the animals had to go look for food somewhere else. Some of them did that in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where there weren't any protection measures in place because we didn't anticipate the whales moving to that area. We had no means to do that.

It's common for a wild animal to also go through a reduced reproduction at times when there's food stress. I think that's gone on, so right now, yes, the population decreased quite sharply, especially from 2017 up until the year before last. However, now it looks like it's levelling out, and a bit of time will tell.

Again, though, the whales have to take care of the reproduction side, but we have to take care of the vessel strikes and the gear entanglements.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Martel, you're next on the list for the remaining two minutes, or so. Would you like to go ahead? Go ahead.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Sproul, you said earlier that the government could do more to help the fishery prosper. You also said that we no longer have ambassadors appointed by the government.

Would anything else make our fishery more prosperous?

[Colin Sproul]

That's an important question. First and foremost, I implore the government to continue to fund the excellent and important work of people like Dr. Brown at the Canadian Whale Institute, and particularly the Canadian Wildlife Federation, the Marine Animal Response Society and the Campobello Whale Rescue Team—I think that's really important—but also to continue to fund science in the lobster industry so that we can better understand lobster migration and abundance patterns, if the need arises, to shift our fishing effort due to the presence of whales.

We all need to recognize that Canada sometimes goes to great efforts in agriculture, mining, softwood lumber and auto manufacturing to defend the interests of Canadian business people and workers abroad. I think the efforts that have taken place in the fishery pale in comparison to any of those, but we've seen the departments and staff detail the incredible economic value the fishery is delivering to Canada. At this point I think it's time for fishermen and fisheries to get their fair share of government support. Telling the tale of Canadian fisheries and how sustainable and responsible they are on an international level is the best way to advance this industry.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Good. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much for the valuable information from our witnesses. It's very much appreciated.

Thank you to the committee.

I move adjournment.