Free fish, smiley faces, and a petition won't change Ottawa's mind to unleash draggers on northern cod. A protest on the St. John's waterfront with 14,000 FFAW members tossing around a police horse like a beachball would do the job, but the union isn't that serious. Which is the problem ...
FFAW Facebook photo of codfish from the union-run sentinel or test fisheries being given away Wednesday, July 17th, on the St. John's waterfront. The public was asked to sign a petition in exchange for fresh fish.
The FFAW regularly goes through protest motions, but its resolve to stand up for inshore boats is forever suspect when the union is conflicted by also representing offshore draggers, and onshore plants — and collects a paycheque from the feds.
Now that Ottawa has opened the door to offshore dragging the inshore wants in on it too.
Some Labrador (2J) harvesters have asked DFO to be allowed to drag for cod this year, and some 3K (northeast coast) and 3L (east coast) harvesters are right behind them with the same request.
The union's resolve against dragging for northern cod is sure to weaken.
Exchanging cod for signatures won't cut it.
Blockading St. John's harbour might be a bit extreme, but there should be a sweet spot somewhere the middle. Harvesters themselves must take a stand, like they did last spring with the snow crab price on the steps of Confederation Building.
Now is the time for John Efford to rise again.
OVERALL SENTINEL CATCHES DOWN
It’s worth noting that the northern cod given away this morning was from the sentinel or test fisheries that the FFAW has been running since 1995 under federal contracts worth millions of dollars. (The 2022 contract alone was worth $659,000.)
Overall catch rates from the sentinel fisheries (which most harvesters see as a joke/don't take seriously) were down between 2020 and 2022 — and actually worked against the inshore in terms of arguing for harvest increases.
At the same time, logbook data from the 2020-2023 stewardship fishery — which included catch rates that were reportedly through the roof — weren't compiled by DFO and factored into management decisions.
The bottom line is data from the sentinel and stewardship fisheries did not match up.
Why is BC MP presenting northern cod petition?
Why did the FFAW ask a British Columbia Member of Parliament (Lisa Marie Barron) to present the northern cod petition to parliament over local MP Clifford Small, who could single handedly gather thousands of signatures all by his lonesome?
Could it be because the B.C. MP is NDP and Small is Conservative?
It’s this sort of petty politics that holds us back — not just in the fishery — but on all fronts.
In other news Wednesday, DFO issued a notice to say the northern cod fishery for Labrador-based harvesters will open this Sunday, July 21st.
So much for the free fish and smiley faces, DFO seemed to say the inshore can go f--k itself.
Ryan cleary is a former journalist, Member of Parliament, union leader, and long-time inshore fisheries advocate who’s currently helping to organize a co-operative (fpcnl.ca) for inshore enterprise owners. The opinions expressed in this blog are his own. Contact him at fpc-nl@outlook.com or call/text 709 682 4862.
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