Wanting more protection
Shellfish Association wants more patrols
The president of the P.E.I. Shellfish Association says she would like to see more fishery officer activity on the bays and rivers. Brenda Campbell said she has been hearing from association members who suspect illegal fishing activity, including taking undersized oysters, is occurring.
“If you see a boat out in the water, tonging and not using an oyster box but putting (oysters) into a bag, what would that tell you as a public fisher? That would tell me that there’s stuff going in there that shouldn’t be going into a bag,” she said.
Campbell said there is speculation some fishermen are taking undersized oysters and either putting them on leases or finding a way to sell them as cocktail oysters. Members of the public fishery can only take three-inch and larger oysters while some leaseholders have permits to harvest two-inch ‘cocktail’ oysters from their leases, Campbell explained. She does not know how much of what she is hearing is suspicion and how much is true, but she’s convinced the concerns would be lessened if wardens were out on the water checking oyster dories and their oyster boxes from time to time. “There are wardens on the shore… but our main concern is, they’re not on the water,” she added. Department of Fisheries and Oceans Communications provided a written comment when asked for a response to Campbell’s concerns:
“Fishery officers are working to prevent illegal activity in all fisheries, including in the oyster industry. We encourage anyone with concerns about illegal activity to contact a DFO office as soon as possible.
“Officer patrols are planned based on information available and on the assessment of risk.
“Fishery officers work with industry members on a regular basis and welcome their feedback,” the statement continued.
“There’s no clear protection that I know of,” Campbell stated. She said her group would not want size limits changed to allow cocktail oysters to be taken from the public fishery.
“It eliminates the future,” she maintained. Campbell admits the suspicion further heightens her association’s concerns with multi-species leases. “There is a bit of a divide there,” she acknowledged.
She believes leaseholders, especially ones with permits to sell cocktail oysters, should not be allowed in the public fishery. “Protection is more than catching a violator. Protection is putting mechanisms in place so that there’s less chance of such a thing happening,” she said in expressing her hope that a review of the Fisheries Act will address such a concern. She is hearing concerns about thin oysters and wonders if that has something to do with the increased leaseholder activities.
“Really, every living organism needs food. Can our rivers sustain? Can it? We don’t know that.” She’d like to see more study done on what a system can sustain before DFO approves more leases. Even with the food argument aside, Campbell said every new lease allowed becomes a loss for the public fishery.