FFAW defends herring fishery decision
Union says it was harvesters from region who voted to catch quota in the fall
Keith Sullivan won’t deny there are major challenges facing the province’s fishing industry, but the Ffaw-unifor president says coming up with solutions is easier to accomplish from a united front.
Keith Sullivan won’t deny there are major challenges facing the province’s fishing industry, but the Ffaw-unifor president says coming up with solutions is easier to accomplish from a united front.
“Some of the big victories that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador have had in the past, whether it was abolishing the Raw Material Sharing that was trying to be imposed on harvesters, or getting a new sharing arrangement in northern shrimp and getting rid of LIFO (Last In, First Out policy),” he suggests. “It was people working together and with our union and to have people divided usually doesn’t give us good results.”
During Twillingate fish harvester Richard Gillett’s hunger strike, which ended with him being taken from the protest site by ambulance Sunday afternoon, or the demonstration on While Hills, the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union, which is the elected bargaining unit for the province’s fish harvesters, has taken a verbal beating.
Gillett, who is also the vicepresident of the breakaway group known at the Federation of Sea Harvesters Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL), has been asking for a review of the FFAW’S relationship with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Late last week, Gillett and FISH-NL president Ryan Cleary accused the FFAW of stacking a fisherman’s vote on whether or not to hold a spring herring fishery area 3L on the province’s northeast coast, an industry he says accounts for 70 per cent of his income.
Gillett and Cleary contend it was a political move aimed at retribution for his decision to become part of FISH-NL.
Sullivan says both suggestions are “absolutely false” and that more than 30 purse seine harvesters from fishermen who have homeports in 3L voted 100 per cent in favour by secret ballot to suspend the spring fishery.
“There was some years, including last year, where there the fishery was opened in the spring as well. Harvesters this year, after their experiences, had an equal opportunity to have a say and they reverted back to what the management plan was to have the fishery open into the fall,” explains Sullivan, noting that Gillett’s home port is not located in 3L.
“It is important to note that the 3K portion is open for the spring, so in his home area, harvesters still can fish this spring.”
That harvesters’ input on the spring herring fishery was given credence is prime example of what Sullivan hopes to see more of from when it comes to the DFO’S management of the fishing industry.
“They need to find ways to incorporate the information from fish harvesters who spend so much time on the ocean and have so much knowledge,” he says, acknowledging a recent investment in DFO science that will see 18 new hires this year.
“We’ve seen some small improvements, but we also need managers to understand that it’s not just about counting the fish, it’s about people making a living, their livelihoods and the future of communities.”
Sullivan says the FFAW is in constant contact with Dominic Leblanc, the federal minister of fisheries and oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, and are currently pushing the issue of crab cuts in area 3PS.
“How do we move solutions up the field for people who are in crisis in 3PS, who have actually had extremely little earning opportunity since cuts in the crab in previous years and another 50 per cent cut this year?”