N.L. halts direct funding of Centre for Fisheries Ecosystems
CFER continuing given foresight, growth in other cash sources
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador did not include funding for the Centre for Fisheries Ecosystem Research (CFER) in Budget 2017.
The research centre, part of Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Fisheries and Marine Institute, was created back in July 2010, as the province announced an unprecedented investment in fisheries science.
Then-premier Danny Williams said the spending was essential, in the face of cutbacks to science at the federal level. Of the $14 million for fisheries research announced from the province, $11.75 million flowed into CFER.
It included core funding, money for research scientists, engaging graduate students and leasing of the MV Celtic Explorer, with a multi-year program of fish tagging and survey work. In 2014, the province announced another $4.25 million for the centre over two years.
CFER scientists have produced information on, among other things: northern cod diet and productivity; the distribution of fish populations given changing climate; baseline contaminant levels for salmon in Lake Melville; early life of area capelin; turbot movement off southern Labrador and assessment methods and models for snow crab.
There was $1.8 million set aside for CFER last year by the province. Minister Steve Crocker said there is no similar support in 2017-18 because the federal government is stepping in and spending more on fisheries science.
“Given part of the mandate of the (federal) Department of Fisheries and Oceans and it has increased funding in this area; the province would encourage the federal government to also consider including funding for a long-term plan for the future of CFER,” read a statement provided by the provincial Department of Fisheries and Land Resources, in response to questions last week.
The work of CFER scientists is often in collaboration with scientists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Their results have fed into DFO stock assessment and fisheries management work.
The head of the Marine Institute’s School of Fisheries, Carey Bonnell, said the province’s budget decision is not the end for CFER and was not unexpected. “This is nothing new to us, in terms of the (fiscal) situation we’re in at the moment.
And we knew we had to come up with a bit of a more diversified model for CFER,” he said, explaining steps were taken over the past two years or so to save money and find funding opportunities.
A negotiation with the Irish Marine Institute around the lease of the Celtic Explorer, for example, led to an agreement wherein transit costs were not charged for the last uses here (the vessel is not be back for survey work this year).
The money saved there helped lead to some carry-over put towards this year’s work. In terms of new cash being injected, Memorial University of Newfoundland is a partner on the new Ocean Frontier Institute.
In September, it was announced that partnership - including Dalhousie University and the University of Prince Edward Island – will receive nearly $100 million from the federal level. Bonnell said CFER scientists will tap in as it gets distributed.
“CFER in particular will be engaged in a fair amount of work over the next seven years under the Ocean Frontier Institute,” he said, adding the exact amount has yet to be determined, but support will be available for graduate students, post-doctorates, equipment and some onship research time.
That money can be leveraged for more funding from nongovernmental organizations, industry and potentially the province’s Research and Development Corporation. CFER researchers have had some success in landing strategic grants through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
“My personal view is we’re going to be fine going forward,” Bonnell said, adding there is an established understanding of the value in CFER’S work. The Marine Institute’s School of Fisheries is in the middle of launching new graduate programs. Beginning in September, CFER research projects will play a part in the new PHD in fisheries science, Master of Science in fisheries science (science and technology) and Master of Science in fisheries science (stock assessment) programs.
The programs are considered, in part, a means to feed the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ growing demand, with retirements and new funding for internal research through the Government of Canada.
“The reality is … since the new government was elected, the amount of resources that has been allocated to us has been increased substantially,” Pierre Pepin, a senior researcher a bio- mathematician with DFO, told reporters in St. John’s on Friday.
“We went through a 10-year hell under the Harper government and I have absolutely no problem in saying it because that’s what it was. Where science was not considered important and where resources kept on dwindling. There’s a lot of rebuilding to do.”
Scientists are looking at some different and complex questions with the new funding, he said, with a need to look beyond immediate stock estimates to ecosystem changes.
However, stock assessments are also getting a taste. On April 19, the federal government announced northern cod estimates would be produced every year, as opposed to every three years, over the next five years, at a cost of about $2.75 million per assessment.