Fishing for answers
Still no date on recreational cod fishery; participants, business question delay
Since 2013, the date for the recreational cod fishery has been announced on or before May 20, but so far this year, there has been no announcement, and businesses and people anxious to get onto the water want to know why.
Shawn Williams, an avid fisherman, started an online petition to get answers. The petition has been signed over a thousand times.
“(The recreational fishery) is huge for the Newfoundland economy,” Williams said. “What happened to our brains?
“(Businesses involved in the industry) have to book in January or last year to get in queue for what they need. … (If) they announce the fishery today, there’s not a truck just waiting outside Blue Water Marine, saying, ‘OK, now by’s, bring that in, we are going to buy that.’”
Michael Williams, sales manager at Blue Water Marine, agrees.
“We can’t wait until it’s announced,” said Williams, who is not related to Shawn Williams. “Our stock orders and our boat orders we have to order back in January and February for the spring and the summer.”
Blue Water Marine stocks $150,000 to $200,000 worth of boats for use during the recreational
fishery.
“That’s definitely a huge portion of our income for the summer directly attributed to sales from the food fishery,” Michael Williams said. “Besides that, there’s the rods and reels and lures and jiggers. … You’re talking about maybe $40,000 or $50,000 in that. That’s still something we have to order five or six months ago.
“If there is an issue and they need to cut back, that’s fine. But they need to have an announcement out before this. … Waiting until you’re in the season is not doing anybody any favours.”
Media relations personnel for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) said there will be an announcement in early June, but as of Thursday there was still no announcement. “This is useless,” Shawn Williams said. “My big thing is, why early June? Why isn’t it February, why isn’t it January?”
Referencing the fisheries in Greenland and Iceland, Shawn Williams wonders why the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery is lagging so far behind.
“Why can’t DFO tell us, ‘This is what has to exist for the recreational fishery to go to the next level (and) for the commercial industry to come back’? It’s always … ‘We don’t have enough research.’ But it’s been 25 years.”
It was a surreal scene last weekend, which continued into the week across Atlantic Canada. People shopped at stores wearing parkas. The faithful attended church in heavy coats and gloves. Tourists scattered like quail from campgrounds. Golfers fled for shelter when hail and snow made greens unplayable. Bonfires were built to avoid hypothermia, not to toast marshmallows. Fishermen assessed trap damage following gales and pounding waves.
Drivers scraped ice from car windshields. Motorists wondered if they had their winter tires taken off too early. Weekend barbecues were confined to garages as windchills were too severe for decks and balconies. Gardeners looked on in despair as their bulbs and flowers were coated in frost.
Was it still April, or perhaps the start of May? No. It was early June, a month which is supposed to be busting out all over, with flowers blooming and birds singing.
And the cruel irony? It some places it happened after a day of record-high temperatures. The heat set off a growth spurt among trees and crops.
Miramichi, N.B. for example, went from breaking a 140-year-old record high on June 1 of 32.7 C, to a 91-year-old record low on June 3 of -0.6.
Then a series of heavy frosts struck, devastating crops, despite farmers’ frantic efforts. The worst hit areas were in Nova Scotia, especially the Annapolis Valley, where temperatures dropped to -4. Half the province’s wine grapes were destroyed.
P.E.I.’S potato crop largely escaped, while the impact on strawberry, blueberry and other crops is still being assessed.
Many farmers haven’t seen such a devastating period in more than 40 years. And it isn’t over. Wednesday was frosty and a frost warning was issued for last night across much of Newfoundland and Labrador. At least two significant snow events struck N.L. in recent weeks.
Other parts of Canada are enjoying seasonable temperatures, and our American neighbours enjoyed a record-breaking May.
What is happening here?
Alas, we’ve been stuck in a rut with lowpressure troughs entrenched from Hudson Bay towards Labrador. The key to the puzzle is a warmer ribbon of above-normal sea temperatures which has surfaced south of the Maritimes. This anomaly needs another ingredient — an ample supply of cold air, and we have that aplenty. When cooler air pushes south to the Atlantic, then robust, chilly, low-pressure systems are created.
Meteorologists tell us we’re entering a colder phase along the Eastern Seaboard, because of Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO). Well, we’ve already seen enough of AMO. The best advice for Atlantic Canadians this June-uary is don’t put the winter coats at the back of the closet just yet.
And keep a scraper handy.