Redfish revival ahead
Atlantic industry preparing for opportunities
Redfish used to be an important catch for Red Genge.
“In the 1980s and early 1990s, it was a supplement to our cod fishery,” said the veteran fisher from Anchor Point.
He used to catch redfish in Unit 1, a zone that extends from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the tip of the Northern Peninsula.
In those years, the average annual catch of redfish was 59,000 metric tonnes.
Redfish and codfish were the two main species that made up Genge’s livelihood.
Then, the cod fishery closed in 1992, leaving just the redfish.
That didn’t last long either. By 1995, the redfish stock in Genge’s fishing area had shrunk to the point that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) had to declare a moratorium.
Since then, redfish catches in that area have been limited to by-catch and an experimental fishery, with average annual landings of about 500 tonnes since 2010.
There is no moratorium on redfish Unit 2 — which extends from the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia to the southern shore of Newfoundland. But the quota is small, at 8,600 metric tonnes annually since 2006.
In the 1990s, Genge turned to shrimp, thinking he’d never live to see the day when redfish would make a comeback. He was wrong.
Left alone, the redfish have rebounded.
In the 2019 DFO research survey, redfish accounted for 90 per cent of the captured biomass.
That’s significant, when you consider that in the research surveys of 1995 to 2012, just 15 per cent of the catch was redfish.
The latest estimates by DFO, based on 2019 surveys, put the biomass at 4.3 million tonnes in Units 1 and 2 combined at the highest it’s been since 1984.
“This is very surprising what happened here. No one ever expected the stocks of redfish to come back,” said Genge.
REDFISH CONUNDRUM
While the return of redfish is considered a bright spot for the future, it’s also causing some short-term worries.
The Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS), in its 2019 report, said, “This relative biomass of redfish is unprecedented and could have important ecological impacts on other species.”
Redfish likes to eat shrimp, specifically shrimp larvae.
“We’re a shrimp-only fleet right now,” said Ren. “And redfish is to the size now where their main diet is shrimp.”
Brad added, “We know it’s going to take a toll on shrimp because when (shrimp) is in its minor stages, it’s like plankton and it’s no trouble for (redfish) to eat it.”
Brad’s fishing career started with redfish.
He was young when he joined his dad, Ren’s fishing crew in the early 1990s.
Redfish was a saviour for the Genges in the past, and Brad hopes it will ensure some paydays for him in the future.
“I got into this (redfish) when I got out of high school in 1991. We got a couple of years out of it . . . and we’ve been waiting ever since for it to come back.”
Redfish live in the deep and can only be caught by trawl nets.
For the past three years, Brad has been participating in the experimental fishery, helping science measure the growth of the stock and testing out new trawling gear developed by the Marine Institute.
He said when DFO signals ‘go’ on a commercial fishery for redfish in Unit 1, fishers will have to avoid catching other species like cod.
“If we go out there fishing redfish and end up catching a lot of cod with it, it would shut down the redfish fishery,” Brad said. “And no one wants this to be just a one or two-day fishery.”
Some of that redfish research was made possible with funding from the Atlantic Fisheries Fund (AFF) to the Fish Food and Allied Workers (FFAW).
In 2018, DFO granted $705,000 to the union for the work.
The AFF also provided $70,000 to KMKA Voyager Enterprises Ltd. to purchase and install a Marport redfish trawl monitoring system; and $79,000 to Oswan Tucker of Reef’s Harbour to install a midwater trawl system for redfish.
In 2020, the union received another $500,000 from the AFF to test sustainable gear.
The Genges are not the only ones preparing for higher redfish quotas.
At a boat-building yard in Harbour Grace, a brand new, 85-foot wetfish trawler is almost ready for launch.
The state-of-the-art vessel will replace an older 65-foot trawler currently used by Nova Scotia-based Louisbourg Seafoods.
Jan Voutier is manager of the company’s redfish processing operation, Ka’le Bay Seafoods Ltd. in Glace Bay, N.S. That operation has been focused on redfish since 2006.
In Unit 2, they catch redfish around the mouth of the Laurentian Channel and a little bit westward, towards Sable Island.
They also fish in the Sydney Bight area, between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, which is classed as Unit 1 for a couple months each winter.
Sticking with redfish has not been without challenges, said Voutier.
“We’ve been working hard to build brands and markets and provide a steady supply to those markets,” he said.
That work means jobs for 80-90 people at the plant, and about 20 more people at sea.
And they’ve had to compete in the marketplace with redfish from Scandinavian countries.
“There’s redfish everywhere in the world and we’re all competing in the same markets. In Norway and Iceland, they are doing well with redfish, but they’re not catching very many redfish under 30 centimetres. They know that is where the value begins,” said Voutier.
Dr. Kris Vascotto of the Atlantic Groundfish Council (AGC) added the global redfish market is already well supplied, with about 280,000 tonnes produced annually.
“If you look at countries like Norway, Iceland and Russia, you tend to see much larger fish being landed. The majority of the catch will be around 35 to 40 cm, and the legal size for catches is in the 30-cm range.”
In those countries, as well, the fish is mainly a ‘frozen at sea’ product. It’s caught by offshore factory trawlers that have processing lines below deck to freeze and pack the fish as soon as it’s caught. That means higher quality, said Vascotto.
THE RIGHT SIZE
Given the reality of consumer demand for larger redfish, Atlantic Canada will need to aim to produce redfish that is at or over 30 centimetres.
DFO science surveys show the redfish in Unit 1 are about 22 cm long.
That’s the regulation size under DFO rules, but it’s not the right size for the market.
You just can’t sell 22-cm fish, said Voutier.
In the Sydney Bight area, the company does a couple of test fishery trips each winter.
This year the redfish were so small on their first fishing trip that they decided to cancel a second trip.
So the stock still has some growing to do.
Voutier said everyone is excited about the “huge recruitments” coming into the fishery and there’s growing pressure to go at it.
But it’s important to not go too fast, too soon.
“There’s only a limited home for the smaller fillets,” said Voutier. “There’s more demand for the bigger fillets . . . they’re going into the grocery stores on a regular basis. And the bigger fillets — the four-to-six-ounce fillets — more and more are being used in restaurants.”
He figures it will be another three or four years before the redfish will reach the size of optimum value.
Besides, after waiting 30 years for this fish stock to rebound, he said it would be pretty embarrassing to launch a commercial fishery only to have the product go to fish meal.
“It’s pretty exciting times,” said Voutier about the redfish rebound, “but we just gotta find a way to get people to hold on and let the fish grow a little bit.” Vascotto agrees.
In a 2018 editorial, the AGC executive director said the catches in the 1980s, which exceeded 100,000 metric tonnes, were not sustainable.
“The appropriate approach is to go slow,” he said. “The industry and the resource have time — redfish live early to 40 and up to 70 years. Significant catch increases should be delayed until marketable-sized fish are in the water, ensuring economic viability.”
The quest, he said, should be for a fishery that will last for a long time, not a resource that might be fished hard for five or 10 years and then disappear.
Fisheries and Oceans appears to be approaching with caution.
Earlier this month, the department announced the management plan for redfish in Unit 1.
It’s status quo for 2021-22 season with a 4,500 tonne quota; 2,000 for an index fishery and 2,500 tonnes for experimental work.
Fishers who want to participate in those experiments in Unit 1 have to apply to DFO. The deadline for applications is April 30. More details are on the DFO website: https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/ fisheries-peches/commercial-commerciale/atl-arc/ management-plan-gestion/ redfish-sebaste-eng.html
In Unit 2, the quota remains at 8,500 tonnes. Throughout the fishing season, areas within the zones are closed during spawning season. On March 31, the fishery was closed in sub-division 3PS, to accommodate spawning season for redfish.
Meanwhile, the Genges and other inshore fishers in Unit 1 are playing a tense waiting game, hoping the shrimp stock they currently rely on can withstand the appetite of the increasing redfish population until DFO green lights a commercial fishery.
Brad hopes he will be able to depend on both to provide revenue for his enterprise.
“Both species have to work together,” he said, noting the per-pound value of redfish is much less than shrimp.
Having the right balance on fishing quotas will be essential, he said.
“You gotta catch enough of it so that one is not overtaking the other.”
WHO WILL GET WHAT?
As the redfish stock grows, a larger question looms.
When the fish are the size the market wants, how will the quotas be shared up?
The Genges are firm that in Unit 1, inshore shrimp fishers should get first dibs on the quotas.
“We definitely need something around here because we only got the shrimp right now, and with declining shrimp prices and quotas every year it’s getting harder to make ends meet,” said Brad Genge.
Keith Sullivan, president of the Fish Food and Allied Workers (Ffaw/unifor) said the decisions around the redfish “will definitely be complex”.
All Atlantic Canadian provinces and Quebec are adjacent to the resource and have historical connections to the fishery.
Sullivan said the process of deciding the re-opening of a commercial fishery and quota allocations has to be transparent.
He expects this year, and going into 2022, there will be a lot of discussion and, possibly, some decisions about the redfish stock.
He added the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has to pay attention to and participate in the discussion.
“Our communities and harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador are well-positioned to be able to get value from this and take advantage of this (redfish),” he said, adding local harvesters and the science community have done a lot of work on the research side of things.
He said the provincial government has to work to ensure local harvesters and communities get full consideration for quotas.
“This is a fishery that we expect to be there for decades,” he said. “The provincial government needs more focus on the value of the fishery. It can be grown. And this is one of the examples here … ensuring we have a successful redfish fishery.”
Voutier said Nova Scotia should not be left out of the equation when quotas are set in Unit 1.
“When the rest of the Atlantic region provinces — P.E.I., Que., N.B. and N.L. — walked away from that fishery, we stayed in it,” he said, maintaining an Atlantic Canadian presence in the redfish market.
Redfish offers an opportunity, Voutier added, but only if it’s managed sustainably.
With a lot of excitement building around redfish, he warns that if too many boats get involved in the fishery “we could be in a race to the bottom.”
“We want reasonable harvests coming in, sustainability objectives looked after and continued growth in the marketplace,” he said.
“That’s where we need to be.”