Coalition wants revamped redfish consultations
Union, harvesters plantworks push for more inshore inclusion
CORNER BROOK — Ren Genge wants a sustainable redfish fishery with quotas that are going to last for years to come.
The Anchor Point man has been fishing for more than 50 years. His son is starting to take over his enterprise and Genge wants something in which his son and grandchildren can invest.
“I want a stable fishery, not one year and gone again.”
That’s why he attended a press conference at the Glynmill Inn in Corner Brook on Thursday to call on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to suspend its consultation process on the emerging redfish fishery in Unit 1 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and to establish a new process that allows for meaningful engagement and transparency.
Genge sat at the table in one of the hotel’s meeting rooms with Keith Sullivan, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (FFAW), and union executive board member Sheila Howell, a fish plant worker from New-wesvalley.
The FFAW is a part of a coalition made up of inshore harvester associations, Indigenous groups and players in seafood processing from Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and New Brunswick calling for changes in the consultation process.
Sullivan said stakeholders feel like they’ve been intentionally blocked out of a process in favour of what people think is going to be a corporate fishery — one that will see offshore companies coming in and shipping everything out.
“It’s so important for our future. We really need to raise as much awareness as we possibly can for people,” he said.
Sullivan said a redfish fishery is an opportunity to pursue another species, extend on the season and to be able to bring the jobs back on the land with processing at fish plants in the province.
“So, inshore owner/operator harvesters getting at least 50 per cent of this resource is fair and reasonable and that’s what we want and need for sustainability in the fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Sullivan.
Genge agrees with that and if he had a say the lion’s share of any quota would go to the inshore fleet, to fishers in this province and in New Brunswick and Quebec.
He’s already seen what happens when the offshore fleet comes in.
In 1990 redfish was an unutilized species. But after the northern cod fishery was shut down in 1992 and the Gulf cod fishery closed in 1993 offshore fleets went after redfish.
“It was like a city,” he said of the giant trawlers in the Gulf. And by 1995 there was a moratorium on redfish.
“We don’t need an offshore fleet fishing 12 miles off our land. Big factory-freezer trawlers. We don’t need it.”
Now the stock is rebounding and Genge, who is involved in an experimental redfish fishery, sees promise in resuming a commercial fishery.
It would help harvesters being affected by declining shrimp quotas and prices make living. It would also take the stress off the shrimp stocks, the main diet of redfish.
“I just hope that our shrimp stocks can stay stable enough while this redfish fishery is building, till DFO gives us the greenlight for a commercial fishery,” he said.
Howell is also concerned with the consultation process.
“If they’re not consulting with the unions and the fisherpersons, they’re not getting the full picture and they’re not allowing for input from the stakeholders,” she said.
As a plant worker she sees a lot of benefits coming from an inshore redfish fishery, as it would create more work opportunities and a more stable work environment.
That would mean less reliance on employment insurance as plants could operate longer.
“When you qualify for EI you need good weeks to make sure your employment insurance is up to a decent level where you can make it through the winter on EI,” she said.
She works in a multi-species plant but for some workers allergies prevent them from working when crab is being processed.
“So, they’re more dependent on the groundfish. If we had redfish coming in to help supplement the cod and the turbot it would make their work week better and it extend the work season.”
And Howell said it wouldn’t take much for plants to be able to process redfish.
“It’s another groundfish and we have the equipment there to do the groundfish.”
“If they’re not consulting with the unions and the fisherpersons, they’re not getting the full picture and they’re not allowing for input from the stakeholders.” Sheila Howell
MORE ON THE CONSULTATION PROCESS
In an email to redfish advisory committee members on Oct. 13, committee chair Todd Williams, reiterated and clarified information regarding the ongoing redfish consultations on access and allocations for Unit 1 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
In the email, which was provided to Saltwire Network by DFO, Williams said the deadline for submissions to a questionnaire has been extended to Nov. 15.
And, he spoke of an intention to hold additional meetings with Indigenous groups and with broader committee participants prior to that deadline.
He also said that every submission to the questionnaire will be made available to committee participants in full as an annex to the post-consultation “What We Heard” summary.