N.S. lobster season brings more friction
HALIFAX — Ottawa and a small Mi’kmaq community appear to be headed toward renewed tensions on the waters off southwest Nova Scotia as the First Nation plans another selfregulated lobster season.
The federal fisheries minister said Thursday that enforcement officers will be in place in St. Marys Bay to “uphold the Fisheries Act” if Sipekne’katik fishers harvest lobster beginning on June 1.
Bernadette Jordan’s comment came before Chief Mike Sack held a news conference to say his band will operate a fivemonth season outside the commercial season. Sack said the plan envisions 15 to 20 boats setting 1,500 traps, with a midsummer closure during the moulting and reproduction season and its own enforcement officials.
The band argues that a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision affirms its right to fish for a moderate livelihood when and where they wish, including outside of federally regulated commercial fishing seasons. The decision was later clarified by the court, however, which said Ottawa could regulate the Mi’kmaq treaty right for conservation and other limited purposes.
Jordan said she had negotiated agreements with other bands for a moderate livelihood fishery, and she expects Indigenous fishers to have a federal licence before harvesting lobster this year.
“We have conservation and protection officers who are on the water making sure people are doing things within the conservation lens. They have a job to do and that’s to uphold the Fisheries Act, and they will be there to do that job,” Jordan said.
The federal Fisheries Department said the enforcement will be “measured and appropriate” based on “the scale of the fishing activity and gravity of potential harm to the fishery.”