Canada Urged To Act On Unused Bluefin Quotaff

The Canadian Maritime Fishermen’s Union is calling on federal fisheries minister Geoff Reagan to rectify serious concerns they have with unharvested bluefin tuna quota in St. Margaret's Bay, N.S. and fear is the problem isn’t rectified, it will lead to a reduction for 2006.

Earlier this month, New Brunswick’s tuna fleet returned to the docks after fishing in Eastern Passage, N.S. after hitting their provincial tuna quota for the year. But the fleet was enraged because fishermen in St. Margaret's Bay is what the MFU says, sitting on 90 tons of quota.

Ultimately, that could lead to a quota reduction, ultimately scaling back operations in New Brunswick for 2006.

”It is not that we were asking for fish that weren’t there,” said Michel Richard of the MFU, saying tuna are available and so is quota. “The carrot was literally in front of the horse.”

MFU president Andre Martin spoke to Matthew Graham, assistant to Mr. Reagan on the issue several times on the issue. “Mr. Graham seemed to understand the implications of Canada leaving tuna in the water and how it adversely impacts N.B. tuna fishers,” said Mr. Martin in a statement.

Mr. Richard says that there were 107 licensees for New Brunswick in 2005 for approximately 35 tons of quota. By contrast, he says, 24 licenses were allotted in St. Margaret’s Bay for 104 tons of catch.

Canadian quotas are set by an international board and Mr. Richard fears the entire quota will be reduced if some of the current quota isn’t harvested. And therefore, he says, the future New Brunswick quota would fall as a result.

”When they see that the Canadian fleet hasn't reached its potential, do you really thing they will be lenient in awarding extra quota or even the same amount as we had this year?”
 
The MFU charges that St. Margaret’s Bay fishermen are sitting on quota which they do not want to harvest under, “the unacceptable pretext of holding out until they receive permission to transfer their fish to the highest bidder.”