The St. Lawrence is talking to us, and it’s not doing well. Its fragile, incredibly nurturing ecosystem is showing worrying signs of disruption due to climate change which is increasing year by year. Several sectors of activity that depend on this ecosystem, starting with commercial fishing, are today vulnerable. The fishermen and coastal communities of maritime Quebec are at the forefront to testify to this.
It must be said that our fisheries development model is particularly unsuited to dealing with the rapid and unpredictable changes that we are observing. In the jargon, we speak of “extractivism”: we extract, we package, then we export. This model, established with European colonization in North America, remains to this day largely supported and encouraged by the governments of Canada (capture) and Quebec (processing). Designed to harvest large quantities of one, two or even three main resources, it gives rise to monospecific fisheries, the equivalent of monoculture in agriculture.
1er last June, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Quebec (MAPAQ) published its annual document presenting the main economic indicators of the sector, Economic biofood. Review of the year 2022. Among other things, we learned that our imports of aquatic products continue to increase, that processors export up to 84% of their production (internationally and in other provinces) and that international exports are increasingly converging towards a single market, the United States, at 88%.
But above all, it is the concentration of captures around only two species that attracts attention. In fact, in 2022, lobster and snow crab represented 90% of the value of landings in Quebec, unheard of in recent history. By way of comparison, from the Second World War to the collapse of groundfish stocks in the early 1990s, cod and redfish (the two main species at the time) never represented more than 56% of the value of landings. That was in 1973. Have we forgotten how the coastal communities of maritime Quebec were hard hit by these moratoriums?
Fishermen and other players in the community are also expressing growing concern. While we are witnessing the warming of the waters, the acidification of the oceans and the reduction of the ice cover in winter, we are also observing that reproductive behaviour, growth rates and the distribution areas of species are changing, along with food webs (prey-predators). Lobster and snow crab migrate north. Northern shrimp, pelagic fish, such as herring and mackerel, as well as several groundfish, such as yellowtail flounder, winter flounder, Greenland halibut (turbot) and southern Gulf cod are in a critical state.
Some peaches close suddenly. The state of the stocks becomes difficult to assess, which complicates their management. Other species, such as striped bass, redfish, Atlantic halibut and gray seals are doing well, but for some there is a lack of support to develop their market.
It goes without saying that marine fisheries risk being severely shaken by the anticipated changes and the ecological surprises that will occur. The sector must therefore quickly and necessarily adapt to unpredictability, to strengthen the resilience and vitality of communities. For this, it is imperative to get out of the extractivist model, the fish and ship (fishing, then exporting), which has prevailed until now. We must fish less, but better, diversify catches and processing activities, and use the resources of the St. Lawrence to feed Quebec.
In this, the food self-sufficiency project has interesting potential. However, it will be necessary to move from words to deeds. We cannot on the one hand say that we are making it a priority and only sprinkle a few thousand dollars right and left to support a handful of initiatives, because on the other hand, it is with millions that we finance projects intended to reproduce and consolidate the foundations of a model doomed to collapse.
Fortunately, the MAPAQ will soon begin reviewing its biofood policy. This will determine the main orientations of the sector for the years to come. This is a great opportunity to clearly — and without ambivalence — put food self-sufficiency at the center of our public policies. It is urgent to act, because fishers, processors and all other players in the fishing community need a regulatory framework and substantial financial support to review the operating model and diversify the fisheries in Quebec.