The federal government does not have the “reliable” data that is essential to ensure that Canada’s fish stocks are protected against overexploitation, notes the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development.
“Without reliable and up-to-date data on fish catches, Fisheries and Oceans Canada does not know whether commercial fish stocks are overexploited,” summarizes Commissioner Jerry DeMarco in a report released Tuesday.
He also cites the case of cod as an example to illustrate the importance of having rigorous information on the state of populations. “The collapse of the Atlantic cod population in the 1990s, with profound economic and social consequences, demonstrated that it is much more difficult and costly to reestablish depleted stocks than to avoid the problem by instead maintaining healthy levels. »
However, despite past errors which have proven disastrous for certain fishing communities, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has still not succeeded in collecting reliable data and thus “ensuring the sustainable management” of commercial maritime fisheries.
The department has still not “taken most of the corrective measures that it committed to implementing seven years ago, following the last audit of this sector carried out by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada” , underlines the commissioner.
The federal government certainly created a Fisheries Monitoring Policy in 2019, but it has still not implemented it. Concretely, of the 156 stocks for which it is responsible, it has “prioritized” only 22 commercial fish stocks, but it has not completed the evaluation of the “monitoring requirements” for these stocks. Result: the known problems linked to the reliability and relevance of data on the state of populations remain.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has therefore not fully respected its commitment, made in 2016, to “modernize its fisheries information management systems by 2020”.
Reacting to the report, Minister Diane Lebouthillier was optimistic. “The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has a number of information sources that allow it to effectively monitor fisheries and integrate data into the decision-making process. However, it is always possible to do better, and that is why we continue to improve the management of our fisheries,” she argued.
Fishing and related activities represent the livelihood of nearly 72,000 Canadians. In 2021, the country’s commercial marine fisheries were valued at $4.6 billion.