It is expected by everyone! The Redfish Advisory Committee begins this Monday, March 4, in Halifax. Until March 7, scientists, managers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and, of course, the fishing industry will be attending the meeting. Upstream, the captains-owners of Gaspésie made their voices heard at the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans of our communities regarding the scales used by the ministry to set redfish fishing quotas and come to the aid of fleets in difficulty, including that of shrimpers.
For the purpose of this exercise, let us refer to DFO documentation, remembering, collectively, that in 2019, under Liberal Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, amendments were made to the Fisheries Act to provide a framework for the conservation and protection of fish and their habitat. How ? By ensuring the protection of fish and their habitat and integrating the tools required to achieve this. By providing certainty to industry, stakeholders and Indigenous groups. And by promoting the sustainability of aquatic resources. We will come back to it!
Following the survey carried out in 2015, scientific advice 2016/047 on redfish stipulated that “the arrival of large cohorts of redfish will likely have a significant impact on the region’s ecosystem, in particular through an increase in predation on small invertebrates and fish. The same year, scientific opinion 2016/012 on shrimp spoke of a strong increase in the presence of redfish as bycatch in shrimp fishing.
Two years later, scientific opinion 2018/032 on redfish told us that “the massive increase in redfish has significant repercussions on the ecosystem. “Increasing predation contributes, among other things, to the decrease in the abundance of northern shrimp in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence.” The alarm sounded and could therefore be heard, even by the deaf!
Another two years of inaction passed, then came Scientific Advice 2020/019 stating that “in the research survey in 2019, redfish represented 90% of the total biomass caught, compared to 15% between 1995 and 2012. This relative biomass of redfish is unprecedented and could have significant ecological impacts on other species.” Still radio silence from the Government of Canada.
So how to say it? How can we sound the alarm about the consequences of redfish on shrimp? Our brave scientists are back with Opinion 2023/036. “Consumption of northern shrimp increased fivefold between 2017 and 2021, reflecting the long-term growth of redfish belonging to the 2011 to 2013 cohorts.” In the meantime, these same scientists estimate that the consumption of shrimp by redfish is is 213,000 tonnes in 2021, or 38 times the catches recorded by shrimpers in 2023 which amounted to 5,500 tonnes for the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence.
For more than a decade, the industry, together with DFO scientists and managers, has implemented a precautionary approach that was intended to enable the sustainable exploitation of northern shrimp. Despite this, the St. Lawrence shrimpers have practically nothing left to fish. Ironically, we learned last month that the redfish stocks in Unit 1 (Gulf of St. Lawrence) were themselves at risk in the medium term, even before commercial fishing was launched.
How has the Government of Canada, since 2016, fulfilled its responsibilities to ensure the protection of shrimp and other species, such as turbot, which are equally affected?
What means have been put in place to promote the sustainability of these species? And also, how can the redfish quota announcements of January 26 claim to provide a certain predictability to independent fishermen and coastal communities of the St. Lawrence?
Several industry stakeholders are ready to collaborate on the development and integration of an ecosystem approach that will allow integrated management of fisheries in Canada, without partisanship, for the benefit of all fisheries resources and the coastal communities that use them. depend.