In Quebec, residents along the St. Lawrence River are demanding the right to harvest seafood for personal consumption, a freedom enjoyed elsewhere. Many locals, particularly in Gaspé, face food insecurity and are prohibited from fishing nearby. Hugo Daniel, an engineer and founder of a group advocating for marine resource access, highlights the absurdity of not being allowed to catch abundant lobsters, especially when they wash ashore during storms. Current laws classify this as poaching, prompting calls for regulatory changes to enable sustenance fishing.
In Quebec, there is growing demand for the right to harvest seafood for personal consumption, similar to practices in other regions.
Residents living along the St. Lawrence River currently lack the legal right to gather seafood for their nourishment, a situation many have been advocating to change for years.
“It doesn’t make any sense. Most people in Gaspé are living in a food desert and aren’t allowed to fish right outside their homes for sustenance,” laments engineer Hugo Daniel.
He, along with four others, established “Together for Access to Marine Resources,” an initiative aimed at restoring the right for Quebecers to consume food sourced from the sea.
An original resident of Gaspé and currently a doctoral student at the Université du Québec à Rimouski, Daniel points to the lobster population as an example. In recent years, this population has exploded due to the warming of northern waters. After storms, hundreds of stranded crustaceans cannot return to the sea, yet local residents are prohibited from boiling them up for dinner.
Regulations set by Fisheries and Oceans Canada classify this practice as poaching. “We are not calling for the right to fish endangered species, but rather for the opportunity to engage in subsistence hunting,” he continues.
Current Rights
Quebecers can, “year-round and without a permit, engage in recreational fishing for certain bottom-dwelling fish such as cod, rockfish, and turbot,” explains Naomie Girard, a spokesperson from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. She notes that marine resources are federally regulated, while freshwater resources fall under Quebec’s jurisdiction.
Several types of mollusks are banned for personal consumption, although some are allowed in specific zones during designated times. “I have to drive three hours just to fish for mussels,” expresses Daniel in frustration.
Moreover, the federal ministry has issued 51 fines in the Gaspésie–Bas-Saint-Laurent region since the start of 2024 for “illegal fishing activities or violations of recreational fishing regulations,” with 34 of those penalties associated with lobster.
Fish and ship
The initiative “Together for Access to Marine Resources” has garnered support from the City of Matane and the Quebec Federation of Hunters and Anglers, inviting allies across Quebec to join their cause.
“The regulations need to change to allow local residents to harvest food resources,” asserts Gabriel Bourgault-Faucher, a sociology researcher at the Institute for Contemporary Economic Research and a member of the collective “Eat your St. Lawrence!”
He points out the irony that commercial fishing is permitted offshore while locals lack access to food resources accessible to them. “We practice fish and ship; commercial production is largely exported while the local population suffers from food shortages,” he criticizes.
Legally Fishing Lobster Elsewhere in Canada and… in France
“People from Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon [an archipelago just south of Newfoundland under French jurisdiction] can legally fish for lobster to meet their food needs, which is not the case here,” states Gaétan Laprise, a retired wildlife management technician from Port-Menier.
A resident of Anticosti Island for over 40 years, he has observed that lobsters have become plentiful on the shallow waters just off the coast. However, even the slightest catch is labeled as poaching. In British Columbia, the harvesting of mollusks and crustaceans is permitted, as confirmed by the federal ministry.
Fishing opportunities “vary from one region to another and evolve based on regional considerations and historical factors,” the spokesperson for Fisheries and Oceans Canada explains.