NDP critical of lobster 'stacking' proposal

By Wayne Thibodeau

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

Transcontinental Media/The Guardian

Allowing lobster fishermen to fish more than one licence per boat, a process known as 'stacking,' is an extremely dangerous proposal, said the NDP's fisheries critic.

Peter Stoffer suggested changes in regulations by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans clears the way for a quota system for lobster that will eventually lead to corporate control of the industry.

But Fisheries and Oceans said the changes were made in response to the potential economic crisis facing the lobster industry, as a way for the industry to reduce costs.

Stoffer disagrees. "If it is just a temporary measure to help mitigate the costs to fishermen, then it is something we could support," Stoffer said during a recent news conference in Charlottetown. "But if it is something that leads to long-term stacking of licenses ... eventually half the fleet gets eliminated by this process. Instead of having two licences on the boat, then eventually you could have three or four licences on the boat. That boat now has to be much bigger, then all of a sudden you realize 'why do we have to have all these people on the boat?' "This is the danger we feel it's going to. This is something the major corporations have been asking for for years."

Stacking is a new option that allows fishermen to hold two licences in one licensed fishing area (LFA) and fish 150 per cent of the gear limit from a single vessel . This would involve licence transfers or the moving of a second licence into one name.

The department already allows partnerships between two licence holders who fish on one vessel.

But with this option both fishermen are required to be on board.

Now Fisheries and Oceans has expanded the rules on regular partnerships to include a new third option called flexible partnerships, which will require only one of the two licence holders to be on board the vessel while fishing.

Gail Shea, minister of Fisheries and Oceans, said Stoffer's comments were unproductive, incorrect and misleading.

She says new proposals for 'stacking' and flexible partnering in the Maritimes lobster fishery could be helpful options in addressing economic challenges, in discussion with the fishing industry. "Mr. Stoffer's suggestion that licence stacking would lead to increased corporate control of the fisheries is inaccurate. I am committed to the preservation of the independence of the inshore fleet in Atlantic Canada's fisheries and I see great potential in the Ocean to Plate agenda that DFO is working on with provinces and the fishing industry."

Jim Jones, regional director with Fisheries and Oceans, said the changes, which were being asked for by fishermen, increase efficiencies while reducing the number of traps being fished because only 150 per cent of the two licences is being fished as opposed to 200 per cent if both licences were being fished separately.

Jones said stacking is limited to two licences only and is only available to independent core fishermen. That, he said, prevents corporate control of the fishery. "I know others have raised issues as to what this leads to but it is something that many fishermen actually see as beneficial," Jones said from Moncton, N.B. "Prices have gone down, some of their costs have gone up, some of them have difficulty getting crews."

There are still only a handful of fishermen participating in the program in Nova Scotia. None of the fishermen on the Island are taking part in it yet, but it could be offered to them next spring.

The issue is also being raised by P.E.I. MPs.

Cardigan MP Lawrence MacAulay also fears it is a step in the direction of getting rid of the region's independent inshore fishery and moving to a corporate model. "Under Harper, the Department of federal Fisheries and Oceans' main objective is, at the end of the day, to do away with all the Maritime's small inshore fishers, and end up with large companies fishing all the licences. Our independent fishers will be gone," MacAulay said. "I pray to God that the new Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Gail Shea will be able, and will have the courage to stop this."