Spanish trawler cited for illegal fishing on Grand Banks


A Spanish trawler has been issued two citations for fishing infractions on the Grand Banks.

The infractions were issued against the Pescaberbes Dos on Feb. 3rd, although they were only made public on the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans website in mid April.

That said, DFO is getting better at reporting illegal fishing. Read here.

Still, details of the latest infractions – the first of 2012 – are scarce.

An inspection determined that 134.7 tonnes of “product” (no mention of the particular fish species) aboard the Spanish ship wasn’t properly labelled.

It was also determined that 30.2 tonnes of turbot was not marked as having been caught on the Grand Banks.

In the past, foreign trawlers have tried to pass off fish caught on the Grand Banks as fish that had been caught elsewhere in the world’s oceans as a way to sidestep NAFO rules.

The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization monitors fishing outside Canada’s 200-mile limit, but it’s generally seen as toothless, unable to enforce the quotas it sets.

My office is in the process of contacting DFO to formally request further details on the infractions.

***
In other fishery news from Ottawa, Dr. Ken Frank, a scientist with DFO in Ottawa, held a lecture recently entitled, Recovery of North Atlantic groundfish: real or imagined? 

Frank stated clearly that while cod stocks on the Scotian Shelf off Nova Scotia have shown signs of recovery, stocks on the Grand Banks – most notably, the northern cod zone, which takes in the waters off the northeast coast of Newfoundland and Labrador - remain in desperate shape.

It’s probably safe to say that illegal foreign fishing has hampered recovery.

Leading Canadian fishery scientist Dr. Jeffrey Hutchings recently called for an inquiry into the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery.

Hutchings, who recently chaired the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on Sustaining Canada`s Marine Biodiversity, said an inquiry is necessary to learn from the mistakes of the groundfish collapse so it never happens again, and to start the rebuilding process.

“Despite the collapse of northern cod and several other fish in the early 1990’s, these stocks still have no rebuilding plans, rebuilding timelines, or science-determined recovery targets,” said Dr. Hutchings.

“While other cod fisheries, such as Norway’s, have seen tremendous rebound, most of the stocks off Newfoundland and Labrador remain at critically low levels.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The story of Samantha Walsh

Image
Samantha Walsh, a 13-year-old, Grade 8 student from Fleur de Lys on the Baie Verte Peninsula, disappeared one Sunday evening when walking home from her Grandmother's house, and I traveled to the community to research her story. The following feature article was published in The Telegram in February 2000. ••• "Sam, who had stripped off her ski pants when she got to her grandmother’s house, didn’t bother to put them on for the three-minute walk to her house. She went home wearing her coat and hat and long johns covered by flannel pajama pants, pink with black and white lambs, bought the day before at Value Village. But Sam never made it home. 'Loves you, Mom,' were her last words to her mother." ••• Samantha’s story By Ryan Cleary, The Telegram FLEUR DE LYS — The voice is that of a child, rising with a soft and sweet delivery from a room of living hell. It’s a haunting sound, the words of  Salt Water Joys , sung by a very talented and pretty littl
Read more

A survivor’s story

Image
The above picture of Bernard Dyke, a fisherman from Eastport, Bonavista Bay, was taken about two weeks after the fishing vessel Melina and Keith II sank off Cape Bonavista on Sept. 12, 2005. Dyke, then 17, was one of four crewmen who survived after spending four hours in the North Atlantic waiting to be rescued. Four others —Ivan Dyke, Justin Ralph, Anthony Molloy and Joshua Williams — were lost. Dressed only in T-shirt and underwear, Dyke survived by clinging to an overturned lifeboat. (His story is published below.) The search and rescue response times of the military’s Gander-based Cormorant helicopters are in the news again this week with parliamentary hearings being held in St. John’s. The story of the Melina and Keith II and an investigation into response times was covered in-depth by the now defunct Independent newspaper. The first coast guard vessel to arrive on scene was the Leonard J. Cowley — 9 hours and 45 minutes after it had been confirmed the vessel went down and
Read more

Nov. 7th, Telegram letter to the editor

Making this a better place I applaud Ryan Cleary’s letter in the Oct. 31 Weekend Telegram (“Time to act, not talk”) touting teamwork as the key to forging a future for rural Newfoundland: it was eerily reflective of the premier’s front-page interview. It’s a prime example on how we all could, and should, put partisan politics and prejudices aside to perpetuate the one commonality that binds us — passion for the promise of this place. The power of that unified front is visible with the government’s prioritizing the H1N1 vaccination roll-outs this week, in light of the international crisis for Newfoundland and Labrador with changes proposed to the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) convention, and the national crisis with Quebec and the Lower Churchill quagmire. The people of this place must come first and we personified that this week. Thus, there is hope for the future. Rise to the occasion Having said that, like the tide, we need to rise to the swell of occasion as well,
Read more