There was little fanfare (none, in fact), but a milestone was reached recently on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in regards to LCBs. My apologies, you probably don’t know what LCB stands for. The acronym is used by the flight crews that do surveillance over the Banks, keeping check of foreign trawlers outside the 200-mile limit. It stands for Lyin’ Cheatin’ Bastards. Happy 100th LCBs! Exactly 100 citations have been issued against LCBs for illegal fishing since 2004, which is as far back as the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans goes in terms of the online posting of foreign fishing citations. The 100th citation was apparently issued on April 1. Although it wasn’t actually posted on DFO’s website until the end of April. DFO takes its sweet time. But then it’s only fish. Here’s the posting: Canadian NAFO inspectors boarded the Portuguese (EU) fishing vessel Franca Morte fishing redfish in NAFO Division 3N. A citation was issued to the master of the vessel for having smaller th...

Fortune Bay sea monster Of the thousands of stories I’ve written as a Newfoundland journalist, one article has been read more than any other. By more people around the world than any other. It wasn’t about politics. Or corruption. Or any of the topics you might think. The story was about a sea monster. I came across the article this week on the website mysterymag.com. Have a read. If you dare. ‘Monster’ beached By Ryan Cleary The Telegram — St. Bernard’s, Fortune Bay Aug. 8th, 2001 The locals here call it “the monster.” “Any word on the monster yet?” they ask each other, looking to the sea for an answer. “We people have never seen the likes of it before, we never.” Fishermen mutter the word “monster” with smirks on their faces. Grown men with leather for skin and salt water for spit talking about creatures from the bottom of Fortune Bay. “Monster” isn’t a word that flows freely from their lips, not when there are no youngsters handy. But what else is there to call it, the dead thing th...

The following commentary was phoned in to CBC Radio’s Fisheries Broadcast on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010. The commentary, for whatever reason, did not air. My name is Ryan Cleary and I’m calling from St. John’s. I’m prompted to call in from listening to Gus Etchegary on Tuesday’s (April 20th) Fisheries Broadcast. I know people who hear Gus Etchegary and immediately tune him out. I’m not one of those people. I’m a long-term admirer of Mr. Etchegary’s passion and personal sacrifice. When he speaks — I tune in. Those same people also can’t stand to hear or read the word fish . It’s dirt to them. They believe the fisheries are dead, that it’s time to let them go for good and move on. I’m not one of those people, either. I believe we can rebuild the groundfish fishery into something it’s never been — a well-tuned economic engine for the outports and the good of all Newfoundland and Labrador. To do that, we need a new economic model; perhaps one based on community ownership of the resources...

Now that we’re stuck with the Grand Falls-Windsor paper mill, the next question is what to do with it? Actually, the next question is this: Where do paper mills go when they die? The great scrap heap in the sky? Well, no. That’s just silly. They go to the great scrap heap in Montreal known as American Iron & Metal Company. Insolvent newsprint giant AbitibiBowater asked bankruptcy court in mid-April for approval to sell four closed paper mills in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick to Montreal-based American Iron & Metal for $8.7 million. According to a Canadian Press story, the scrap metal company would also pay AbitibiBowater 40 per cent of the money raised from the sale of the paper machines. Even if the machines are sold for scrap, American Iron would pay at least $5 million. Even better, and this line is directly from the CP story — “The metals company would assume all environmental liabilities associated with the closed mills.” That’s a big deal, considering when the Danny...

How Abitibi was practically chased out of town “The time has come for Abitibi to sell those two mills and get the hell out of here.” — Max Michaud, Atlantic region vice-president for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers’ union, representing Abitibi Consolidated employees, as quoted in the May 1-7, 2005 Independent newspaper. ••• Abitibi didn’t have to be told twice. Only the company didn’t sell its Stephenville and Grand Falls-Windsor mills — it shut them down. Permanently. I wonder if the hundreds of former workers at both mills had their time back whether they would have went along with their union’s get-the-hell-out, bitch-slap attitude. Probably not. The union obviously underestimated the severity of the downturn in the paper-making industry and Abitibi’s urgency to cut costs. “Give a chance to another player and it would be the best thing that could happen to the population of Newfoundland,” Michaud told The Independent in his thick French accent. Only there was no other ...

"We have a tendency to eat our own, and spit out the bones on Open Line.” — The Independent , March 2008. ••• "There is no union boat,” Randy Simms said this morning (Wednesday, April 28th) on Open Line. Simms checked it out the day before with Earle McCurdy himself, who was a guest on the show, and was told a “union boat” doesn’t exist. The union has never owned a boat. Period. The union has never owned a crab quota. Period two. There is an actual boat. True. And there is a union — of fish, food and allied workers. Fact. In fact, members of the “union” own and operate the “boat” in question, and hold the rights to a crab quota. But there is no “union boat.” Period three. McCurdy was on Open Line to talk about the latest crisis in the fishery crisis. The “union-boat” issue was raised when a fisherman called in about it. There are ties between the “union” and “boat” in question. Undeniable. Just don’t stick the two words together. ••• I wrote several articles and columns on th...

Bill Rowe on our Ottawa embassy “In the middle of bandying boring numbers about, Williams and Martin lunged from their chairs and stood toe-to-toe, fists clenched, shouting abuse and spittle into one another’s face. The dispute seemed to be about which leader was most lacking in honour and gonads. Only the intervention of a gutsy aide thwarted a fistfight between the two statesmen.” — Bill Rowe of a November 2004 meeting between NL Premier Danny Williams and then-Liberal PM Paul Martin over the Atlantic Accord. ••• The position of NL’s representative in Ottawa — which is open — doesn’t only pay half-decent at $148,000 a year, but there could be a book deal when it’s done. Bill Rowe, the province’s first ambassador/emissary to the nation’s capital, is writing a book about his nine months in Ottawa (July 2004-March 2005), tentatively titled Danny Williams: The War with Ottawa. But then it could be titled a lot of things. Danny Williams: The War with Doctors. The War with Nurses. The War ...