The provincial and federal governments announced a plan Friday to buy out scores of lobster fishermen in an effort to make the harvesting sector more viable.
Government officials called it a “conservation and sustainability plan,” but at its core, the province and the federal government will put up millions of dollars in a reverse auction, which they hope will get as many as 200-300 enterprises out of the fishery.
“If an individual fisherperson avails of the early retirement lobster program, then they’re opting to retire their entire enterprise, so it’s not just the lobster licence, if they have the groundfish licence, they effectively take themselves out of the industry entirely,” said provincial Fisheries Minister Darin King. “It means one less enterprise out there fishing for a quota, so it can only mean improvements for those who remain in the industry.”
Ottawa and the province will kick in $9 million each to make the plan happen; the lion’s share of that — about $16 million — will go to buyouts.
There will also be money for more science and research around lobster stocks. Harvesters in all parts of the province will be required to keep basic logbooks for scientific purposes, and harvesters can volunteer to keep detailed scientific logbooks.
The Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ (FFAW) union is also contributing by getting its members on the south and west coasts to give up roughly 47,000 lobster traps.
Unlike most other fisheries in the province, there is no quota attached to the lobster fishery. While the season is open, harvesters can get as many lobsters as they can trap.
By reducing the number of traps, and reducing the number of harvesters in the industry, it should mean the people left in the industry will have more lobsters in their pots.
“That will, in turn, make it more lucrative for those who remain,” said federal Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield.
But Ashfield cautioned this shouldn’t be seen as a template for rationalizing other fisheries in the province. Generally, Ottawa isn’t prepared to buy out harvesters to get them out of the business.
“This is a different fishery; it’s not an (individual quota) fishery like the rest of the fishery is,” he said.
FFAW president Earle McCurdy said rationalization and restructuring is still needed in other parts of the fishery, so the union will keep pushing. He did, however, concede Friday’s plan isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
“This is not the end of any requirement for rationalization in our province in the fishery, clearly,” he said. “We generate ideas by bringing people together, and we’ll continue to do so.”
But the lobster harvesters at Friday’s announcement had nothing but positive things to say about it.
Joan Doucette, a lobster harvester from St. George’s, said she hopes it will get older harvesters out of the business, and make it more attractive for young people to get involved.
“I think it’s great. It’s going to help a lot of people who are getting up in age, and are looking forward to getting out of the fishery,” Doucette said. “Right now not a lot of younger people are getting into the fishery because they don’t think there’s really any financial gain from it. A lot of our younger people are moving off to Alberta.
“If our fishery could be maintained whereby there would be an income that would be sustainable for them and their family, I think we’d see a lot more younger people want to stick around Newfoundland, because when it’s in the blood, it’s in the blood.”
jmcleod@thetelegram.com
Twitter: TelegramJames
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