“Inshore harvesters aren’t making the money they should be making because free enterprise doesn’t exist for them,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL, in a news release.
“Canadians are willing to pay good money for our cod, better money than local processors are paying, and harvesters are missing out. That must end.”
Fisherman Rick Crane from Cox’s Cove on Newfoundland’s west coast trucked 2,619 pounds of frozen cod fillets across the Gulf of St. Lawrence to a Quebec community, where the fish sold out on Tuesday evening in less than an hour.
Crane, well-known for his appearances on Cold Water Cowboys, says there were hundreds of people in line for fish, and he could have sold whatever cod he had.
He would not reveal the name of the Quebec community to protect his market, and won’t say how much he sold the cod for.
Crane says it strengthens the argument for the Newfoundland and Labrador government to open the provincial market to outside buyers.
“It needs to be done,” said Crane. “Why can’t fishermen put more money in their pockets instead of more money for the buyers?”
The cod fillets that Crane sold came from Twillingate and Green’s Pond. Harvesters on the northeast coast had trouble selling their cod for much of August because plants — which were tied up processing other species such as caplin — weren’t buying.
The news release states that the fall price of northern cod caught off Newfoundland’s northeast coast and Labrador ranges between 83 cents (grade A), and 20 cents (grade C). The 2017 average provincial price is 60 cents a pound.
FISH-NL first asked the province’s fisheries department in December, 2016, to lift all restrictions and allow out-of-province buyers into the provincial marketplace for all species.
