All the fish in the sea, except mackerel: Scotia-Fundy fishers fight to keep 2021 mackerel quota

CANSO – “I am not shocked that the quota dropped … but the way that it was done was quite shocking to us,” Ginny Boudreau, manager of the Guysborough County Inshore Fishermen’s Association (GCIFA), told The Journal May 25 during an interview about the mackerel fishery in the Scotia-Fundy region, which spans the entire province of Nova Scotia into southern New Brunswick.

On May 14, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) issued a notice closing the mackerel fishery in Scotia-Fundy. Fishers in Guysborough County already had their traps in the water in preparation for the opening of the two-week season.

The May 14 closure notice was later amended, allowing a reduced mackerel fishery in the region. A news release from DFO on May 21 announced the reversal of the closure, stating the total allowable catch for the commercial Atlantic mackerel fishery this year would stand at 4,000 tonnes “in Atlantic Canada and Quebec, a 50 per cent reduction from last year. To help ensure all fleets have some fishing opportunities, the quota will be released in two equal amounts with one release now and one release later in the summer.”

Given the nature of the mackerel fishery in the Scotia-Fundy region – mackerel are only available during the spring migration – the quota is effectively reduced to 2,000 tonnes, as the summer quota release isn’t applicable.

Part of Boudreau’s shock at the May 14 closure notice was due to the fact that GCIFA has been taking part in the Atlantic Mackerel Advisory Committee and the Scotia-Fundy Mackerel Advisory Committee.

“That was quite a lengthy process and we assumed that the Minister [Bernadette Jordan, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard] had all the information to make a decision long before now. It was quite shocking when our fish just arrived, and everything got shut down … she couldn’t have picked a worse time to shut it down. If it had taken any longer for her to make a decision, then it wouldn’t have mattered if she opened the fishery or not because the fish would have already gone past here.”

The reason for the change on quotas is that DFO science has concluded the mackerel stock is in critical condition.

“Unfortunately, the number of spawning-age mackerel is at an historic low. Immediate action must be taken to conserve and rebuild the population,” stated the DFO release last week.

Minister Jordan added this comment to the release: “This is a difficult decision that has economic impacts on commercial harvesters and their communities, but the science is clear – stronger actions need to be taken to rebuild the Atlantic mackerel stock. I am hopeful that this decision will lead to growth in the stock over the next two years, as demonstrated by the science model. However, if the spawning biomass does not increase over the next two years, we are likely heading towards a commercial Atlantic mackerel fishery closure. I recognize that many harvesters depend on this fishery, and we will continue working with them and fishing groups across the Atlantic over the next two years to ensure the best outcome for the stock and all involved.”

Boudreau said local fishers would not welcome a closure of the mackerel fishery, but they would accept it. However, closing the fishery in some areas, such as Scotia-Fundy, and not others would not be fair.

“We were told at the rebuilding table [a working group with representatives from DFO, provincial governments, industry stakeholders, and Aboriginal partners to improve the management of the Atlantic mackerel fishery] that everyone would be treated equally,” she said.

The closure announced May 14 was seen as unfair treatment and sparked an outcry from fishers, fishing organizations and elected officials; notably Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie MLA Lloyd Hines, who represents many fishers impacted.

Hines told The Journal last Monday, “First of all, on a Friday at a quarter-to-eight in the evening – after the fishers had already deployed their traps – DFO precipitously announced the closure of Scotia-Fundy but not the Gulf fishery which included Quebec and Newfoundland. What that meant was that the trap fishermen, who in good faith – not expecting a complete closure, had already deployed their traps … all of a sudden they were given a 24-hour notice that they had to get their traps out of the water.”

He went on to say that he realized the peril the mackerel stock was facing but this shotgun approach to management was unacceptable.

“Preservation of that stock has to be the number one priority and, I have to say, what I have seen in the evolution of the fishery in Nova Scotia, is fishermen accept that and work at it.

“The need to protect the stock is not the argument. The argument was the precipitous nature that DFO employed to shut down the piece of the fishery which was in Nova Scotia,” said Hines, adding, “waiting for fishermen to put traps in the water, expend all that energy and all that money and then to pull it out; seems to me is mismanagement by DFO. That is not an acceptable outcome.”

Following the announcement regarding the closure of the Scotia-Fundy mackerel fishery, Hines was in discussion with local stakeholders, and both the federal and provincial fisheries ministers.

“Though it is a federal issue [Atlantic fisheries], I reached out to the two federal MPs who are in my area – Sean Fraser (Central Nova) and Mike Kelloway (Cape Breton-Canso) – but I also had a really good conversation with the Fisheries Minister [Bernadette Jordan]. She committed to me that she would look into the matter.”

As news spread, the issue was picked up by the media and some fishers in the impacted areas planned protests. While the mackerel fishery is small in comparison to others, such as lobster, it is an integral part of the fishing economy with knock-on effects, particularly in regard to the lobster fishery which uses mackerel as bait.

“At the end of the day,” said Hines, “the fisheries minister understood the problem very well and agreed … They cut the quota quite significantly; cut it in half from 8,000 to 4,000 tonnes and they split it into two pieces, 2,000 tonnes for Scotia-Fundy and 2,000 tonnes for Gulf.”

Local fishers were somewhat relieved by the change in the closure notice, but Boudreau said that – going forward – other issues should be addressed in regard to the status of the mackerel stock. She added, instead of always pointing the finger at the Canadian-based fishery when a stock is in peril, consideration has to be given to the international nature of the stock; and measures, or lack thereof, in place to preserve the stock in the United States. Research into copepods (the primary food source for mackerel), seal predation, gear type and the effects of the 2012 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic mackerel stock could all create a clearer picture of the road to stock preservation.

Lois Ann Dort, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Guysborough Journ