Scallop fleet not happy with DFO quota decision

The Full Bay Scallop Fleet is not happy with a decision by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to take quota away from it to give to another group, saying doing so puts the fleet in financial jeopardy.

The fleet says Fisheries Minister Gail Shea has given a further 10 per cent of the Full Bay Scallop Fleet quota in Area 29 West to a group of lobster/scallop fishermen who fish east of Baccaro.

The fleet has requested an immediate meeting with Shea to discuss the situation. The association representing the fleet says it was assured by three previous fisheries ministers that a sharing arrangement was permanent unless all parties agreed to change in. The Full Bay fleet says it has definitely not agreed to any change. “It’s frustrating,” says Dick Stewart, a spokesperson for the Full Bay Scallop Association.

The association says the quota change will cost the Full Bay fleet around $400,000. “The Full Bay scallop fishery has been in decline for the past three years,” the association says in a news release. “This loss of access to scallop quota in Area 29 West will put the fleet in financial jeopardy.”

An economic study recently conducted by the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture showed that the Full Bay Scallop Fleet had higher operating costs and is in a weaker economic condition than the other scallop fleets in western Nova Scotia,

The association says if Ottawa can reallocate inshore scallop access, and find $65 million for the lobster industry –referring to a recent announcement by the federal government to provide assistance to the beleaguered industry – than the government could reallocate quota from other underutilized offshore fishing zones as compensation. Or, it says, DFO should develop a financial compensation package for the Full Bay Scallop Fleet.