Port won’t interfere with fishing, no matter what direction it heads in

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

One thing that will always be an integral part of the port of Yarmouth is the fishery, and the port authority says whatever direction the port heads in one thing it won’t do is interfere with the fishing industry.

“Fishing, right now, is still the main economic driver in our region,” says port authority manager Dave Whiting. “So whatever we do with the port can’t be intrusive with the fishing industry.”

While public input is being sought on what direction the port of Yarmouth should head in – and fishermen are invited to be part of that input at a June 9 meeting at the Grand Hotel – Whiting says the port always has ongoing talks with the industry.

“We know there’s a few things that we might be able to do with them, like giving them a berth that they can call their own, not having to be first-come first-served.”

But like all things, money is always the problem Whiting says.

“What we’re looking at now is to get our foot in the door for that Atlantic Gateway strategy money and if we can get some money to do some reconfiguring, then we’d sit down with the fishing industry,” he says,

Whiting says while they hope that fishing people do turn out for the public input meeting, if they come just to say, ‘we’re here, make sure that we’re looked after,’ Whiting says that’s already a given.

“What I would like to see for the fishing community is if we can tap into (funding) and we’ve got a pot of money, then we want to sit down with them and say, ‘What can we do with this money to help you guys? Where do you want it? What do you want done?”

Does industry see the need for wharf reconfiguration, finger piers?

“I’d like to actually do something concrete with it,” Whiting says.

Spending the money isn’t the problem. It’s the ‘getting it’ part that’s a challenge.