Fishermen quitting fishery over turbot bungle

By Aaron Beswick

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

Two Port au Choix, N.L. fishermen are so disgusted with DFO’s handling of this year’s turbot fishery that they’re getting out. John Gaslard’s 35-foot longliner, Straits Tide, and Reginald Rumbolt’s 45-foot Welcome Dawn are both for sale.

Concerned with a large amount of halibut bycatch, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) closed this year’s turbot fishery, delayed the closure and then re-opened it again over a three-day period.

“It’s not a fishery anymore – there’s a bunch of school youngsters running the show,” said Gaslard, shaking his head and looking at his hands. “They do this to us every year – they don’t seem to have any idea that fuel costs money, that our nets aren’t tied to the wharf.”

Gaslard worked for 58-hours straight, only stopping for a 90-minute nap, to get his nets out of the water in time for DFO’s closure date, only to have them reverse their decision. Between fuel and missed catch, he claims the bungle cost him $4,700.

It’s money he doesn’t have.

He and Rumbolt want the public and DFO to understand their ordeal.

The Welcome Dawn and Straits Tide left Port au Choix at 4 a.m. on Monday, June 9, to tend their gillnets. After steaming six hours to their nets, located 51 miles from the wharf, they heard over their VHF radios that the turbot fishery would close the following Tuesday at 8 p.m. due to high rates of halibut bycatch. While Rumbolt could carry all his 120 gillnets aboard the Welcome Dawn, Gaslard could only carry half his nets aboard the smaller Straits Tide. He spent five hours hauling aboard 40 nets, then turned for Port au Choix.

As he approached the harbour, Gaslard heard on the radio that DFO had delayed the closure until Wednesday at 8 p.m. Fishermen in Cow Head had protested DFO’s closure and negotiations were ensuing with the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ union. After unloading his gillnets at his stage, Gaslard headed back out towards his remaining 72 nets.

A fisheries officer had boarded another Port au Choix boat the previous day, warning the boat’s skipper that if fishermen didn’t get their nets out of the water they would be fined. The two trips to retrieve his nets would already cost Gaslard $2,400 in fuel, along with two missed hauls due to the early closure – he couldn’t afford a fine as well. There wasn’t time for rest.

After the six-hour steam to his nets, Gaslard spent 10 hours hauling his remaining 72 nets. The Straits Tide returned to the wharf Wednesday morning and Gaslard began unloading his nets. At 4 p.m., deliriously tired, Gaslard heard that DFO had consulted with the union and reversed its decision to close the fishery.

“You just felt like sitting on the deck of your boat and crying.”

Men who work 58 hours on a nap aren’t criers. Instead, Gaslard and Rumbolt put their boats and gear up for sale – boats that combined had employed seven people. Then there’s the insult to injury.

DFO’s stipulation for reopening the fishery was that nets be moved from 120 fathoms of water to deeper than 140 to avoid halibut bycatch. Gaslard’s nets had been in 180 fathoms of water. Quebec harvesters started fishing turbot last week off Port au Choix in depths of 125 fathoms.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Gaslard, who had decided to fish turbot instead of lobster this year because there wasn’t time to conduct both fisheries at once.

Both he and Rumbolt argue that a quota system would make better economic sense than a competitive fishery.

“That way we could plan ahead. Even if the quotas were less than what we’re catching now it would still be better because we wouldn’t have everything coming at us at once,” said Rumbolt.

Paul Cahill, DFO’s chief of resource management, said the department would consider an individual quota system if two-thirds of the fleet agreed to the change from the existing competitive fishery.

“Individual quotas are something we’d usually take advice from the fleet on – there’d have to be a fairly strong consensus from them to look at that.”

While some fishermen argue there would have been less halibut bycatch if the turbot fishery had been opened in August, DFO had followed the FFAW’s recommendation of a May 28 opening. This year’s episode will be taken into consideration when opening dates are set for next season’s fishery.

As for DFO closing the fishery, delaying the closure and re-opening it within three days, Cahill said DFO has only two tools it can use – existing licence requirements and closure.

“We had no knowledge of exactly where fish harvesters were fishing,” said Cahill. “Industry came to us and asked, ‘Could we go to 140 fathoms and give it a try again?’ and we went with that.”

(Aaron Beswick is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Northern Pen, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)