DFO considers licensing recreational fishery in Atlantic Canada, Quebec

By Clayton Hunt

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

While many Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans were looking forward to the 2008 recreational cod fishery, there may be some changes coming to the recreational fisheries for the Atlantic Canadian provinces and Quebec.

Max Stanfield, the acting director general for resource management with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), said that the department is considering a licensing program for the four Atlantic provinces and Quebec recreational marine fisheries.

"This idea of an Atlantic Canada-Quebec licensing program for recreational fisheries has been around for a number of years," Stanfield said. "The idea is not connected to media reports on July 16 dealing with the discrepancies in the amount of cod caught in the 2007 Newfoundland recreational cod fishery."

Apparently, there was a major difference in two DFO surveys conducted on last year's recreational cod fishery in Newfoundland. The first survey, conducted by DFO officials on the water, estimated that the fishery resulted in the catch of 542 tonnes of cod.

However, in a phone survey conducted by an independent firm for DFO, the estimated catch rose to 2,400 tonnes of cod being caught in 2007. Stanfield was adamant that the consideration for the Atlantic-Quebec licensing program is not based on these two surveys.

"The main advantage of an Atlantic-Quebec licensing program is that it will help DFO develop a better profile of the recreational fisheries in each province or region. We will know the number of fishers out there, the participation rates and we will know who to contact for better information," he said. "This program will help us develop an overall better management regime for recreational fisheries and will help us in our conservation programs as well."

Stanfield said that while a licensing program would be uniform in some ways such as cost and distribution methods, there will have to be a built in flexibility for each province or region. This needed flexibility is due to the differences in numbers of fish in certain areas and the biological features of the different fisheries.

As of mid-July, no final decisions on a licensing program had been made. Stanfield said a great deal of work remains to be completed on the concept and it is possible that no program will be in place until 2011 or 2012.

(Clayton Hunt is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Coaster newspaper, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)