Professor Jeffrey Hutchings, a professor of marine biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, says Canada has a poor record, compared to other countries, for protecting fish stocks.
According to Hutchings, this country has not adopted science-based targets for protecting fisheries, but favours having successive federal fisheries ministers make short-term, czar-like’ decisions on fisheries management.
Professor Hutchings chairs the 10-member Royal Society of Canada panel that concluded, in a report two weeks ago, that Canada is failing to live up to its own laws and to international and national obligations outlined in a United Nation’s convention.
The Royal Society panel included professors from Canada’s East and West coasts, as well as a research scientist from Laval University, one from Washington State and one from England.
The report is entitled: “Sustaining Canada’s Marine Biodiversity: Responding to the Challenges Posed by Climate Change, Fisheries and Aquaculture”.
Hutchings said that one of the things the panel noted was that other developed fishing nations, such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, have been making huge strides in advancing their fisheries management with the application of science to fishery management decisions.
“The fact that other countries have been able to respond in an effective manner to fisheries management tells us that it is possible to change,” he said in an interview. “If Canada is not adapting as fast, it must speak to something institutional within the country as to why we’re not doing it as fast as other jurisdictions.”
Hutchings said the panel identified two points with respect to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans that any minister enjoys a huge amount of discretionary power which means they are open to short-term, politically-based decisions rather than looking at the long-term picture.
The second point is that the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has a regulatory conflict of interest in that one of DFO’s objectives is to promote the fishery while on the other hand it is there to protect the marine environment and to protect and sustain fish stocks over the long-term.
Transcontinental Media