One of the most lucrative fisheries in Atlantic Canada – the elver [baby eel] fishery, which garners up to $5,000 per kilogram – was closed this past spring due to concerns about conservation and safety caused by poaching.
In a fisheries management order prohibiting the fishing of elvers issued on April 15, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Minister Joyce Murray, stated, “Conflict on the water between harvesters has escalated to threats of violence and the safety of harvesters is at risk, which constitutes a threat to the proper management and control of the fishery.”
Last week, DFO held a press conference detailing the implementation of Indigenous lobster fisheries; the moderate livelihood and the food, social and ceremonial (FSC) fisheries, both of which are practiced in Chedabucto Bay. In light of the recent difficulty policing the elver fishery,
The Journal asked if the department had the budget and bodies to effectively enforce these new fisheries.
Tim Kerr, DFO director of Conservation and Protection (CNP), Maritimes Region, replied, “They [elver and lobster] are two very different fisheries in the way they are executed… the lobster fisheries are conducted out on the water, with individuals out on lobster boats…whereas the elver fishery is done in a different circumstance, in rivers of which there are many across the province [Nova Scotia] and New Brunswick. So, a very different enforcement scenario.”
Kerr went on to say the department was well-equipped to enforce the FSC and the commercial moderate livelihood lobster fisheries with officers on the water and on the wharves educating harvesters on licence requirements and doing inspections.
“In terms of our capability to adequately monitor compliance of lobster fishermen under the FSC licence this summer, I can ensure that CNP has resources to do that effectively,” said Kerr.
Michael Leonard, DFO director of Indigenous Fisheries Management, Maritimes Region said,
“Second only to conservation is our responsibility to work with First Nations to further implement rights related to fisheries. Indigenous harvesters exercise their inherent and treaty right to fish through various authorized DFO fisheries. This fishing includes fishing for food, social and ceremonial purposes and commercial fisheries including commercial communal fisheries and interim understandings reached to fish and pursue a moderate livelihood.”
Members of 35 First Nations in the Atlantic and Gaspé region have the treaty right to fish, hunt and gather in the pursuit of a moderate livelihood under the peace and friendship treaties.
To date, Leonard said, DFO “has reached interim understandings that have seen nine First Nations fishing lobster under moderate livelihood understandings and selling their catch during DFO established commercial seasons without increasing overall fishing effort.”