With the snow crab fishery stalled over this season’s low price, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey is intervening in negotiations between harvesters and producers, according to the province’s largest fishermen’s union.
The Fish, Food & Allied Workers said late Tuesday that talks between the union and the Association of Seafood Producers had been ongoing all day and were expected to continue into the evening.
“The premier’s intervention today signals the extent of the current crisis and the need for action to find an agreeable solution for harvesters,” said a press release from the union Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the mayor of La Scie — a small town on Newfoundland’s Baie Verte Peninsula — says the community is divided over some snow crab fishermen’s decision to defy the harvesters’ union and head out on the water.
Mayor Marlene Regular said Tuesday things are tense, with fishermen wanting to earn money for their families but also wanting to keep their boats tied up in protest of the $2.20 catch price.
The first break in the Fish, Food & Allied Worker’s union decision to tie up the boats came on the weekend, when skipper Jamie Mouland posted on Facebook that he was heading out on the water to support his family and his crew. Mouland’s boat returned to the dock in La Scie on Tuesday but declined an interview and wouldn’t say if he’d caught any crab — only that there was no crab on board.
Nearby the wharf on Tuesday, fisherman Justin Giles said he supported Mouland’s decision, and said the reality of the situation will hit home for more harvesters when their employment insurance starts to run out.