Anchor Point -
When I listen to the fisheries broadcast every evening, it drives my blood pressure through the roof to listen to the news on the MOU.
The MOU is where the livelihoods of rural Newfoundland and Labrador lie right now. The main player of the MOU seems to be Derek Butler, who represents the processors. It's a very scary thought.
When I went to school a teacher once told me, in order to find a solution to a problem, you had to identify the problem and then go and try to solve it. So far what I have picked out of what the MOU has come up with for its solution is rationalization. So what they are saying is we have too many plants, too many fishermen and too many plant workers. Yet over the last 10 years our plants have decreased by 100. Our fishermen and plant workers have steadily declined, so is rationalization really the answer? Right now we are going through the worst times of our lives in the fishery.
I have been fishing for 31 years and one thing that I have learned in the fishery is that it is a seasonal thing. You take the crab for example. You have 10-12 weeks to catch them and then they are soft shell. I have heard on the broadcast that if one fisherman would buy out another he would get twice as long fishing. So if it took a fisherman 10 weeks to catch his crab there is no way that he could get 20 weeks in that area. The same thing goes with capelin, mackerel, herring and lobster and many other species. The only species that is escaping this is shrimp. We seem to think that shrimp can escape anything, or can it? The last meeting that I attended with the union, the first thing they came up with was a quota cut of 32-40% in area 6. The reason they gave was the ground fish is on its way back and is eating up the shrimp. Yet we still have no quotas of cod to catch to show for the increase. But at the same time we have thirteen factory freezer trawlers fishing in the St. Anthony basin, which is in area 6. They are towing 27 trawls between them and this is not a problem? Scientists say that all shrimp turn to a female and spawn twice a year. Well, I'd say they had better spawn twice a week if they are going to sustain this kind of fishery. Common sense tells me that spawn has a much better chance of surviving on the ocean floor, rather than the decks of these factory freezer trawlers. The people who own these boats are the processors and they are so powerful that our government is afraid to take them on. So I say to government keep going the way you are going and first we will have quota cuts, and in 3 to 5 years time we will have another moratorium on shrimp.
To me, our biggest problem is technology. These boats can catch this species all year round, but this species needs a resting period to spawn. Here is a solution. Buy back the quotas from these boats, which are owned by the processors and let the under 65 feet catch this in season. We will need more 65 feet boats to catch it, creating more jobs for fishermen. We would need more plants to take care of the product, therefore creating more jobs for plant workers. All communities would benefit better. Processors should stick to processing and harvesters should be harvesters, this would create competition, which is something the fishery really needs. Last year I had a quota of 750,000 pounds of shrimp. I left 50,000 pounds of it in the water cause it wasn't feasible to catch it. I could have had 7.5 million pounds of shrimp last year and it would not have been any good to me. So buying out another fisherman is not the answer. We definitely need competition.
If you stick with rationalization what are the plans for the people that you are taking out of the fishery? I haven't heard anybody speak about that problem. You see the people that you are taking out of the fishery are in the age range of 45 to 65 years old with very little education. No papers to show when they go looking for another job. The main industry in rural NL is the fishery if not the only one. These people are very good at their job if given the proper opportunity to do so. If you stick with rationalization you will eliminate thousands of jobs, therefore in my book creating a much bigger problem down the road. If the government wants rural NL to survive, the people on the committee of the MOU should be fishermen, plant workers, community leaders and government. There is no room for the processor. If we keep listening to Derek Butler, he says they still cannot pay a break even price but we still have to fish for a loss to keep up with the 21st century. So what he is saying, go out and destroy a resource and nobody makes any money. It makes me wonder where his head is. I wouldn't even start thinking where his heart is.
I would say to government, how much does it cost to resettle rural Newfoundland, and if you do that, did you really deal with the problem
Roland Genge Jr.
4R shrimp fisherman,
Anchor Point
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