Turbot, Scophthalmus maximus. (Photo: Luc Viatour/www.Lucnix.be)
CANADA
Monday, January 21, 2013, 20:10 (GMT + 9)
The Arctic Fishery Alliance is worried that its competition is fishing turbot down to unsustainable levels off the Baffin coast by catching too many small fish -- and that the government is neglecting its duty of enforcing conservation rules for the turbot stock.
"When the northern cod started to collapse, one of the things that people saw is that more and more small fish were being caught, and we don't want to repeat that," said Dave Bollivar with the Arctic Fishery Alliance, one of four Nunavut-based companies with exclusive access to the turbot-rich waters in Baffin Bay.
Data shows that trawlers especially are catching more and more small turbot. In contrast, the Alliance fishes with gill nets, thereby hauling in fewer small fish.
Bollivar is asking for more research to be done to figure out if trawling is harming the turbot population, CBC News reports.
Jerry Ward is with the Baffin Fisheries Coalition, which uses trawlers and gill nets, said the coalition is “very comfortable fishing at the current levels.” He also pointed out, though, that gill nets bring problems too: they catch considerable amounts of large, egg-bearing females.
“This is not a resource issue, or conservation issue, this is more or less an effort to get more quota from one group versus the other,” Ward said, Nunatsiaq News reports.
So far, regular surveys taken by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) show that stocks are stable in the areas covered.
To protect the stock, DFO has the power to shut down any areas of the fishery if more than 15 per cent of the fish caught are under 45 cm. In northern Baffin Bay, DFO's draft turbot management plan says that trawlers can have small fish make up to 48 per cent of their daily catch.
The Arctic Fishery Alliance, however, accuses DFO of failing to enforce the aforementioned rules, and DFO has confirmed this to be true.
Kevin Hill, a spokesperson for DFO, insists that turbot stocks off the Baffin coast are healthy and that numbers are stable in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait.
According to DFO, the small fish caught are monitored closely and quotas for the area are kept at cautious levels.
Scientists from Newfoundland's Memorial University have also expressed concern, saying that the current lack of knowledge about this Arctic stock could threaten the future of the turbot fishery, The Canadian Press reports.