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DFO Releases Northern Cod Harvest Plan - Confirms First 115,000 MT Allocated to Inshore and Indigenous Harvesters

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DFO Releases Northern Cod Harvest Plan – Confirms First 115,000 MT Allocated to Inshore and Indigenous Harvesters
May 28, 2021

May 28, 2021 – The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) released the harvest plan for the 2021 Northern cod (2J3KL) stewardship fishery today, confirming a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of 12,999 tonnes. The decision is an increase over the 2020 level of 12,350 tonnes, which continues with the extremely restrictive plan, keeping the harvest rate below 2%.

Most noteworthy in the plan however, was the confirmation that the first 115,000 tonnes of directed Canadian access will be allocated to the inshore sector and Indigenous groups in Newfoundland and Labrador. FFAW-Unifor applauds the Minister’s recognition of the value of this allocation to our inshore fishery, and the principle of adjacency in the decision.

This decision is welcomed news for the entire province of Newfoundland and Labrador, as this ensures that the value of our resources will benefit inshore owner-operator harvesters and our coastal economy.  Much of our province was built on cod, and as this resource continues to rebuild, it can provide hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to our communities.

FFAW would like to thank harvesters for continuing to impress upon DFO and elected officials the importance of access to Northern cod for inshore harvesters who have always been dependant upon it for their livelihoods.

“Newfoundland and Labrador has a 500 year history of commercially harvesting Northern cod, and the fishery continues to be critically important to inshore fish harvesters and processing plant workers in our province. There is a tremendous amount of economic development that is happening in our small coastal communities with inshore fisheries, and as we prepare for measures towards economic recovery, the value of these fisheries and their capacity to directly employ tens of thousands of peoples should not be understated,” said FFAW-Unifor President Keith Sullivan.

Details of the 2021 Northern Cod Conservation Harvesting Plan, such as season dates, will be announced at a later date.

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Courtney Langille, FFAW-Unifor Communications Officer
clangille@ffaw.ca
(709) 693-8454

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Dr. Erin Carruthers

Dr. Erin Carruthers is the Science Director and Senior Fisheries Scientist with the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW-Unifor), which is the labour union that represents the owner-operator fleet in Newfoundland and Labrador. The FFAW is committed to research and management that supports healthy oceans, fisheries, and coastal communities. Dr. Carruthers received her Ph. D. in Biology from Memorial University in 2011 followed by a postdoctoral fellowship with the Centre for Fisheries Ecosystems Research. Before coming to Newfoundland, Erin worked as a Research Biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada at the St. Andrews Biological Station. Her current research program is co-constructed with fish harvesters and includes research on coastal fishing communities, collaborative longline and trap surveys, and best practices for the avoidance, handling and release of unwanted catch.