MEDIA RELEASE: Latest Stock Assessment Update for Capelin
March 11, 2025
ST. JOHN’S, NL – DFO provided a technical briefing this morning to update industry and media on the 2J3KL Capelin stock, and yet again, results of the science assessment are failing to reflect what harvesters are seeing on the water or in the results from the 2024 fishery. FFAW-Unifor understands that fishing is widely accepted to have very little impact on total mortality for this capelin stock, however, today’s update highlighted the model’s failure to capture on the water stock conditions.
Attending the stock assessment meeting on behalf of the Union were Eldred Woodford, Randy Randell, Ivan Batten, and Cody Batten, with staff Jane Tucker.
According to the update, the larval index is at the 10-year average, the percentage of age-2 maturing females is a positive signal and close to levels seen in the 1990s, environmental and sea ice conditions are predicted to be favourable, the acoustic biomass index increased 94% from 2023 to 2024, yet the stock status forecast model is showing a decrease for 2025 to lows seen only twice since 2010. This simply does not add up, especially when combined with the successful fishery in 2024 that landed 97% of the TAC, with the quota for many bays landed in just 1 to 3 days.
“It’s unfortunate that there continues to be such a wide disconnect between what folks see on the water and what DFO reports, especially when their own data doesn’t line up with the doom and gloom conclusion,” says FFAW-Unifor Inshore Director Sherry Glynn. “We hope we can work with DFO to address these failures and find a solution that more adequately captures the true realties of stock health,” Glynn concludes.