Nunavut reels in big boost in turbot quota

Premier Eva Aariak shares a laugh with federal fisheries minister Gail Shea, left, before the start of a news conference in Iqaluit Nov. 9. Shea announced a 1,500-tonne increase in Nunavut’s turbot quota off southern Baffin Island. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

Nunavut’s fishing industry got what it has been asking for Monday: a bigger slice of the turbot quota off Baffin Island.

Gail Shea, the federal fisheries minister, announced Nov. 9 that Nunavut fishers will get almost all of a 1,500-tonne increase in the turbot quota in area 0B, off southeast Baffin Island.

“This increase presents many opportunities for Northern residents to get involved” in the commercial fishery, Shea told a news conference in Iqaluit.

Ninety per cent of the new quota will go to Nunavut-owned fishing interests, while the remaining 10 per cent goes to fisheries in Nunavik, as required by the James Bay land claim agreement.

The new quota is Canada’s share of a 3,000-tonne increase in turbot quota split with Greenland. The total allowable catch of turbot in area 0B is now 7,000 tonnes. Monday’s announcement means Nunavut now controls nearly 41 per cent of that catch, up from 27 per cent before.

Nunavut has long argued it should control more of its offshore fishery like the Atlantic provinces do. The territory does control the entire 6,500-tonne turbot fishery in area 0A, which takes in the northern half of the east Baffin coast.

“Existing quota will not be moved from current quota holders,” Shea said. “We have said that we would support the emerging fisheries in the North. This [allocation of new quota] is one of the ways that we can do this.”

Shea touted the announcement as evidence the Conservative government is helping to create jobs in Nunavut.

But she also had little choice after a federal court judge ruled last January that Loyola Hearn, Shea’s predecessor as fisheries minister, “blatantly disregarded” his obligations to Nunavut in approving the transfer of 1,900 tons of turbot quota from Seafreez Inc., owned by Newfoundland-based Barry Group, to fishing companies based in Nova Scotia and Labrador.

In May 2008, members of the Baffin Fisheries Coalition torched a small boat with the letters “DFO” painted on the side, to protest that quota decision. Former premier Paul Okalik publicly berated Hearn and called on him to resign.

But Shea’s reception during her first visit to Nunavut as fisheries minister was much friendlier. Premier Eva Aariak said the news is a “great message.”

“This announcement confirms a major change in the relationship between our government of Nunavut and the DFO,” she said.

“I can’t stress enough the economic importance of this announcement to Nunavut.”

And representatives of the Nunavut fishing industry, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., and others watching the news conference gave the quota announcement a hearty round of applause.

Jerry Ward, the CEO of the Baffin Fisheries Coalition, said the new quota would make its operations more viable and mean more work for Nunavummiut.

Ward said while a 41 per cent share of 0B quota is still too low, Monday’s news “is an improvement” that signals a change in the relationship between the Nunavut fishery and DFO.

“We hope that future increases will continue to go the way of all going to Nunavut, as they should,” Ward told reporters.

He also said Nunavut fishers will have no trouble fishing the extra quota. BFC owns two factory-freezer trawlers, while the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation owns a third.

Ward said it’s possible that turbot stocks off Baffin Island could have supported an even larger increase in quota, but that he supports the 25-per cent increase. The decision, made by the North Atlantic Fishery Organization, was based on sound science, he added.

“We have to be conservation-minded,” Ward said.