Iqaluit fisheries meeting nets small catch

Nunavut environment minister Daniel Shewchuk, right, flanked by federal fisheries minister Keith Ashfield, speaks to reporters during a meeting of Canadian fisheries ministers in Iqaluit Sept. 1. Ministers from five provinces and territories discussed sustainability and marketing issues in the Canadian fishery. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

A meeting of Canadian fisheries ministers in Iqaluit this week didn’t net much of a catch.

Only five ministers, all from eastern Canada, showed up for the two-day gathering with their federal counterpart Keith Ashfield to discuss the state of Canada’s fishing industry.

But Daniel Shewchuk, who as Nunavut’s environment minister is responsible for the territory’s fishery, said the meeting was a chance to press Ashfield on Nunavut’s need for more turbot quota off southeast Baffin Island.

“He [Ashfield] is aware that it’s very, very important that we get our share and be comparable to other jurisdictions on the percentage of the fishery they have,” Shewchuk said.

Nunavut controls roughly two-thirds of turbot quota and 31 per cent of shrimp quota in waters off Baffin Island.

The question of access to turbot in Area 0B, a part of Davis Strait that runs roughly from Pangnirtung to Resolution Island, has in the past been a rocky one for Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

A decision in 2008 by Loyola Hearn, then the fisheries minister, to transfer 1,900 tons of turbot quota between southern fishing companies triggered howls of outrage and a boat-burning protest by Nunavut fishing interests.

But Nunavut got almost all of a 1,500-ton increase in the 0B turbot quota DFO approved in 2009, which went a long way toward mending hurt feelings.

Nunavut fishing interests today control 41 per cent of 0B turbot, up from around 30 per cent in 2008.

A federal court ruling in 2009 said DFO has a duty to consult Nunavut before it transfers 0B quota between companies.

Turbot in area 0A, which runs north, up the Canadian side of Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, is controlled entirely by Nunavut fishing companies.

During this week’s meeting, the ministers travelled to Pangnirtung, where they toured the community’s fish plant and small craft harbour.

Ministers discussed the threat of invasive species to the Canadian fishery, as well as ways to make the industry more sustainable, an issue that has become a major marketing point among seafood consumers in recent years.