BFC members prepare to abandon ship

The Baffin Fisheries Coalition faces potential collapse next week, as disgruntled HTOs and other members consider pulling out of the three-year-old group, putting the future of Nunavut’s multi-million dollar turbot fishery into disarray.

Sam Nuqingaq, secretary-treasurer of the Nattivak Hunters and Trappers Organization in Qikiqtarjuaq, said this week that his community wants to leave the BFC, apply for its own quota, and build its own fish-processing plant to create jobs for Qikiqtarjuaq residents.

“We’re not fighting with BFC, or the NWMB, or the Nunavut government. We’re doing this so we can create jobs,” Nuqingaq said.

The special three-year agreement, or “MOU,” that holds the BFC’s 11 members together expires today. As BFC’s board prepares to meet in Iqaluit next week, it’s not clear how many members will sign on to a new three-year deal.

Sources have told Nunatsiaq News that in addition to Qikiqtarjuaq’s Nattivak HTO, HTOs in Iqaluit and Pangnirtung are thinking of bolting, as well as two related firms from Pangnirtung: Cumberland Sound Fisheries and Pangnirtung Fisheries.

When asked by Nunatsiaq News, Jerry Ward, the BFC’s chief executive officer, said he wouldn’t comment on the situation until after next week’s board meeting.

Nuqingaq said Qikiqtarjuaq’s HTO applied to the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board in March for the right to fish 1,500 metric tonnes of turbot in northern Davis Strait, or division “OA.”

That puts them in direct conflict with the BFC. The NWMB has already given the BFC 100 per cent of the total allowable catch in 0A, about 4,000 metric tonnes in all.

But Nuqingaq says he’s disappointed the NWMB has not responded to his community’s request.

“They have totally ignored our letter,” he said.

He said Qikiqtarjuaq has already lined up a Newfoundland fishing company that’s willing to buy the community’s 0A quota – should they recieve it – and hire eight local people to work as deck-hands on board its ship.The Nattivak HTO would then use money earned by its separate deal to build a community fish-plant withing three years.

Nuqingaq said Qikiqtarjuaq also has 330 metric tonnes of turbot quota in division OB, an older fishing area in southern Davis Strait. The royalties they earn from it, under an agreement with the Clearwater fish-processing firm, go directly to building a community fishery in Qikiqtarjuaq, he said.

So Qikiqtarjuaq is also opposed to a proposal from the BFC – called “Six-Eleven” – that would see the coalition take over the small portions of 0B quota held by individual coalition members.

These developments are troublesome for the government of Nunavut, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., who created an informal “fisheries working group” three years ago after Ottawa gave Nunavut the right to fish 100 per cent of division 0A, a new, developing area in northern Davis Strait that’s still considered to be an “exploratory” fishery.

The fisheries working group then oversaw the creation of the BFC, and the NWMB gave the entire 0A quota to the BFC- about 4,000 metric tonnes turbot a year.

The BFC earns an estimated $2 million a year in royalties from selling the right to fish its OA quota to non-Nunavut vessel owners. The market value of that fish has been estimated to run up to $25 million a year.

The BFC has put part of its cash into a vessel-acquisition fund, and invested other moneys in training and test-fishing. Its goal is to use the combined clout of its 11 members to build a Nunavut-controlled fishery.

Carey Bonnell, an assistant deputy minister in Nunavut’s new Department of the Environment, said the GN is already aware of the problems that some communities have with the BFC.

He said GN, and other fisheries working group members, will do the following:

* a review of the BFC, to take a look at the coalition’s mandate, community concerns, and what progress its made over the past three years.
* a feasibility study on the creation of a second fish-plant in the Baffin region
* a consultation tour of communities aimed at finalizing the government’s fisheries strategy.

And Bonnell said that in future years, a certain amount of quota from 0A may be “carved off” and devoted to a community-based inshore fishery – the kind of smaller-scale fishery favoured by communities like Qikiqtarjuaq and Pangnirtung.

But he said the greatest challenge in developing Nunavut’s fishery is to balance the aspirations of small communities, who want small-scale, small-boat inshore operations and small community fish-plants, with the economic advantages of investing in a big factory-freezer trawler.

“Four thousand tonnes may seem like a lot of quota, but split 10 to 15 ways, it might not be a significant amount. Then you would get reliance on southern interests for the long-term,” Bonnell said.