Bitter rivals will split new turbot quota

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is dividing Baffin’s new northern Davis Strait turbot quota more or less evenly between several bitter rivals.

The quota, for 2,500 tonnes of turbot for division 0A in northern Davis Strait, is allowed under a ruling last year by the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization.

The allocations, approved before June 2 by Loyola Hearne, the federal fisheries minister, based on recommendations from the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, are as follows:

* Nattivak HTO of Qikiqtarjuaq: 700 tonnes
* Baffin Fisheries Coalition: 700 tonnes
* Cumberland Fisheries Ltd. of Pangnirtung: 500 tonnes
* Qikiqtaaluk Corporation: 500 tonnes
* Inshore “development quota,” to be allocated later: 100 tonnes

For the Nattivak group, this represents a major coup. The Qikiqtarjuaq hunters broke from the BFC two years ago, and have been competing with them for 0A quota ever since.

The BFC and QC are both involved in joint-venture companies with firms created in Canada by Greenlandic and Icelandic fishing executives.

In addition to the extra 700 tonnes announced last week, the BFC will continue to fish a 4,000-tonne quota that DFO has been giving them since 2001.