Fisheries critic clarifies position

Having read your editorial containing references to the undersigned, I felt the need to set the record straight for your readers.

As far as I’m concerned nobody, other than the Inuit, has the right to determine how, when and where fisheries adjacent to Nunavut should be developed for the maximum benefit of the Inuit people. Anyone who suggested that I even expressed an opinion on that matter are lying and confusing the issue. Mr. John Efford has deliberately or otherwise caused confusion by making reference to a hook and line operation which was not even referred to at any time by the undersigned.

What we have expressed concern about is the transfer of a factory-freezer trawler, owned by Icelanders and Greenlanders, to a Canadian flag to catch turbot which could be caught by at least 11 Canadian harvesting companies with trawler capacity to catch two and half times the turbot quota. We are not referring in any way, shape or form to any proposal to catch turbot by hook and line.

Furthermore, the Scandinavian trawler is being given what the foreign owners describe as a “generous quota” of shrimp to be caught off Labrador and the east coast of Newfoundland. The source of this shrimp and the reason Canadian shrimpers are being denied access is under a shroud of secrecy because of lack of transparency by DFO, politicians and others. The fishery IS a Common Property Resource and the people deserve the right to know all the details.

We first learned about the giveaway of Canadian quota in an article in an Icelandic newspaper. I attach a copy of that letter and I suggest you publish a copy of the latter so your readers can see that project from the perspective of the Baffin Fishery Coalition’s foreign partners and judge for themselves who is really in charge of the Greenland/Iceland owned trawler.

Another annoying factor is while Geoff Regan and politicians like Efford approve the awarding of this shrimp quota to the Factory Trawler, the same Greenland owners are advising NAFO they intend to blatantly disregard the scientifically based shrimp quota on the Nose of the Grand Banks and fish ten times their allocation. In other words Canada and DFO are “given a kick in the teeth” in NAFO for generously awarding a shrimp quota to the Greenlanders off Labrador and Newfoundland. And Regan and Efford are supporting this kind of behavior by the Greenlanders!!!!!!!

The very best of luck to the Inuit people. May they develop their fisheries to the benefit of their people as has been the case in Iceland and Norway. I can assure you that DFO administration of fisheries off Newfoundland and Labrador, since we entered Confederation and transferred management to Ottawa, has been an unmitigated disaster. At the present rate of mismanagement we will lose many more thousands of our population to central and western Canada within the next five years or so. We have already lost 60 thousand people from fishing communities in the last ten years.

Mr. Editor, you will have to excuse us for expressing deep concern regarding shrimp quotas being awarded by DFO to the irresponsible Greenlanders. These same people have advised NAFO they plan to overfish and destroy shrimp resources on the Nose of the Grand Banks. Furthermore, we are deeply suspicious of people like Efford and Regan, as well as the people who fed you inaccurate information such as contained in your editorial. What are their motives?? What do they hope to gain??

Yours very truly
Gus Etchegary
Portugal Cove/St.Philips, Newfoundland