Job-starved have-nots join forces on turbot bid

Two of Baffin’s poorest communities, Qikiqtarjuaq and Clyde River, joined forces with a fishermen’s co-operative in Labrador last month to bid for the right to fish 2,500 tonnes of new turbot quota in northern Davis Strait.

The Nattivak hunters and trappers association of Qikiqtarjuaq applied to the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board for the quota on April 21, on behalf of two firms: Masiliit Corp. of Qikiqtarjuaq and Mammaqtulirijiit Corp. of Clyde River, who will split the quota 50-50.

The two firms say their plan would create jobs for 70 Nunavummiut — in two communities that desperately need them.

“They have no other options to look forward to,” said Koalie Kooneeliusie, the chair of Qikiqtarjuaq’s Nattivak HTA, saying his small community gets little help from the territorial government and has no other way of creating employment except through the fishery.

The two groups point out in their application that “significant turbot fishing” now takes place in waters that lie only 25 to 40 miles off their respective communities.

That means if the wildlife board applies the principle of “adjacency,” the two communities ought to get priority over applications from groups like the Baffin Fisheries Coalition or the Qikiqtaaluk Corp.

The Nattivak HTA split from the BFC in 2004, then formed Masiliit Corp. in 2005 because they believe that the BFC model doesn’t deliver enough benefits to their community.

“Basically, they backed out of BFC and formed Masiliit in 2005 because the board knew that there was a need for further employment in the community and the government was not giving out employment,” Kooneeliusie said.

The two firms also say their plan ensures that fish would be delivered only to Canadian ports and processed only by Canadian workers.

To that end, they’ve struck a deal with the Labrador Fishermen’s Union Shrimp Co. Ltd. of L’Anse-Au-Loupe, Labrador. Under their agreement, their turbot would be landed for processing at a fish plant in L’Anse-Au-Loupe, and plants in other communities owned by the same company.

The Labrador firm would provide training for Qikiqtarjuaq and Clyde River residents at their plant in L’Anse-Au-Loupe.

“We have a very high unemployment rate. That was the purpose of forming the company [Masiliit],” said Sam Nuqingaq, the secretary-treasurer of the Nattivak HTA.

And they also say that they would catch their quota without the use of bottom-trawling, a technique that, according to many conservation groups, damages fish stocks and damages the ocean floor.

Instead, they plan to use smaller vessels equipped with gill nets, using a larger mesh size that allows small, immature fish to escape. And in their application, they say that trawlers operating in area OA take too many small fish that are too young to spawn.

This practice is “bad news” for Baffin communities that depend on the fishery, because it threatens the long-term viability of fish stocks, they say in their application.

“We are very concerned about ensuring a sustainable fish resource over the long term,” their application says.

The Baffin Fisheries Coalition announced last week that they too have applied for the new quota in area 0A, with a new arrangement for sharing revenues among its members.

The 2,500 tonnes of new turbot quota in area 0A is in addition to a 4,000 tonne quota that the BFC has fished since 2001.

It flows from a decision made last year by the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization to increase the total allowable turbot catch in northern Davis Strait for Canada and Greenland. The 2,500 tonnes represents Canada’s share of the increase, 100 per cent of which will go to Nunavut interests.