Newfound Resources did not get BFC quota for 2004

I wish to briefly respond to statements made in a letter in your May 14 edition. The writer, Mr. John Andrews, makes several inaccurate statements which we wish to correct.

First, Mr. Andrews states that our company, Newfound Resources Ltd., has entered into three agreements to catch the entire 4,000 metric tonne turbot quota for the Baffin Fisheries Coalition.

In actual fact, we have been informed by BFC that we will not receive any quota this year and that they have instead accepted a proposal from an Icelandic company. We are obviously very disappointed with this decision, but we remain very interested in working with BFC and other northern groups in the future to harvest turbot or shrimp quotas.

Mr. Andrews also makes general statements about the lack of transparency and makes other flippant remarks about royalties and token jobs as they relate to southern interests. These statements do not reflect our positive experience in Baffin Island.

In recent years, we have conducted considerable business with BFC and Pangnirtung and we have handled all business in a professional and forthright manner. We have had good experiences with Baffin crew members and have confirmed our willingness to hire significantly more Baffin crew in the future. We have offloaded significant quantities of turbot for the Pangnirtung plant and found the service and co-operation from Mr. Nowinski and his staff to be excellent.

Collectively, we have managed to deliver expensive fish at a reasonable price while at the same time generating significant revenues for Baffin stakeholders.

We share Mr. Andrews’ disappointment in not receiving turbot allocations, but we suggest that writing false and inflammatory letters is not the solution.

We remain committed to long-term co-operation with Baffin interests. Our 67-metre vessel “Newfound Pioneer” is one of the very few OA vessels that is 100 per cent Canadian-owned and fully Canadian-crewed and we will continue to pursue partnerships with Baffin interests as your fishery continues to grow and expand.

Brian McNamara
President
Newfound Resources Ltd.
St. John’s, Nfld.