Nunavut interests seek bigger share of turbot, shrimp

As the waters off Baffin Island slowly freeze, the debate over northern turbot and shrimp fisheries is still gathering steam.

Since September, the northern parties staking their claims to this rich marine resource have told the Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans how they think the stocks should be managed and shared.

On Tuesday, the Baffin Fisheries Coalition, which fishes Nunavut’s quotas on behalf of 11 Inuit organizations, argued its case for more fish as well as more money for infrastructure and training.

Nunavut is losing out on at least $100 million in potential revenue because southern companies still fish shrimp and turbot in northern waters. Nunavut has 27 per cent of the adjacent turbot and 19 per cent of the shrimp, but it has been refused a ground fish license, which would allow the coalition to fish off Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Our message was very clear. The current system as it exists with respect to quotas and allocations is unacceptable. Nunavut is only looking for what’s fair,” Gerry Ward, the coalition’s chief executive officer, said in an interview this week. “Within Nunavut waters, there are roughly 40,000 tonnes of shrimp and turbot that’s harvested. We have 16,000 tonnes, or 34 per cent overall. It’s totally unacceptable and nobody’s prepared to accept that. That’s the real issue.”

The Senate committee is preparing a follow-up study to its 2002 report on Canada’s freshwater and northern fisheries, which will look at the quota allocations and benefits to both Nunavut and Nunavik fishermen.

The report’s recommendations are important because many in Nunavut and Nunavik want a piece of the new turbot fishing zone -the OA zone that lies in the far north of the Davis Strait – whose stock is now divided between Canada and Greenland. As early as next year, the Canadian share of the quota could be officially divvied up for the first time.

But the committee’s report is unlikely to satisfy all the parties – a bit like when the biblical King Solomon suggested cutting a baby in two to appease the women who both claimed the infant as their own.

The Senate committee has heard loud and clear that all quota allocations for northern turbot and shrimp should stay in the North, but there’s no real agreement on how this should be done.

Leesee Papatsie, the promoter of Jencor Fisheries Ltd., a would-be Nunavut fishing company, and her partner, Trevor Decker, want a larger quota for Nunavut as well as some set specifically aside for new, privately owned, local companies.

“You can help by giving more quota to Nunavut and by putting aside quota for any new development of fishery in Nunavut,” she said.

Last week’s announcement by the federal department of fisheries and oceans of an additional quota of 400 metric tonnes of turbot doesn’t help her because this goes to vessels that already have an allocated catch.

“We want to see something more positive,” Olayuk Akesuk, Nunavut’s minister responsible for fisheries, told the committee when he testified on Oct. 22. “We want to see more infrastructure development and more support on quota allocations to adjacent waters in Nunavut.”

The 2002 report of an Independent Panel on Access Criteria recommended to the DFO that no additional access should be granted to non-Nunavut interests in the waters adjacent to the territory “until Nunavut has achieved access to a major share of its adjacent fisheries resources.”

In her presentation to the committee, Cathy Towtongie, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., also said the problem with the fisheries is a “matter of allocation and access.” She accused the federal government of ignoring Article 15.3.7 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, which says the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board should allocate all the quotas.

“At present, Nunavut only controls approximately one-third of these quotas,” she said. “We are keeping the fishing plants in the Atlantic provinces open with our resources.”

In addition, Nunavut Inuit don’t benefit from federal fisheries and oceans programs for aboriginal people, which help pay for boats and training.

“None of this money goes to the Inuit of Nunavut,” Towntongie said.

But as the Senate committee starts drafting its report, some good news for Nunavut’s fishing industry is in the works – Nunavut will receive some of the $85 million in federal money recently earmarked for aboriginal skills and training for an offshore fishing training program.