Herring seiners from New Brunswick are fishing in a shallow exclusion zone off the Prince Edward Island coast, and the problem is due to a map and translation error, according to Ken Campbell, communications officer for the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association.
What makes the seiners’ intrusion serious, said Campbell, is that their drags are damaging spawning grounds of other species.
“There were two exclusion zone maps made in ’83,” he said, “one in English, one in French. The French one was correct, but a translation mistake in the English version turned a rectangle into a triangle, and that’s the problem. The mistake wasn’t really noticed until these seiners started showing up, and they’re depleting spawning stocks.”
Campbell said the seiners came to the area in 1997 and that since that time they’ve quadrupled the amount of fish that they took in the first year.
He added that the island fishermen have offered a compromise to the New Brunswick seiners that would put the seiners farther offshore, but that no agreement has been reached.
Asked for a response, Robert Hache, a representative for the Gulf Seiners Association would say only, “We have met with the P.E.I. fishermen, and now it’s up to Fisheries and Oceans.”
Meanwhile, the Maritime Fishermen’s Union in New Brunswick supports the P.E.I. fishermen. “We represent inshore fishermen so we’re on their side,” said Union project officer Maurice Theriault.
Campbell added, “We’re examining the legality of the mistake. We believe that it should be rectified and that a cap should be put on the amount the seiners take. We’ve also sent a letter to the Solicitor General asking for an opinion.”
As of mid-May, Solicitor General Wayne Easter had not responded.