Newfoundland/Labrador crab fishermen are at loggerheads with provincial Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Trevor Taylor over a raw material shares (RMS) system for the crab fishery that’s being tried on a two-year pilot basis.
Saying that the outlook for the 2005 crab fishery is “weak,” Taylor said he was taking the step “to act in the public interest.”
“This pilot project will strengthen the industry because it will introduce a measure of stability into an unstable situation,” Taylor said. “Our crab fishery is threatened by declining prices, unfavorable exchange rates, excess inventory, fish plant overcapacity, and the possibility of the federal government cutting quotas. It would be irresponsible for us to sit idly by without acting to strengthen the economic engine of our fishery.”
For all intents and purposes, RMS also means the end of the bidding system in the province.
Taylor’s announcement in March was met with angry protests, including a picket line.
“They came from bays and coves and communities and towns from all over the island to tell the provincial government `no to production quotas,'” said Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers, adding that “nearly 3,000 harvesters and plant workers” rallied at Confederation Building in St. John’s.
McCurdy says that the fishermen want full debate on the merits of production sharing, quotas and an auction system.
According to Fisheries spokesman Alex Marland, “As a condition of a crab processing license, the amount of raw material that seafood producers can process will be capped. The system will improve regional distribution of crab processing and provide for a more orderly fishery for harvesters, processors, and fish plant workers.”