'Real change' needed in fishery management, group says
An advocacy group for fish harvesters across the country says the federal Liberal government needs to follow through on its election promises for people who fish for a living.
Marc Allain, with the Canadian Federation of Independent Fish Harvesters, said that fishery management needs to be done by the people involved with the fishery.
He added that it should be done on a regional basis and not by people in Ottawa with little knowledge of how the fishery operates.
"It makes no sense that the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is making decisions about when you open or close your fishery or what the colour of a piece of plastic on a lobster pot should be," said Allain.
"We need to get rid of this top-down decision-making by people who know nothing about the fishery."
Real change
Allain said in the past fishery conservation has meant just to stop fishing.
The group is presenting a document to Federal Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo to let him know what "Real Change" — the slogan that the Liberal party used in October's election — means to the fishery.
"For real change, we get back to saying our fisheries are about providing decent livelihoods and good jobs for the people who fish and that the benefits of fishing flow back to the people who fish and to fishing communities."
