The fisheries union wants an emergency meeting with the federal minister to talk about a fish we do not often hear much about.

Mackerel are plentiful off some areas of Newfoundland according to the FFAW, but it says federal science has not kept up with the changing times.

Union president Keith Sullivan says it’s a cyclical fish but DFO science is confined to larval studies off Cape Breton. He says that used to work okay, but in recent years harvesters have seen large amounts of mackerel off Newfoundland’s northeast coast and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Because DFO science is based on information collected from one small area of Atlantic Canada, he’s worried that they will soon shut the fishery down based on poor science.

He says this year and last is the earliest they have mackerel congregate in these numbers in years.