The FFAW is welcoming the appointment of Joyce Murray as the country’s new Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

Murray, of British Columbia, was sworn into the new Trudeau cabinet yesterday, along with NL MPs Gudie Hutchings Minister of Rural Economic Development and Seamus O’Regan Minster of Labour.

The FFAW is calling on Murray to make the protection and promotion of independent, owner-operator fish harvesters a key priority as she assumes the new portfolio.

The fisheries union says that is especially important for what it calls the emerging Unit 1 Redfish Fishery. The FFAW says an “ill-advised” consultation process on the redfish stock was announced during the election campaign and it has “remained rudderless” with no responsible minister to date.

Last week the Atlantic Groundfish Council and Ocean Choice International accused the union of “damaging the future viability of the fishery.”