Fish companies say they’re paying the price for a lack of science with the closure of the Atlantic mackerel fishery, and they’re calling on the federal government to provide the tools necessary to do proper stock assessments.

DFO surprised the FFAW and the Association of Seafood Producers by shutting down the mackerel fishery, but a marine conservation group agrees with the move.

Derek Butler, the executive director of the seafood producers, says they missed the entire fall survey in 3LNO because of old ships that do the DFO science.

He says they’ve also been a few years now trying to have acoustic work done on capelin, and that hasn’t happened either.

Meanwhile, the science director with Oceana Canada, Dr. Robert Rangely, says the moratorium was the right move.

He calls the decision unfortunate, but the right one for conservation of the mackerel and herring stocks.

He says mackerel have been well in the critical zone since 2011 and the biological structure of the population doesn’t bode well for recovery at this time.