One of the largest seafood producers in the province is firing back at the provincial government after the company was charged with processing and transporting dead snow crab.
Quinlan Brothers of Bay de Verde was charged with four counts of marketing fish unfit for human consumption following inspections by provincial officials on May 30th and June 29th.
But company president Robin Quinlan compares the actions of the inspectors to that of judge, jury and executioner.
Quinlan believed the product — about 52,000 pounds of crab with a market value of $500,000 – would be properly stored until he had his day in court.
But that was not the case.
He argues it’s not possible to determine quality of product before it goes through the processing lines at the plant.
Quinlan says officials seized the entire haul, even though only 30,000 pounds of the product was in question, adding they took product from vessels that had no relevance to the situation. He says he also followed the government-hired trucks to Sunnyside where a large hole had been dug, and the crab was disposed of.
“They had no intention of taking that product to a secure location until I stated my case, like I am stating it here today,” he told a news conference with the Association of Seafood Producers on Thursday.
The province claims to have had issues with product quality all season, but Quinlan disputes that.
He says they’ve had no issues since rebuilding their Bay de Verde plant after it was destroyed by fire in 2016.
“Quinlans has since packed and sold 87-millon pounds of finished product in international markets since 2017, and we have not had one complaint or rejection for tainted or unwholesome product,” says Quinlan.
Almost 200 people work in the plant, and “65 per cent of them come into contact with every piece of crab that is sold.”
(Minister Gerry Byrne)
Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne, meanwhile, says while he applauds Quinlan for publicizing the issue of product quality, and he’s open to discussing any flaws in the assessment process, he says current rules and standards must be adhered to.
