Some 200 harvesters rallied outside the DFO office in Grand Falls-Windsor today to protest proposed cuts to the snow crab quota in area 3K.
The stock is not doing well in the zone, according to the latest stock assessment, and harvesters are fearful that quota cuts of up to 50 per cent are coming.
FFAW spokesman Jason Spingle says a drastic cut will have a dramatic impact on the livelihoods of hundreds of harvesters and local businesses.
Jason Spingle
He says the union requested a review of the results of trawl and trap surveys of the stock conducted by DFO.
Spingle says the variance is more than 50 per cent, when it’s usually only 10 or 15 per cent, “and that can happen.”
He says with DFO’s new vessel, and the trawl and trap surveys, “there’s nowhere near a significant cut” required, “maybe not even any cut, really.”
