Provincial fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne believes there is middle ground that can be achieved as it relates to snow crab quotas in the 3K zone.
Harvesters spent the weekend protesting the 20 to 25 per cent cuts, but despite their efforts DFO has doubled down on their decision, which the FFAW believes will have devastating consequences for affected communities.
The PC party has accused the provincial government of being silent on the issue, but Gerry Byrne says that is not true.
Byrne says he reached out to newsrooms across the province over the weekend, and has been actively speaking with harvesters in the 3K zone.
Byrne says he was “really taken aback” by DFO’s decision, noting that representative Richard Gillett was “quite articulate” in his arguments.
Richard Gillett addresses harvesters and reporters.
He thinks it was reasonable to expect that “cool heads and fresh eyes” would come to a different decision. “Why would you take up everybody’s time with a false or fake consultation if you had no intentions of ever changing your mind?”
Byrne says only male snow crab are harvested, the females aren’t touched, and that means there is always a possibility for the stock to rebound.
Overfishing of male snow crab, he explains, might slow the stock in future years but that is a risk harvesters are willing to take.
“Harvesters have to live with the consequences that they choose themselves. If the science is right and the crab is, you know, basically the number of male crabs in the water, the biomass is quite low, then the only consequence will be is that it will take longer for them to recover. And fishery may be slowed in the future. That’s a decision that they are prepared to take because they’re absolutely adamant that the science is wrong. But they know the consequence lies with them.”
