Local players in the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery are signalling their displeasure with calls for a moratorium of the cod fishery off the province’s south coast.

The FFAW is withdrawing from participation in the Canada-France Delegation and Association of Seafood Producers, Derek Butler has also resigned from the Advisory Committee.

Negotiations are now underway on co-management of the fishery with France.

FFAW President Keith Sullivan says the proposed recommendation to halt the fishery on the south coast is unacceptable and needs to be revisited.

The FFAW believes there are solutions based on the best available science which would allow the south coast fishery – one the union calls “essential” – to continue.

The ASP’s Derek Butler says the recommendation for a moratorium on 3Ps cod is wrong in the face of what he says is evidence of stock growth, and premature given past quota reductions.

A closure of the 3Ps cod fishery would have significant impacts on the industry, especially for plants like Icewater Seafoods in Arnold’s Cove which employs some 225 people. Owner Alberto Wareham took to VOCM Open Line with Paddy Daly to express his frustration.

“We’re buying the cod throughout the season, every day…we see the size of the fish, the quality of the fish,” says Wareham. “We know the fish” he asserts, and they’re not seeing in the fishery what DFO science is reporting, “and that’s a fundamental problem.”