Three brand new Coast Guard research vessels, the most recent of which was delivered to St. John’s late last year, are still not operational.
DFO canceled its annual northern cod stock assessment citing mechanical problems involving other vessels they use, resulting in a gap in data collection over the last survey period.
Division Manager of Aquatic Resources at DFO, Brian Healey, says mechanical issues and bad weather resulted in an inability to gather as much data as necessary for their multi-species survey from Labrador down to the Grand Banks.
Three brand new Coast Guard research vessels, built in British Columbia under the federal government’s National Shipbuilding Strategy, were presented to DFO in 2019 and 2020 at a total cost of $1.5 billion. One of those vessels, the John Cabot, is based in St. John’s. Healey says those vessels are still not operational.
“Those vessels are still in the process of transitioning into service,” says Healey. “We have to do some comparison work between old and new before…they can conduct these surveys.”
A stock status update on capelin will be provided in the coming days.
FFAW Calling on Federal Minister to Reconsider Stock Assessment
The FFAW is asking the federal fisheries minister to intervene and reconsider the stock assessment cancellations announced on Tuesday.
FFAW President Keith Sullivan disagrees with DFO’s assertion that there is not enough data to warrant a stock assessment. Sullivan says the DFO research vessel survey was completed in much of 2J and 3K and that other sources of data like those from tag returns and the sentinel survey as well as information gathered from harvesters themselves are valid.
He says harvesters have “a significant amount of knowledge to contribute to the assessment table” and he says there is enough data available to sit down with industry participants and conduct the 2J3KL stock assessment for northern cod as planned.