Serious questions are being asked about DFO stock surveys and what impact a gap in the data will have now that one of the Coast Guard’s four science vessels in the east coast region has been decommissioned.
The spring northern cod and northern shrimp stock assessments were cancelled last year in favour of comparative work involving the Coast Guard’s old and new research vessels—but the 40-year old Alfred Needler has been decommissioned before that work could be completed.
The aging vessel has encountered repeated mechanical issues over the last few years. DFO had been using the Needler and the Teleost to carry out comparative work alongside the brand new vessels the John Cabot and the Jacques Cartier.
Division Manager of Aquatic Resources with DFO Science in NL, Brian Healey, says the Needler was doing side-by-side work to help calibrate data collection.
He says having the Needler taken out of service means some changes to their activities in the coming months.
Plans are now underway to determine how that changes what they do, but they will continue stock surveys with the new vessels in the spring and the fall.
The winter stock assessments for northern cod and most areas involving northern shrimp were cancelled last fall to focus on comparative survey work while the Needler and Teleost were still in service.
(FFAW secretary-treasurer Jason Spingle.)
The secretary-treasurer of the FFAW says it’s no surprise that the research vessel the Alfred Needler has been decomissioned, but he is surprised that there does not appear to have been a plan in place.
Jason Spingle says the 40-year-old Needler was kept in service longer than it should have.
He says it appears as though DFO and the Coast Guard did not have a plan for replacement of scientific ships.
That leaves the fishery in a “difficult predicament” with not enough scientific information and the cancellation of “critical” formal assessments for two significant species.
