Provincial fisheries minister Elvis Loveless is calling on the federal government to ensure that this province receives its fair share of the newly announced Unit 1 redfish quota.
The commercial redfish fishery is reopening for the first time in three decades and local harvesters were hoping that redfish would supplement their income in the face of cuts to northern shrimp quotas.
Photo courtesy of R. Larocque, DFO.
The fisheries union was hoping that the fishery would benefit the inshore fleet, however President Greg Pretty says nearly 60 per cent of the quota will go to the corporate-owned offshore fleet in Nova Scotia which uses factory-freezer draggers that will not land or process product in Canada.
Minister Loveless says important discussions with the Redfish Advisory Committee are taking place in the coming weeks to determine quota allocations for each fleet in the coming season.
