Canadians Negotiate Fisheries Agreement Critics Pan As Weak, Risky

By Alison Auld, THE CANADIAN PRESS

HALIFAX – Canadian officials will be under close scrutiny this week when they sit down with international partners to negotiate a new fisheries agreement that critics have already condemned as weak and possibly dangerous to domestic fish stocks.

Senior Fisheries Department bureaucrats will meet with members of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization in Lisbon on Monday to carve out a revised convention for the maligned organization.

But even before formal discussions begin, observers say Fisheries officials have threatened Canadian sovereignty by opening the door to NAFO control over fish quotas and conservation measures in domestic waters.

“This is a seriously flawed document,” Bob Applebaum, a former director-general at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said in an interview two days before talks were to begin. “These negotiations should be reoriented toward things that really do need to go into a reformed NAFO convention.”

Applebaum and others have been speaking out against a draft version of the revamped NAFO convention, arguing that it might actually allow member countries to set fisheries policy in Canadian waters.

A provision in a June draft shows that the 12 contracting parties in NAFO, a multinational body that manages fisheries beyond Canada’s domestic waters, could by consensus have a hand in “conservation and management measures” and total allowable catch limits.

“I could hardly believe what I was seeing,” Applebaum said from his home in Ottawa. “I was appalled.”

Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn has angrily dismissed the assertion, insisting he would never grant foreign interests a stake in managing Canadian stocks.

Hearn, who has long pledged to reform the embattled organization, said enforcement has increased and fishing infractions have gone down sharply since he became minister.

In a statement issued Friday, Hearn refused to reveal Canada’s position as it heads into the meetings, but again declared control would not be ceded to other NAFO members.

“Canada will not accept any proposal that weakens our ability to manage fisheries within our own 200-mile limit,” he said. “This will not even be considered.”

Critics also claim the draft leaves Canada vulnerable to letting other nations set conservation measures if a proposed voting formula is adopted. The old system required a simple majority, but a revised one allows a 2/3 majority.

“The 2/3 vote will erode conservation in the Northwest Atlantic for the life of the new convention,” said Applebaum. “What you might have been able to get through with a simple majority vote will be blocked in cases where you can’t get it up to 2/3.”

Bob Rangeley of the World Wildlife Fund said NAFO can’t afford to give up any ground on conservation if stocks, particularly depleted cod, are to be saved. He wants the organization to adopt measures that would cut down on cod bycatch – fish caught inadvertently in other fisheries like halibut, redfish or yellowtail.

The group wants NAFO to reduce bycatch to half of 2006 levels, introduce closures of certain areas during cod spawning seasons and make mandatory gear types that cut down on bycatch.

“Cod are at a turning point and if the high levels of bycatch continue, they are declining and are on a pathway to extinction,” Rangeley said from Brussels, before heading to Lisbon. “This is crucially important for cod.”

Environmentalists are also urging member countries to accept a United Nations resolution that calls on groups like NAFO to protect vulnerable marine areas, particularly spots that contain coldwater corals.

They want NAFO to close certain areas to bottom trawling by 2008, research marine ecosystems and not allow any expansion of trawling.

“Canada is most famous for the collapse of some of the most abundant fish stocks in the world,” Susanna Fuller of the Ecology Action Centre said in Halifax before leaving for Portugal.

“Canada now has the opportunity to change that reputation and be known for protecting important areas such as corals, sponges and seamounts.”

NAFO agreed to tougher sanctions last year that require vessels to immediately go to port if they violate fishing regulations outside Canada’s 200-nautical mile boundary.

But critics said the so-called reforms were meaningless because the port is chosen by the country in question, giving member nations the right to inspect their own vessels.

That renewed concerns that enforcement of the rules will be lax and do little to clamp down on illegal fisheries that have swelled to a $9-billion industry worldwide. Spanish and Portuguese trawlers have long been considered the most egregious violators of NAFO rules.

Hearn has insisted the reforms will help NAFO crack down on overfishing, despite a Senate committee warning that the reforms were deeply flawed.

“Quite frankly, NAFO’s back’s up against the wall,” said Rangeley. “The time’s over for fancy words. Let’s get down to action and change on the water. We’ve got to have good enforcement measures or none of this will mean anything.”