Dr. Phil Earle responds to Randy Simms' comments on Sue's Blog
Randy writes in (1) "Overfishing is certainly one of the major causes but after 18 years [...] something else must be at work.”
There are other factors that are not permitting the return of the cod, e.g., predation by 10 million seal population, foreign freezer ships (6) under Canadian flags of convenience fishing inside our 200 mile limit, but the destruction of our migrating stocks on the N&T of the banks by NAFO has been out of controlled since the moratorium. The figures on their fishing are undocumented, or hidden by the fed gov , but when some knowledge of foreign fishing has been obtained stocks have been over fished by more then 100% - 200%.
Thousands of tons of fish taken illegally, yearly, by NAFO fleets (beyond the quota limits that scientists have recommended) is the dagger in the heart of our fisheries recovery. What kind of reasoning does Mr Simms have when in the same sentence he comments that ... ”Over fishing is certainly one of the major causes....”, only to follow this by , “something else must be at work”?
This reasoning is paced by a political-industry ego, one that sequesters, not admitting the fishery has failed to the public because it counters the wishes of the Industry.
In (4) Mr Simms verify’s this ..quote, “....in order for the industry to be successful it must match up with the resources available ....”. Industry (union /ASP), matching up to the resources available is a philosophy which means take what you can while it’s there before its all gone. But this is the very attitude which precludes the industry being successful, one that has helped it’s present state of affairs. For the Industry to be successful, the renewable resource must be healthy and sustainable, and the Industry must do all it can to protect and help restore the stocks and then process it with need, not greed.
Mr Simms does not recognize that our fishing heritage is being destroyed because people are not allowed to fish, and fish are not being restored by our leaders.
Every thing he says addresses events of the fisheries failure and not one insight on any of there causes! Foreigners, and seals, are destroying NL’s fishery, our Industry is allowing it to be run into oblivion and gov's have no will to make the necessary changes in policies that is needed to save it.
Mr Simms takes the same position of gov's & Industry have taken in the present MOU (Mummernundrum of Uncertainty), restructure and down size, shut down more jobs and communities. The MOU is about money for the well to do, and to hell with the resource itself and the helpless coastal people.
There’s nothing in the MOU to indicate that the authorities are backing us coastal people, they are instead riding our backs into the ground.
Mr Simms is not responsible for the fisheries, but his comments expressed here and on his talk show, are in line with those of the leaders of our fishery, that have allowed our fishery to be destroyed. Randy should not be the scape goat here for what has happen to our fishery. He openly expresses himself in a way, which many in NL painfully know is not what has happen to the fishery, what should be done to fix it, and what it really means to our coastal seafaring people.
I think it must be understood that people who’s lives are not directly involved in the fishery cannot understand it fully and we should not be surprised that they do not say the right thing. To this point it is the fishers and coastal people (and others in our province who understand the real situation and value of our heritage) who are trying to hang on to our culture and coastal way of life.
We in NL must persevere in this....we must lead the way for others, show them that our oceans bounty is a treasure that must be protected and returned to us.... because it is the source of the undaunted spirit and magnificent coastal way of life of our people of the sea.
Dr Phil Earle
3 comments:
there's also issues around insurance for lost fishing revenue from oil related catastrophe's, aquaculture pressures on the prime inland waters, cost to regulate and tax small fishing operations.
without being local you can't hardly get a piece of fish without begging for it because of the lack of small buyers licenses. there's also the issue of insurable hours if fishermen sell their catch to anyone other than someone with a buyers license. doesn't make sense that we can't get fishing operations to sell seafood at farmers markets in NL because of this. it would make sense to do some local marketing of our products to tourists etc., but that doesn't seem possible as things stand now.
someone other than government, the industry or unions needs to step in a make some common sense decisions about our resources and our system, it is badly flawed.
Our fishermen being a part of the Auto workers union is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Or the UAW in charge of the fish cages.
Not much better than electing national parties to represent our interests when national parties have to represent the majority of the population.
NL's pop doesn't even compromise the margin of error in the polls and you expect any national party to defend our interest and still get elected?
The National Railway should have been enough to dispel that myth when Macdonald was impeached for promoting a national vision instead of the usual population vision.
Nobody states it like Doctor Phil Earle. This gentleman knows the history of the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery inside out, and he is so right in everything he spoke of in his commentary to Sue's Blog. I hope and pray he wins his seat in the district he is running in, I know if he does the Fishery will be foremost on his Agenda and I feel confident he will be instrumental in having that industry restored to better health.
My question is how can the Newfoundland and Labrador fishers have any control over their industry when Ottawa has jurisdiction over 100 per cent of the fishing waters and 100 per cent of the fish quotas? Our province has to get custodial management or else our fisher's are dommed and yes, I do feel Dr. Earle will be instrumental in that endeavour.
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