Fisheries minister angling for joint Canada-U.S. management of depleted Atlantic mackerel stock
CBC
Canada is lobbying the United States to add Atlantic mackerel to transboundary fish stocks jointly managed by the two countries on the East Coast — but so far has not landed an agreement.
The appeal comes after Canada imposed a total moratorium on all commercial mackerel fishing in 2022 to rebuild the depleted shared stock. The Americans kept fishing, albeit with a reduced quota.
"We don't support the fact that we had closures because the stock was in critical condition and the United States were fishing essentially that same stock," Canada's Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray told a parliamentary committee Friday.
Murray's remarks are a more public stance on what has been a quiet effort by Canada to persuade the United States to jointly manage a species both countries say is in trouble.
Murray said she expressed her concerns in a virtual meeting earlier on Dec. 2 with her U.S. counterpart, Richard Spinrad, who leads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA.
Murray said Spinrad was sympathetic.
"He wants to invoke the precautionary principle, which in my view, wasn't happening adequately. We agreed that we share our approach to this and in two months there will be meetings between NOAA and DFO to discuss our assessments and build a better approach to rebuilding mackerel."
NOAA spokesperson Katherine Silverstein confirmed Wednesday that bilateral fisheries science meetings are scheduled for February to discuss stock assessments "but there is no formal management agreement for this species"
"NOAA Fisheries and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council are committed to rebuilding the Atlantic mackerel stock. A more conservative rebuilding plan is in the final stages of development to address this goal," Silverstein said in a statement to CBC News.
The American rebuilding plan will see a quota of 3,639 metric tonnes in U.S. waters in 2023. Its 2022 quota was 4,964 tonnes which was down from 17,300 metric tonnes the year before.
The 2023 Canadian mackerel quota will be set later in the year after a new scientific stock assessment is presented to fishing industry representatives and environmental groups.
DFO has been criticized by opposition Conservative MPs and fishing industry groups who question the point of imposing a Canadian shutdown when fishing continues on the same stock in U.S. waters.
Mackerel that spawn in the Gulf of St Lawrence migrate to the United States to overwinter.
According to U.S. data, last month American fishermen caught 1.5 million pounds or 680,000 kilos of mackerel on the U.S. side of Georges Bank, a shared fishing ground off southern Nova Scotia.
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