Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Assoc.

The following changes have been updated to the Gulf Region Department of Fisheries & Oceans Commercial FIsheries Licensing Policy. More changes are expected to be updated shortly.

I would like to advise you that the Commercial Licensing Policy for the Gulf Region at http://www.glf.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Gulf/Licenses-Delivery/Commercial-Fisheries-Licensing-Policy has been updated on both the French and English versions of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada website.

This is a brief summary of the changes. For more details, please refer to the link above:

Change to section 10.4. The new entrant criterion for coastal fisheries is now the same for Eastern New Brunswick as it was for Gulf Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island previously.
Change to section 10.6. The period of exemption from new entrant criteria upon relinquishment of Independent Core or Core Category for inshore fisheries has been changed from 12 months to three years.
Change to Annex IX, section 1.1.1 and 1.1.2. The freeze zones for lobster in LFAs 23 and 25 in Eastern New Brunswick will no longer apply to new entrants. New entrants will only need to be a resident within the applicable LFA.
Change to section 31.9. Vessel categories no longer apply in the Gulf Nova Scotia and Eastern New Brunswick Administrative Areas. As a result of the elimination of vessel categories for these Administrative Areas, the following policies also were amended as follows:

a. Change to section 10.2. This set of new entrant criteria will now also apply to all inshore fish harvesters in Gulf Nova Scotia and Eastern New Brunswick.

b. Change to section 10.3. This section no longer applies in Gulf Nova Scotia and Eastern New Brunswick

Change to section 50.3. This change eliminates the requirement for the cubic measurement of groundfish vessels and allows for the use of primary vessels in groundfish competitive fishery.
. Change to section 50.4. This change authorizes groundfish ITQ licence holders to fish with vessels less than 65’ LOA.
- addition of section 27.3 which allows the combining of lobster licences for eligible fleets in the Gulf Region.
- addition of Annex XII which identifies the fleets eligible for lobster combining.