Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Assoc.

PEIFA News Release – Mid Water Trawl Herring Seiners

April 4, 2012

The Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association is strongly opposed to allowing mid water trawl Herring Seiners to fish the 4T Edge area of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
This permission was recently granted by Federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Keith Ashfield.

The primary concern of fishers is that one entire component of herring stock could be caught at once eliminating this stock forever. Herring return to the same spawning area for their entire life cycle. They are one of the most important fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, attracting crab, lobster, groundfish and tuna stocks to the region.

The mid water trawls are able to target fish at different levels versus fixed depth fishing.
In addition, there is no requirement for seiner boats to move to different areas and spread out the impact on the fish stocks.

Insufficient scientific data has been accumulated to warrant this significant change in gear type. Fishing in 4T was to be a one year pilot project followed by an industry review. This has not taken place.

The 2011 4T allocation for the seiner fleet for the Edge Project was 5000T (11000000 pounds of fish). However based on Department of Fisheries and Oceans statistics, no quota was caught by the seiner fleet in the 4T Edge area.

Should the fishery in any area of the Gulf of St. Lawrence be decimated no existing compensation programs are in place to mitigate losses.

The Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association requests that the Minister Ashfield immediately suspend the Edge Pilot Project until the serious risks involved in mid water trawling have been assessed.

For more details please contact PEIFA President Mike McGeoghegan at (902) 394-3510.