Giving them their due

Dear Editor:
In 1992, Cabot Martin was President of the Newfoundland Inshore Fisheries Association. I was Vice President. I asked him, “What are we going to do now that we are no longer allowed to go fishing?”

His answer was “fishermen will fight when there are fish (cod) to fight for.”
The moratorium had kicked the guts out of us all.

Last month, 34 years later, by setting a quota of 18,000 metric tonnes of Northern cod, the Canadian government announced the moratorium was over and opened up the cod to Canadian and foreign trawlers. The Canadian Government to whom we passed over the greatest cod stock in the world to manage in 1949 managed it until there was nothing left and now we have had to go to Ottawa these last few years on hands and knees to get one to eat.

I am writing this letter on behalf of Pat Cabot of Southern Labrador, Tom Best, Cabot Martin and Con O’Brien, Sr., all of whom I got to know and work with in the 80’s on a crusade to take on Ottawa and our politicians to save this great cod stock and later on too worked with Gus Etchegary, who knew more about the cod then anyone on this earth. We remained friends until their deaths. There’s only me left now and my time is getting scarce. As Gerry O’Brien stated at Cabot’s funeral, “They went out with guns blazing.” I just hope I can do them justice. I just want to go down in history as they did, a fighting Newfoundlander and Labradorian, who fought for the survival of this great province.

In order to do them justice I have to go back in history to point out what went wrong. The following is taken from historical catches of cod in NAFO divisions 2J-3K-3L for the years 1959 – to the present.

In 1960, Labrador produced 15,418 M.T. of cod inshore in 2J. The foreign draggers caught 164,036 M.T. – 11 times more than the inshore. The same year foreigners caught 130,068 M.T. in 2K and 3L for a total of 194,005 M.T. With Canadian trawlers catching 7,413 M.T., and the inshore 157,286 M.T., the total catch was 458,799 M.T.

In 1964 the inshore landings were 101,037 M.T., Canadian draggers 22,283 M.T., and the foreign fleet 686,692 M.T. for a total landing of 810,014 MT.
In 1973 Canada started to manage the Northern cod in 2J-3K-3L for the first time and imposed a total allowable catch (T.A.C.) of 666,000 M.T. but only 354,509 M.T. was caught. The next year the quota was set at 9,000 M.T. less. That surely was a conservation quota. What a joke!

In 1974, the total inshore catch was 35,181 M.T., Canadian draggers took 899 M.T., and foreign draggers 336,570 M.T., for a total landing of 372,650 M.T. In ten years, the landings had dropped from 810,014 M.T. to 372,650 M.T., a difference of 437,364 M.T.

Fast forward to 1978, the second time when I re-entered the fishery; the inshore landings were 81,455 M.T, Canadian draggers took 20,922 M.T., and foreigners 36,182 M.T. for total cod landings of 138,559 M.T. The Canadian offshore fleet quotas continued to increase. Yet the next year Canada set the quota at 180,000 M.T.
By 1986 everyone in the inshore fishing industry knew there was a problem. Fisher people were using smaller gear to catch fish, building bigger boats to go further afield to places they never went before, and still landings continued to drop.

We all knew why. Our politicians had gone deaf. Politics had taken over the setting of quotas.

Although the last eight years before the moratorium we were not able to catch the TAC, the total allowable catch was kept unreasonably high, the Canadian dragger fleet landings continued to increase because of their destructive fishing practices when the cod were spawning, and the foreigners were still allowed to catch 61,154 M.T. We know the rest; down hill from then on.

Although studies were done, including the one by Dr. Leslie Harris (I attended three of his sessions he consulted the real experts in the fishery), the Canadian government didn’t like what he wrote so they commissioned Eric Dunne, a former Manager of the Fisheries with DFO, one of their own, to do a study condemning Dr. Harris. They were more concerned about their own welfare than the people in rural Newfoundland and Labrador or the future of the cod.
The people who preceded me called for an independent review of what happened to the Northern Cod, but Canada would not agree. If you don’t admit your mistakes and try to correct them, you are bound to repeat them, and we have certainly done that.

On April 17, 1990, myself and Cabot Martin under the Newfoundland Inshore Fisheries Association, were in the Federal court of Canada against the Minister of Environment and Minister of Fisheries for Canada to try to get the trawlers off the cod spawning grounds. We failed but we were lucky the judge did not make us pay the court costs; we would have lost everything we owned.

Everybody is referring to the moratorium 1992. In fact, as I have said many times, there was a moratorium on the Northeast Coast all up the Labrador two years prior. In 1990 the people of Makkovik and North could not get a cod to eat. The powers that be did not release what was happening until the Canadian draggers went out in January 1992 and had to come back empty; with all their technology they could not find any cod.

By then it was too late.

In 1991, I left the Labrador fishery and fished the Grand Banks along with the skippers and crews of most of the inshore fleet of longliners who spent most of their time in port because there was no fish to catch. Total landings that year inshore were 60,962 M.T. The Canadian draggers catch in 1974 went from 899 M.T. to 61,920 M.T. Foreign trawlers took 50,053 M.T. Why?

I did not land enough to feed the crew, but there was no trouble to see foreigners out in 3NO fishing away. If we got caught, we were towed in to St. John’s by the Coast Gguard and charged. Right up to when the last fish was caught, the Canadian draggers and the foreigners were still fishing on the cod spawning grounds with the permission of the Canadian government. And now in 2024 the Canadian government is declaring the moratorium is over at 18,000 M.T., allowing the same type of dragging to go on by foreigners and Canadians again.

This year there was a great effort to get more time on the water so that recreational fishers could pick good weather to enjoy fishing, but alas we were turned down. Now all the Liberal MP’s in Ottawa from this province are applauding their government for increasing the cod quota and giving the draggers access, and although the European countries will not let their people buy our seal products, we are awarding them with some of our cod. Our six Liberal MPs have sold us out. Yvonne Jones made the statement, “people on the Labrador Coast might need the offshore draggers to catch their quotas.” But they never did before.

I cannot forgive them for what they did to this Province’s great cod stocks. They are still not doing anything to try and get them back.

Cabot’s prediction was right; the fisher people and others are mad and are starting to fight and fight they should. We have taken this long enough. If our MPs in Ottawa won’t fight for us, it’s time to replace them. The cod is too important for the rural communities of this Province, who settled here for the cod, to take it lying down anymore.

I can remember when Joey Smallwood was trying to get us to vote to join Canada; Cora Maye in Lushes Bight had a slogan, “They say you have to pay taxes but what do they mean, we’ll get the baby bonus to come right in between.”

We certainly paid dearly for the baby bonus. After 500 years of living on this island we have lost the very thing, we came here for, cod.

By 1990 cod had all but disappeared because of overfishing. Caplin and herring has stalled at an all time low for 34 years. Seals have gone from 2.2 million to 8 – 10 million in population because of no market. That’s four times more seals eating their favourite food, caplin and herring, for their fatty content. It is also the favourite food, along with shrimp, of the cod.

After 34 years of a moratorium, if we don’t deal with the caplin and the seals, along with other problems, nothing will change.

In 1973 Canada set a TAC of 660,000 M.T. Fifty years later they are setting a quota in 2024 of 18,000 M.T. In 1991 the people in 2J Northern Labrador caught more than that with cod traps and jiggers.

And our six Liberals MPs are rejoicing in the streets.

The cod was our most valuable resource and without it we will never reach our full potential.

For the above reason I was born a Newfoundlander and Labradorian and will die one.

(Ret.) Capt. Wilfred Bartlett
wilfbartlett@hotmail.com