Sea change in industry sank fish plants: Taylor

A former Tory fisheries minister says the writing was on the wall for shuttered fish plants in Marystown and Port Union.

Trevor Taylor says the plant in Marystown had outlived its usefulness.

"Marystown was built for a large deep-sea trawler fishery with a massive groundfish resource and that doesn't exist anymore," Taylor told CBC News. "There's a substantial yellowtail resource but you don't need Marystown ... a plant of the size of Marystown and the cost of Marystown, in order to do it."

Taylor says it's a credit to Fishery Products International and Ocean Choice International that the companies kept Marystown operating as long as they did.

He says Port Union was done in by quota cuts and last year's damage from hurricane Igor.

Taylor also echoes Fisheries Minister Darin King's position that the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union and government must get past the rhetoric and deal with the problems facing the industry.

Taylor was a Tory cabinet minister for six years until his retirement from provincial politics in 2009. He held the fisheries portfolio for two tumultuous years, from 2003 to 2005, when efforts to reform the industry sparked outrage. Protesting crab fishermen shut down the legislature in response to the introduction of a controversial raw materials sharing program that was later shelved.

Prior to entering politics, Taylor worked in the fishery and was on the executive of the FFAW.