Ottawa signs new deal to charter fishing boats for science surveys

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has signed a three-year deal to charter fishing boats for government science surveys off the East Coast.

It's a response to frustration in the fishing industry that the department has been unable to deliver critical data used to set quotas, despite spending hundreds of millions on new science vessels.

The agreement with the Atlantic Groundfish Council, which represents the region's largest seafood companies, allows DFO to charter industry vessels for two to six weeks a year for fisheries or ecosystem surveys in Atlantic Canada.

"We've been distressed in the fishing industry for two or three years now because DFO research vessel surveys were not getting done,' said Bruce Chapman, president of the Atlantic Groundfish Council.

"We've asked them to have a contingency for their plans. And so if a vessel for unexplained, unanticipated reasons is no longer available for a given survey, give us a call."

The data gathered on these surveys is used in models that set fishing quotas throughout Atlantic Canada.

"We have vessels and crews that depend on it. We have communities onshore that depend on it and really, it's unacceptable not to have that information in the 21st century," Chapman said.

Chapman said without new survey data, the department defaults to cautiousness.

"If the total allowable catches are reduced simply because we don't have the information, that penalizes the industry for the surveys not getting done," he said.

Canada spent $788 million for three new offshore fisheries science vessels under the National Shipbuilding Strategy.

Two are stationed in the Atlantic: CCGS Jacques Cartier in Dartmouth, N.S., and CCGS John Cabot in St. John's.

But their entry into service has been delayed by breakdowns, unplanned maintenance and refits on both new and old fisheries science vessels.

1st mission complete

DFO scientists returned last week from the first mission under the new charter agreement. It was a two-week survey on Georges Bank aboard the Mersey Venture, a 58-metre factory freezer trawler owned by Nova Scotia seafood company Mersey Seafoods.

The trawler was needed because the 40-year-old Canadian Coast Guard ship scheduled for the job, CCGS Needler, was deemed too decrepit to justify yet another refit to keep it at sea.

The Mersey Venture gathered data used by both Canada and the United States to jointly manage trans-boundary haddock, cod and yellowtail flounder stocks on the shared fishing grounds.

Chapman did not disclose the cost of the charter agreement, other than to say it would be more than $1 million.

DFO did not provide comment.

In a Feb. 24 press release announcing the agreement, Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray said her department is "working with the Atlantic Groundfish Council to promote sustainable seafood growth in Canada."

Rare winter-at-sea survey

"Together, we are working to ensure that Canada has the data and science needed to protect the fisheries central to the way of life of so many Indigenous and coastal communities and the economies they support."

In early February, the Mersey Venture completed another science survey in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as part of a separate charter contract with DFO that started in 2022.

Caroline Senay was one of 11 DFO scientists on board.

"It was a great boat. They're super flexible, trying to do their best to suit our needs and find a way to accommodate the ship for the work we had to do," Senay said.

She said the charter enabled a rare winter-at-sea survey when coast guard vessels are often in maintenance refit and unavailable.

"We were working in the actual fish factory of the boat. So there's a little adaptation on our side, but frankly the mission was a success. We made a bunch of trips, covering a lot of ground," Senay said.

She said the experience of scientists working with the commercial fishing industry was one of the best parts of the trip.

"It was great for biologists to see the other side of the coin, of knowledge exchange between two groups that often can be opposed — right science and fishermen. But I think both sides really can learn a lot from each other," Senay said.