Canada opens personal-use mackerel bait fishery, extends commercial moratorium

Canada is opening a personal-use bait fishery for mackerel this spring while extending the moratorium on commercial mackerel fishing in Atlantic Canada and Quebec in 2024.

Fish caught under a bait licence are intended for personal-use and cannot be sold, traded or bartered.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said in a news release Thursday the bait fishery will help licence holders supply their other fisheries, such lobster, with bait without jeopardizing the ongoing rebuilding of the stock.

"Today's announcement, quite frankly, is really about striking the right balance between protecting the resource, equipping the harvesters with the bait they need and obtaining recent data from the ground which can only better inform next steps in the fishery that is so vital to our coastal communities," said Nova Scotia MP Mike Kelloway, parliamentary secretary to the minister of fisheries.

The commercial mackerel fishery was closed in 2022 after steep declines blamed on overfishing. It has remained closed ever since.

"The department remains firmly optimistic that the Atlantic mackerel stock can rebuild, and remains committed to supporting the future re-opening of the Atlantic mackerel commercial fishery," DFO said in the release.

Kelloway said the department will release a rebuilding plan in coming weeks that includes measures to promote the growth of the stock, improve monitoring, and enhance scientific knowledge and the use of Indigenous knowledge.

The 470-tonne bait quota will be released in two parts to allow fishermen in different parts of the region equitable access. Mackerel arrive in different parts of the region at different times — first off southern Nova Scotia and later in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Rebuilding plan

Prior to opening the bait fishery, the DFO rebuilding plan under consideration set a goal of moving mackerel out of the critical zone — where the population is being harmed — in 18 years.

Katie Schleit, fisheries director with the conservation group Oceans North, said it is not clear what impact the bait fishery will have on reaching that target, or how the fishery will be monitored.

"We would like confirmation from the department that a 470-tonne fishery would mean that removals are still in line with the rebuilding plan guidelines," Schleit said Thursday.

Newfoundland reaction

Reaction in Newfoundland and Labrador to the Thursday announcement was swift and negative. The Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union issued a release that said, "thanks for nothing."

The union does not accept DFO's mackerel assessment, claiming it undercounts abundance in that province. It wants a commercial mackerel fishery opened with a 10,000 tonne quota for the province.

"A bait fishery for mackerel will do nothing for harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador, and harvesters are demanding a modest directed commercial quota for the province," the release said.

Jason Spingle, the union's secretary-general, said it was not clear what portion of the bait quote harvesters in the province will receive, and when.

Canada has lobbied the U.S. to impose a moratorium but the Americans have continued to allow a commercial harvest, albeit with progressively lower quotas.

Atlantic mackerel is a so-called straddling stock, which means the fish move into territorial waters of both Canada and the United States.

This year, the U.S. slashed its commercial quota by 76 per cent to 868 tonnes, an amount officials say represents mackerel caught accidentally in its menhaden and herring fisheries.