Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Gus Etchegary's a State of Denial
Dear editor,
Just when we thought 52 years of
Canadian fisheries mismanagement
by DFO was about to end and a
bureaucratic housecleaning would
launch us on a lengthy but ascending
path to resource recovery and the salvaging
of rural Newfoundland and
Labrador, we are again devastated by
a newly elected federal government.
Lo and behold, the solidly entrenched
bureaucrats, old and new,
have “captured the minds” of our federal
representatives as they have so
many times since we entered Confederation.
Our federal representative and his
associates, like their predecessors,
were given a crash training course by
the bureaucrats and soon began making
strange statements such as “there
are plenty of fish available,” “the
problem is it’s being misused,” or
“Sorry Rebecca, I was misinformed.”
What happened to custodial management?
What about new and
intense fishery science programs to
support bold new initiatives on fish
stock recovery programs? How come
we have only two fishery research
vessels and both are tied up in St.
John’s?
Maybe our new federal representatives
didn’t realize there are very few
fish left off our shores. The undeniable
fact is nobody on the political
scene in the province and especially
in Ottawa wants the population to
know that only one half of one per
cent of groundfish is under quota
compared to 1973. Furthermore, the
raw truth is that an estimated 40 per
cent of that one and a half per cent is
undersized, demonstrating once again
that DFO has failed badly in its mandate
by permitting those small fish to
be harvested. They should be left in
the water to help rebuild the stock.
Officials at both levels of government
continue to exist in a state of
denial. They are unwilling to grasp
the fact that with the exception of the
overfished St. Pierre Bank cod stock,
the remaining redfish, turbot and yellowtail
quotas contain such a high
percentage of undersized fish that it’s
totally uneconomic to process these
species in the traditional manner at
current production costs.
Up to 1992 we had an abundance of
diversified fisheries that were destroyed
by foreign overfishing and
Canada’s mismanagement.
Our federal and provincial politicians,
the unions, trade association,
federation of municipalities, federation
of labour and others have done
absolutely nothing to force the
Canadian government to honour its
commitment to properly manage the
fisheries we transferred to Ottawa
with Confederation. And they continue
to stand by the wayside as our fishery
collapses.
Gus Etchegary,
Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s
Sorry no links as this is from an online PDF subscription. As this is a letter to the editor I don't feel I'm in contravention of any copyright laws.
Now if The Independant would only get Sue Kelland-Dyer to publish her thought provoking and poignant spiels.
sue.kellanddyer@gmail.com
HeHe state of denial.
Just when we thought 52 years of
Canadian fisheries mismanagement
by DFO was about to end and a
bureaucratic housecleaning would
launch us on a lengthy but ascending
path to resource recovery and the salvaging
of rural Newfoundland and
Labrador, we are again devastated by
a newly elected federal government.
Lo and behold, the solidly entrenched
bureaucrats, old and new,
have “captured the minds” of our federal
representatives as they have so
many times since we entered Confederation.
Our federal representative and his
associates, like their predecessors,
were given a crash training course by
the bureaucrats and soon began making
strange statements such as “there
are plenty of fish available,” “the
problem is it’s being misused,” or
“Sorry Rebecca, I was misinformed.”
What happened to custodial management?
What about new and
intense fishery science programs to
support bold new initiatives on fish
stock recovery programs? How come
we have only two fishery research
vessels and both are tied up in St.
John’s?
Maybe our new federal representatives
didn’t realize there are very few
fish left off our shores. The undeniable
fact is nobody on the political
scene in the province and especially
in Ottawa wants the population to
know that only one half of one per
cent of groundfish is under quota
compared to 1973. Furthermore, the
raw truth is that an estimated 40 per
cent of that one and a half per cent is
undersized, demonstrating once again
that DFO has failed badly in its mandate
by permitting those small fish to
be harvested. They should be left in
the water to help rebuild the stock.
Officials at both levels of government
continue to exist in a state of
denial. They are unwilling to grasp
the fact that with the exception of the
overfished St. Pierre Bank cod stock,
the remaining redfish, turbot and yellowtail
quotas contain such a high
percentage of undersized fish that it’s
totally uneconomic to process these
species in the traditional manner at
current production costs.
Up to 1992 we had an abundance of
diversified fisheries that were destroyed
by foreign overfishing and
Canada’s mismanagement.
Our federal and provincial politicians,
the unions, trade association,
federation of municipalities, federation
of labour and others have done
absolutely nothing to force the
Canadian government to honour its
commitment to properly manage the
fisheries we transferred to Ottawa
with Confederation. And they continue
to stand by the wayside as our fishery
collapses.
Gus Etchegary,
Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s
Sorry no links as this is from an online PDF subscription. As this is a letter to the editor I don't feel I'm in contravention of any copyright laws.
Now if The Independant would only get Sue Kelland-Dyer to publish her thought provoking and poignant spiels.
sue.kellanddyer@gmail.com
HeHe state of denial.
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