Greenland halibut has never been so rare in the Gulf.
The director of the Quebec Fishermen’s Federation, Jean-Paul Gagné, stresses that the supply to the factories is insufficient. Workers are unable to work a full week or even a full day.
“Fishermen went everywhere. I also have one that went as far as Newfoundland and there isn’t enough turbot to fish there either. »
– A quote from Gérard Collin of the Poissonnerie Blanchette factory in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts
For Gérard Collin, the season so far has been downright disastrous. The factory specializes in the production of turbot. That’s 95% of its production.
That year, the facility processed 125,000 pounds of fish. Last year it was £600,000 at the same time. There is a shortage of work in the factory, which employs about forty people.
You still have to pay them in order not to lose them. “It can’t last all summer, it’s impossible,” points out Mr Collin, who wonders if he shouldn’t be sending his foreign workers back.
“I don’t know what will happen to our factories and our workers. »
— A quote from Gérard Collin, director of the Poissonnerie Blanchette factory in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts
Around ten boats supply the factory.
According to Gérald Collin, most of his fishermen make their living mainly from turbot fishing. I’d say it’s about 80% of their income, estimates Mr. Collin. The situation is also dramatic for them, he says.
He can’t have disappeared
Dany Cassivi, President of the Quebec Greenland Halibut Fishermen’s Office, has been a turbot fisherman in the Forillon area for thirty years.
According to him, last year’s catches did not herald the 2023 collapse. The fish were there. Not everywhere, says Mr. Cassivi, there are certain sectors that have done better than others, but overall it’s been a good year.
The captain of the Costero, a father to son fisherman, experienced the cod moratorium with his father. He doesn’t want to be alarmist and doesn’t want to compare the current situation with that of the 1990s.
Last year’s catches weren’t indicative of this year’s problems, Cassivi said. (archive photo)
Photo: Getty Images/Jeff J Mitchell
He remains optimistic. The fishermen, he says, have already had lean years. Turbot, the fisherman explains, often arrived later in the Gulf, in August and September. It was also plentiful at the end of the fishing last October. He can’t have disappeared. “We cannot count on two months of fishing and our season ends on October 31st,” comments Mr. Cassivi.
He points out that turbot fishermen have already had a very good autumn season.
These observations are confirmed by the Secretary of the Office and Director of the Union of Commercial Fishermen of Northern Gaspésie, Jean-René Boucher.
Jean-René Boucher, like the President of the Office, still believes that fishermen will eventually find the fish and understand what is happening. We know that turbot is very following its food and just last week the capelin started rolling in Newfoundland.
However, he admits that the situation raises several questions. We don’t really understand the behavior of the fish this year, says Mr Boucher, they’re not in the same spots as in previous years. There are currently many phenomena in the St. Lawrence River, comments Jean-René Boucher.
Declining since 2015
In the good fishing years 5 or 10 years ago, about 100 boats were able to participate in the black halibut fishery. According to the secretary of the bureau, they were about sixty last year and a little less this year to have participated in the fishing.
The turbot fleet generally has licenses for other species, which has also impacted participation in the fishery in recent years, with crab and Atlantic halibut being higher-paying species.
However, many fishermen have only turbot as a source of income. Catches, which were around 3,000 tons until 2015, are declining. In 2021 it was almost 1085 tons.
Like shrimp, turbot does not like hot water.
Gaspésie Boat Captains Association (ACPG) director Claudio Bernatchez points out that turbot and shrimp are two species that share the same seabed. One, the shrimp, is the prey of the other. If one of the two disappears, it means the other is bound to be in trouble, comments Claudio Bernatchez.
Rivière-du-Renard shrimp fishermen are concerned about the impending moratorium on shrimp fishing.
Photo: Radio Canada / Stephanie Rousseau
Like the shrimp, the Greenland halibut has also been affected by the strong growth in the redfish population over the past ten years. The halibut must now coexist with a more numerous predator that likes the same prey as it.
Mr. Bernatchez reminds that both scientists and Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) managers believe it is time to reopen the redfish fishery. He does not understand the reasons preventing the resumption of this fishery given the abundance of the resource and the resulting imbalance. There’s something going on in the Minister’s office that we’d like to know about.
Ecosystem problem, ecosystem solution?
However, Jean-René Boucher notes that Greenland halibut has nevertheless shown great resilience in recent years.
The secretary of the office reminds that according to the scientific research of last year, the biomass remained about the same, although the conditions for turbot were not ideal. The whole fish, he says, can’t have disappeared. We’d like to know what’s happening at the bottom of the gulf.
Turbot’s adaptation may have a limit. The Gulf waters have warmed up again this year. The deep waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence have never been warmer since 1915. Have we reached a point this year with the little extra boat we took with us where there is no feedback? “We don’t know,” stresses Mr. Boucher.
For the Association of Captains and Owners of Gaspésie, it is time for the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans to take global account of the profound changes currently taking place in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
According to Claudio Bernatchez, the DFO must stop managing the gulf in silos, resource by resource, zone by zone. We need to find the means to keep track. To ensure we better adapt to the realities we are experiencing.
According to the ACPG, it is time for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to take global account of the profound changes currently taking place in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. (archive photo)
Photo: Radio Canada/CBC
The association recalls that, in addition to the recent moratoriums on herring, mackerel, yellowtail and winter flounder, there is also the possible closure of shrimp fishing areas and the difficulties facing the turbot fleet.
The director of the association believes that the way fishermen are treated needs to be reviewed. We want to make sure the DFO takes note of this and puts in place mechanisms to prevent us from experiencing crises as we have been living with moratoria being announced back to back for the past three years with no regard for the industry.
Meeting with fisheries and oceans
Fisheries and Oceans met with fishermen last week to take stock of the resource and the low catch rate.
Halibut may be in the estuary but the area has been closed since 2021. The fish there were commercially too small. Fishermen generally accounted for a large proportion of the catches there.
We had information that the water temperature in this sector would be colder than when descending to the Gulf. Do we maybe have fish crowded there, a bit like shrimp? asks Jean-René Boucher.
A test fishery will be conducted in the area over the next few weeks to check both size and abundance of fish.
If they do tests and there is no turbot, everything will go wrong, predicts Gérard Collin in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts.
He says he needs answers quickly from Fisheries and Oceans on the state of the resource. What happened to the bulk turbot? Has she moved somewhere else? has she disappeared “That’s the question everyone asks themselves,” asks the plant manager.
The replies are crucial as no aid measure is currently available for either extraction or processors. In order to subsidize aid, Fisheries and Oceans absolutely has to say: “We impose a moratorium or we close turbot fishing for two to three years.” There we will help the fishermen, we will help the factories, but as long as there is no one who issues an appeal, there will be no help from anywhere.
According to the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, just over a dozen factories buy Greenland halibut, including Poissonnerie Blanchette, but also Cusimer in Mont-Louis, Pêcheries gaspésiennes in Rivière-au-Renard and Crabiers du Nord, in Portneuf
Factories have two to three weeks to decide whether to keep the workers employed.
In addition to the federal deputy and minister Diane Lebouthillier, the industry also called on the provincial deputy Stéphane Sainte-Croix to do so.