Climate change is disrupting the St. Lawrence ecosystem and the fishing businesses that depend on it. Northern shrimp populations are at their lowest levels in more than 30 years, while redfish are so plentiful that they are eating their young. At the center of the storm: the shrimp fishermen, who have just received the lowest catch quota in their history. They regret that the simultaneously announced lifting of the 1995 moratorium on commercial red snapper fishing is an insufficient guarantee.
Published at 1:05 am. Updated at 5:00 am.
“There is complete discouragement in the fleet. We are certainly facing the bankruptcy of perhaps 80% of our members,” laments Vincent Dupuis, shrimp fisherman and president of the Association of Captains and Owners of Gaspésie (ACPG).
“Morale is at its lowest, there is frustration. I've spent my life in peaches, I'm 61 years old, I've put everything into it […]. So when you say that I'm preparing for bankruptcy today, that's unbelievable. I do everything I can to stay in a good mood and not fall into depression. This is what is currently happening in fishing. “All boys, we are the same,” he added.
demonstration
The ACPG will express its displeasure this Tuesday morning during a rally in front of the constituency office of the Federal Minister for Fisheries, Oceans and Coast Guard, Diane Lebouthillier, in Grande-Rivière, near Percé.
On January 26, the minister announced a “significant decrease” in the total authorized catch of northern shrimp in the St. Lawrence for the 2024 season: 3,060 tons. A quota that ensures a “modest” fishery.
For comparison: last year the quota was 14,524 tons. In 2015 it was 31,549 tonnes.
The warming of the deep waters of the St. Lawrence River, the decrease in oxygen in the water and the predation of redfish – a demersal fish – would be responsible for the collapse of the population.
IMAGE FROM A DOCUMENT ON FISHERIES AND OCEANES IN CANADA
Distribution of northern shrimp biomass in the Fisheries and Oceans Canada survey for 2005
IMAGE FROM A DOCUMENT ON FISHERIES AND OCEANES IN CANADA
Distribution of northern shrimp biomass in the 2022 Fisheries and Oceans Canada survey
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Warming water appears to have had the opposite effect on red snapper, whose biomass is now estimated at almost 2 million tonnes, compared to 138,000 tonnes in 1994, shortly before the moratorium was imposed.
At the end of January, Minister Lebouthillier also announced the lifting of the moratorium on redfish fishing. A “minimum quota” of 25,000 tonnes was then set, of which 10% would go to shrimp fishermen.
“The shrimp announcement was predictable, but the red snapper quota distribution announcement is more or less a death sentence for our fleet,” sighs Patrice Element, director of the Quebec Shrimp Fisheries Office.
“At some point, whether redfish allocations are revised or rationalization is funded, [c’est-à-dire un] Purchase of permits and companies. Because almost the entire fleet there is on the verge of bankruptcy,” he adds.
Including Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and First Nations, there are between 80 and 90 shrimp fishing licenses in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, he explains.
Therefore, he estimates that this allocation amounts to approximately 70,000 pounds of red snapper per fishing operation. However, he points out that it takes about a day and a half of fishing to catch that amount. “There is nothing there for the rest of us. »
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
The lifting of the moratorium on redfish fishing was announced at the end of January.
“Right now we can’t even afford to put our boats in the water to try to catch this. It's like telling a taxi driver, 'You're going to drive twice in your month.' It doesn't even pay for insurance and gas,” explains Captain Dupuis.
The lion’s share of “factory boats”
The remainder of the red snapper catch allocations were allocated to the inshore fleet sector (14.84%), the mid-coastal fleet sector (5.72%) and the offshore fleet sector (58.69%) in the four Atlantic provinces and Quebec.
Offshore boats are vessels 30.5 meters (100 feet) or longer in length.
“On redfish, the minister said she will prioritize businesses that support coastal communities and that she does not want lounge fishermen. […] Instead, preference was given to a few large offshore companies and factory boats,” laments Vincent Dupuis.
In Quebec, only one fishing company has an offshore boat license, but not this one.
“Today it no longer exists in Quebec,” confirmed Quebec Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food André Lamontagne.
“It's complex what's coming and that's why we saw, without it being a panacea, the resumption of red snapper fishing in Quebec, an opportunity to mitigate and reassure a little bit the challenges posed by what's happening in the shrimp fishery.” We have urged the Federal Government to pay particular attention to our shrimp fishermen who are in difficulty when allocating the various quotas. We are very disappointed,” he explained in an interview with La Presse.
What is certain is that we will do everything we can to ensure a change in direction.
André Lamontagne, Quebec Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Fisheries and Oceans Canada could not tell us how many offshore boats were licensed to fish for red snapper or in which provinces they were located.
“We regret the sharing as 60% of red snapper goes to large corporations and not to the coastal fishermen who support eastern Quebec and Canada,” explains Geneviève Myles, business development coordinator at ACPG. “What you need to know is that these large companies can be 49% owned by foreign interests. […] That's why we sell our St. Lawrence instead of eating it at home. »
Minister's answer
To respond, Minister Lebouthillier's office sent us a statement in early February in response to shrimp fishermen's complaints.
PHOTO JUSTIN TANG, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Diane Lebouthillier, Federal Minister for Fisheries, Oceans and Coast Guard
In this text, the Minister emphasizes that an advisory committee has been set up to assess the relevance of increasing the minimum redfish quota by 25,000 tonnes. She says she is willing to increase the amount if the industry, Indigenous communities and provincial governments agree.
“As for the distribution by fleet, we must understand that the historical share of offshore boats over 100 feet, the so-called offshore boats, has fallen from 74% in 1994 to 59% in 2024, and this is positively smaller Fleets, shrimp fishermen and indigenous communities. In short, the decision announced last week offers even more opportunities to the smallest players, whose balance of power has improved significantly since the moratorium. Attempting to claim otherwise is simply wrong,” the minister said.
Yan Bourdages, a shrimper from Rivière-au-Renard, says he will try his luck at redfish fishing this summer. His boat is already equipped for this because he has been fishing this fish for three years as part of a scientific quota.
“I'll try, but I know I'll be at a loss. I'm going there to keep the three employees I left working, so we can't be happy about that, we can't have a good work ethic. I go to sleep very late and wake up very early. I will watch my village, considered the fishing capital, collapse,” he fears.
A species in decline
Investigation
Northern shrimp have been fished in the St. Lawrence River since 1965, but have been managed by quotas since 1982. “The 2024 quota is the smallest quota in the history of this fishery,” says Hugo Bourdages, shrimp stock assessment biologist at the Maurice-Lamontagne Institute of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The population has continuously declined year after year since 2005. “Last fall we took stock of the health of northern shrimp stocks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the situation is that stocks are at their peak. The lowest abundance levels measured since 1990.”
The St. Lawrence River is warming
The northern shrimp, as the name suggests, is a species that likes cold water. “Twenty years ago, the northern shrimp was found at depths of 150 to 300 meters in the Gulf of St. Lawrence with water temperatures between 4 and 6 °C. Today the water temperature at these depths is more than 6 °C and in places even more than 7 °C. The increase in water temperature by 1 to 2 °C had a negative impact on the productivity of the shrimp stocks,” explains Hugo Bourdages. This causes the species' natural habitat to shrink as the shrimp attempt to migrate to the cold, higher middle layer.
For what ?
The positioning of ocean currents has been disrupted by global warming. There are two major currents in the Atlantic Ocean: the Gulf Stream, which is warm and low in oxygen, and the Labrador Current, which is cold and rich in oxygen. “You have to think of it like a sink with two taps,” explains Hugo Bourdages. These days, the hot water faucet is actually open, so a much larger portion of the hot water goes into the Gulf of St. Lawrence entrance. And we've been watching this for 15 years. »
Redfish are coming back in large numbers
“It is certain that warming water creates winners and losers. […] The redfish seems to be doing quite well,” emphasizes Caroline Senay, biologist for redfish stock assessment at the Maurice Lamontagne Institute. The redfish that are now adults were born between 2011 and 2013. On average they measure between 22 and 25 centimeters. “The exact reason for the arrival of these large cohorts is still a mystery,” she specifies. The preferred hypothesis suggests that the water temperature peak will occur around 2011.
Already in decline
There are currently approximately 2 million red snapper “biomass” in the river, which equates to nearly 13 billion individuals! “The maximum number of fish that we estimated in our survey was in 2019, when we were at 4.3 million tons,” but specifies Caroline Senay. “Fishing, not fishing, we estimate that in six to nine years less than 10% of the original biomass will remain,” she adds. There are so many redfish in the river that they have started cannibalizing each other. Therefore, there is little succession and fewer and fewer fish reach adulthood. “We believe this is because they are being eaten by other redfish in the system,” she said.
Trawl fishing
Fishing for redfish and shrimp is similar. These are two fisheries that are operated using trawl nets. “It’s done the same way, with the same boats and the same fishing equipment. For a shrimp boat we are talking about an investment between 50,000 and 100,000 US dollars,” explains Patrice Element. “We are best suited to catch this fish. Especially because we are the most affected by redfish proliferation. We should think about ourselves before thinking about others,” he adds.
Learn more
36 Number of shrimp fishing licenses in Quebec. They are kept by 26 fishermen.
SOURCE: Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food