Land & Sea: The impact of quota cuts on the Twillingate fishery

it's midsummer a time when the schools of codfish are supposed to be swarming on the inshore grounds but the fish seem to be scarce I'll tear around Twinkie and you were allowed I asked Ivan Harvey who fishes out of merits Harvard how much fish he'd taken aboard we haven't got nothing in the air when it gets last couple days I'm gonna borrow - borrow three girls I get ya the photos down here Nick cutter traffic oh we're not take the mulberry yet you're getting five and six girls you know and a 1/3 road a few fish on a couple of barrels here and there on the traps not much sign of fish here around pulling gate in new world island not much fish inshore not much ten miles offshore either it seems the boat said the steamed for seven or eight hours before they'd strike any amount of fish quillon gala the original settlers chose to live way out here on this rocky island for one reason to be near the fishing ground but that was a long time ago these days the fish don't seem to come close to shore any mortal final Holmes of Toulon gates stand as mute reminders of more prosperous times in this place was the capital of our northern fishing guess a lot of fish have been landed over the years here until indeed so what's gone wrong so many fishermen too many gill nets the trawlers offshore and winter fishery the foreigners or a bit of all these whatever the reasons the small boats of twill and gate haven't landed nearly enough fish to keep the plant workers busy that's why Oceana seafoods needed to middle-distance vessels last summer landings from these vessels combined with fish shipped in from the north and trucked in from the south kept the plant going for much of the time getting a steady supply of fish is one of the biggest problems facing many inshore plants on the northeast coast for Gus said she Gary longtime spokesman for the offshore industry taking over this in short will engage plant last summer was an opportunity and the challenge it's not a great year to get into the fishery but nevertheless if we can manage to pull through this year I see some good things for this for this plant in this area down the road if things that we have in mind come to fruition number-one priority for us is to do what we have to do to extend the shoulders of the season and get as much raw material as we can into this plant early in the year and later in the year and find the tools to do it with and that's not easy these days I suppose with a big plant like this you've just got to keep at the busy all time absolutely you don't it's a big plan there's close to 450 people employed here and it's it requires a lot of raw material and it requires us for a lengthy period of time and that's that's that's really the key to it and of course the other thing is to try and improve the quality of the product and improve the overall value and and the pack mix as much as possible where do you see most of your fish coming from now in the future here I know you're getting some from Labrador some from the mid distance please some insurance I see it coming from everywhere it's possible to catch a fish and the south east coast of newfoundland south coast the East Coast Newfoundland and Labrador so it's going to be a combination of all these things so the main aim is to keep all those people inside absolutely that's right and bring stability and security to this wonderful area of dwelling gate and new or alliance where there's about 7500 people I guess having a stable workforce there is one of those one of the prime reasons you came here - is it big it's it's it's a it's a major asset because it's an area that you know it's been in operation since 1956 in fact and that has produced a lot of extremely good people on the production line and it's a question of of molding the organization in a way that is going to be successful in an efficient production unit Bruce Rogers is a young fisherman here in Illinois and this is the vessel he built last winter not a big long liner by any means but one that will help him move a bit further offshore to where the fish are but how far do you have to go these days we're ten miles off now and there's still not much sign this is the Denise and with John Howard and Jim Lewis Jerry Gillard and Terry White their nets were empty Bruce Pierce yeah it's a nice ways out for a small boat not bad on a fine day but there are times when broadened Glenn Mitchell and Wendell daily don't have it as easy as this but according to skipper Bruce Rogers the small boats are being forced offshore there's no fishing children they got people they get anything and all for the supply that and there's just nothing in short all now or now that thing is Shore now approaches this may know that small boat photos are getting bigger and bigger boats all about well no they paint over to the fishermen that would be intends to be at it for a while longer he's gonna have to go bigger is that why you've got a bigger boat now you know our first year isn't yeah yeah well I was fishing never win not wait long line with somebody else you know but this is your investment in the future yeah you built yourself the winner yeah yeah and how is it working out are you doing better than if you were in a small boat to your figure no.13 times it would do any small boat is that the future to go further and further off shortly well that's the only way one of them living now at fishing you got to go fire all the time another Torrey oh yeah there's something bigger in this so this will do for a while but then you'll be something bigger yeah some of the bigger long liners fish way offshore in fact seven or eight hours steam from pulling it they have to go out for two or three days and this is the inshore fishery some long liners were at sea some were tied up and some such as Don Young's vessel the Atlantic star would soon be headed north to Labrador Oh down I believe the Atlantic stairs headed north if he pretty soon yeah pretty soon it's gonna begin our gear and blow it out tomorrow hopefully just not enough fish here no seemed like it not like it used to be how much are you getting now when you go out very little for 5,000 pounds a trip not not very much that's not much for both this size no not enough you know few years ago you get 10 12 15 pounds but now you get four million five or six be a heavy use more gear now these days than you did well quite a bit more yeah we saw an even four units I'm sorry 68 they were using to honor for the same amount of patience yeah different well by now the Mitchells were back in port cleaning their fish brought in his son Glenn didn't have much work to do or the heavy Cod much for the time and effort it was scarcely worth it is the fishery finished for those in the small open boats I wondered what Glenn thought of it all those big boats they got us the Grand Bay or something like that that's the future just here on the shores over not just for me the future well not everybody can get a boat like that whichever way you look at it the Atlantic Ocean is the only industry out here on these rocky islands and headlands if you're going to stay here you've got to turn to the sea there was a small crowd of people men women and children gathered at the marine service center the Mullen family of Musgrave Harbor they've come to Toulon gate so that they could ride back home on the long liner Morrison Adhan had just purchased now at this boat they could chase the fish all the way out to the funks a big gamble for the Molen brothers were used to fishing inshore well the in-store fishery year was day four we fellas master we did very good in contract Illinois and so do you still very good at folks so we're chance to go from a bigger boat we had two traps they don't knew that all summer waiting it in the end of that but know last year was a good year wasn't it we fished them Lorelai sure he may be starting to morph us and do down we didn't the very well in one trap but on a thirty five thousand in three weeks and nothing this year nothing whatsoever we brought one and put a loop before to keep my season and after the kitten was over we came back for the straight loop on the world's that law sorrel new training water first time so you're a bit discouraged with the Treasury yeah I really had but only after one year I mean it couldn't have come back again next year oh yeah we're going to still give our enjoy Gary so don't vary more to put it on this note so this whole idea I suppose is to have have a cracker both Fisheries yeah that's right yeah that's tied you ever yeah and we get the first analyst with this to it that's the big thing you know is that the way intro fishermen I gotta go now you figure well that's why it seemed like yeah the big bullets earned they're doing really good a in the spring of the air at the camp for one thing and I we were at camp this summer with a small Seine we done really good so so you figured what a bigger saying you'll do even better well we a try well obviously the fishery was down but it was far from dead there on the side of the road a crowd of men were putting the finishing touches to a shiny spanking new fiberglass boat they know how to build boats out here until any businessman Gary guy and Foreman Gerald Stockley were proudest punch and business was bullied Oh Gary the inshore fishery can't be completely dead you've always seemed to be busy here we're making making boats we're fairly busy we've got orders back up now we're good for probably around I guess October November we're pretty good that's not just for here until I get our there isn't no that's for all over the province we have them in black tickle remya all over the problems Daryl you're pretty proud of these boats here putting on August oh yeah you know a lot of hard work wasn't noting that's designed by the first week so yeah we're proud of it works good work the ship is good on top of that most I guess a long run provide job 409 jobs in 20 from its bottom line is its jobs and try to make this a successful oh you live here to where the fishery is pretty poor there isn't it for most people this year yeah it hasn't been good as a lot of viewers and few in today talking about you know may have to go away then a job getting you don't up to get there stands for a year and so these boats now are for next year but with the hope that there'll be more fish yes yeah this way that people buy buy one year for next and the people are buying bigger both at 23 here because it's a bigger boat they can travel off and land further in was known around here as the trench in love excitons doer fishing so you're hoping with these boats are fishermen are that they'll be able to inch further offshore well this is basically what they're telling us as their company in volume that they can travel further and carry bigger loads as they're coming back this is Merritt Harbor a little place on new world Island not far from pulling gee there are all sorts of little coves and harbors like this tucked away on the northeast coast places that have survived for hundreds of years places where people cling to the fishery through good times and bad one such person is Ivan Harvey sometimes you hear so much and you get you're getting disheartened but then you ear tie for some place where like up around st. John is here petty harbour they done very good you know and what do you says well if the fish is good up here you almost think sometimes you got to come here you know and down on North East Coast where I where well it's a great place for fish you know even only had it and it was last twelve thirteen years I've seen it bad enough where you almost take everything out the water and want you know we had two cod traps into water one summer we made $87 form in each so that was pretty bad within the last couple years we've done good and this year no with punished it out and no seemed like the fish is just picking up so I don't know where the fish is coming in or it was coming in there and stayed there and only never moved before now what a lot of people have never done good well we're doing very good you know the inshore fishery it's a good life when the fish come in you can make a fair amount of money in a short time Ivan like many other young Newfoundlanders has worked away from home in Toronto and other places [Applause] well this is the life he loves but can you make a living anymore fishing close to shore in a small boat that's the question Farah now but it was bad the other day you know a week ago two weeks ago I started off to kitchen I don't fare lobster case and I done we don't fear on capelin we had a couple weeks here God was slow but we're getting picking up 10 and 12 barrels a day you know so it's not too bad I guess we had six bardos Barney and no this afternoon we might not only get one you know that's Cod is a God you know some people haven't done very good a lot of people got their traps in a lot are you worried about the fishes out there though is there enough fish for everybody you think well if they annulled this a few years ago you know we're gonna add the sulfur down the road for a few years for to keep these get the stock back up that's my thought about it you know if I want to say well I'm gonna stay in the fishery I might have to suffer for a few years great for the get D stocks back up so in other words or I'm gonna have to leave you know and if I get said to fishery I got to leave Neverland because my education is not all you enough to get nothing else in your hand you know and this is the life you want to lead this isn't the life I want to live you know it must must be terrible to see so many young people leave a place like this boy yes because if the young people don't stay in small communities community is gonna be gone you know and so from hundreds of colds all along the coast of Newfoundland fishermen continue to move out to the traditional fishing grounds along Shore ever hopeful the fish will return and wondering sometimes what legacy they will leave for tomorrow's generation of injure fishermen [Music] the fish landed last year by the middle-distance vessels was important to the trilling gate plant it helped take up the slack created by the disastrous inshore landings which were down 40 percent from the previous year this year there'll be no middle-distance fish the boats are up for sale and there'll be no offshore fish either for plants like Quillin gate where the resort short clam program has been discontinued for Oceania seafoods and other in short pants already operating way under capacity the recent cutbacks are bad news they've got to sink or swim on whatever fish they can scrape from the inshore grounds cosecha Gary unfortunately what's happened and I'm not sure people really understand this but effectively what's happened is the northeast coast of Newfoundland has lost 43 million pounds of fish and that the impact of that in an area that as was already in deep trouble in my view will be devastating in 1990 do you mean to say a place like twirling gate was seven or eight thousand people and hundreds of inch or boats just can't provide you with enough fish to keep going as unbelievable as that sounds that is a fact of life and that I'm not only applied in 20 gate but to Fogo and to other processing plants in that area I mean that area between Cape frills and and Cape John particularly was was hit hard in 1989 now many other places along the northeast coast were hit as well but that particular area was down enormously so you really have to depend on fish coming in from Labrador and from further offshore from the from the trawlers even - it's absolutely no question whatever the northern cod it's caught inshore by small boats and offshore in the winter time by the trawlers the breaks have now been applied to this offshore fishery the recent announcement of quota reductions sounded the death knell for some South Coast communities the northern Bonanza is over we've been catching too much fish plants must close trawlers must tie up bitter medicine yet cutbacks had to come admits cosecha Gary who helped pioneer this offshore fishery look I've been associated with this offshore fishery for a long long time and you know we were responsible for bringing the first stern trawler to Canada in 1962 and ever since that arrival the technology that has been applied in the offshore fishery has changed remarkably from year to year now 1962 is not a long time ago considering the fact that this fishery has been going on for five hundred years but believe me the increasing pressure of newer and better technology in the last twenty years is the root cause of the problem we have today because that enormous increase in fishing pressure as a result of technology in the form of newer bigger vessels better propulsion better design of a tool to harvest a resource all of that took place without sufficient knowledge of the resource itself and we're all part of this I mean you can blame the scientists the modelers but the fact of the matter is that all of us who've been involved in the development of Fisheries in the last 25 years failed to recognize the enormous impact of this technology this developing technology had when we were operating 125 foot side trawler out of Galt House or grand bank or higher Bretton in the Gulf us and Laurance catching redfish we were catching a reasonable cloud of a fish keeping plants moving and there were efficient reasonably efficient operations then suddenly someone got the ideas you had to triple that so mid water trials were introduced and the catch was went up from 200,000 pounds for eight days to six hundred thousand pounds for eight days the result the resource just went out and today you have got us and you have her you have the other plants that dependant on red fish the same thing applied on the northern contact isn't it ironic now though that despite all this we still need these offshore boats in order to keep the inshore plants going well that's a result and only a result of the enormous offshore pressures particularly on the spawning stock that has caused the the the non migration of fish sure word I mean there's no other alternative in the short term at least but to try and get some piece of the action offshore but I mean that doesn't say that the offshore quarters should exceed what the scientific community is recommending I mean this business of having a data at a level that is going to maintain the population is pretty risky stuff I mean there's a whole bunch of environmental conditions and factors that can occur here that could lower that biomass fairly quickly for reasons that we won't learn in this community I'm still perhaps the year 2050 so how does 1990 look to you right now are you still hopeful that well we're hopeful that 28 will be operating just as everybody else I guess in the inshore fishery but at the same time I have to say to you that we're looking at other ideas that will keep the operation going in a in a viable fashion and and and diversified I guess that the words used we're looking at diversification in that area in order to maintain a viable operation at the same time provide employment opportunities for 475 people and and service 875 fishermen I hope to help we're successful [Music] you [Music]

Channel: CBC NL - Newfoundland and Labrador

Views: 22,537

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Newfoundland, Labrador, CBCNL, CBC, NL, Land, and, Sea, land & sea, land and sea, twillingate, twillingate fishery, fish plants, inshore fishery, new world island

Id: w2QJGGtnvJs

Length: 24min 47sec (1487 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 21 2018