Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has a new tool in its enforcement belt, meant to protect the integrity of the food, social and ceremonial (FSC) lobster fishery.
Fisheries officers in Southwest Nova Scotia began marking lobsters harvested under FSC licences in late summer with a small circular etching on the tail fin to help detect the illegal purchase and sale of lobster caught under an FSC licence.
“We don’t mark every lobster caught. This is an enforcement tool that our fisheries officers use, so what we do, when we’re out on the water and pulling traps that are tagged with FSC tags, we mark a small circle, we call it an etching technique, put it back in the trap so when we’re conducting inspections later on, we’re looking for this mark and if we find one of those marks we know that lobster was in an FSC trap and that allows us to dig further into where that lobster came from,” said Noel d’Entremont, DFO director of conservation and protection for the Maritimes Region.
While First Nations with a DFO-issued FSC licence can harvest lobster outside the commercial season, FSC lobster cannot be bought or sold and doing so is contrary to conditions of FSC licences.
DFO has informed First Nations who are currently undertaking FSC fishing activity. Lobster buyers and processors have also been informed about the marking initiative and its role in protecting the FSC fishery and conserving lobster stocks.
“It’s important to note that during the commercial season, the etching doesn’t prevent commercial harvesters from catching or retaining these lobsters,” said d’Entremont. “This technique is used primarily during the closed season when we know that there are some holding facilities and buyers who are illegally buying FSC lobster. That’s when this technique will be most useful.”
DFO implemented the etching technique in the St. Mary’s Bay area and around Yarmouth and will utilize it “as other FSC fisheries come on board and start fishing in areas where we know we have problems with some of that product going to the commercial market. It’s not going to be used everywhere because we know there’s people out there undertaking the FSC fishery as it was intended, so there’s no reason to mark everybody’s lobsters,” said d’Entremont.
“We are trying to protect the integrity of the FSC fishery. We know there are people that are exploiting the FSC people by buying that product at lower prices than they would pay a commercial harvester for and that is the focus of our etching, our expanded enforcement presence on disrupting and deterring unauthorized sale of FSC lobster,” d’Entremont added.
“Every year we put significant resources into St. Mary’s Bay. This summer we seized two vessels and a variety of traps. They are all still active investigations. Two loads of illegal lobster were also seized in New Brunswick that we are linking back to Nova Scotia,” said d’Entremont, noting there is authorized FSC fishing every year in St. Mary’s Bay.
