Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, but some might argue it actually kicked off on January 20 of this year.
That of course was the day that Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States and the global economy has been pretty much in a state of flux and upheaval ever since.
Through his campaign of on-again, off-again, on-again tariffs, Trump has created unprecedented uncertainty in the global seafood industry. He has also made changes to the fishing industry domestically as well.
On April 17, President Trump signed an executive order entitled Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness. It called for rolling back regulations, opening previously protected waters (e.g., Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument), loosening catch limits and cutting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) staff and budgets — all aimed at boosting American catches and exports. Jury is still out on what impact the executive order will have.
Now, some U.S. fishermen, notably our southern neighbours along the Eastern Seaboard, are reaching out to Trump and the Republican-led Congress to help them with another perceived problem — what they are calling unfair Canadian fishing practices.
The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) is claiming that American and Canadian vessels are bound by different rules, even when they are fishing the same areas.
NEFSA claims that “as a result, U.S. fishermen make less money, resources are depleted and conservation objectives fail. American fishermen remain bound by stringent U.S. conservation regulations; Canadian fishermen are not. Thus, American fishermen work the same waters as their Canadian counterparts at an unfair disadvantage while Canadian vessels exploit looser rules. The result is a one-sided depletion of resources that U.S. policy was designed to protect. In other words, American fishermen suffer all the collateral damage of overregulation, while the sustainability purpose of the regulation is entirely thwarted.”
According to Dustin Delano, lobster fisherman and NEFSA chief operating officer, Canadian ground fishermen enjoy many advantages thanks to American regulations and would like the President and Congress to do something about it.
Delano told the Baird Maritime website that “Canadian fishermen land higher yields per trawl owing to regulatory restrictions on mesh size. Canadian fishermen can trawl with a 5.2-square-inch (34-square-cm) mesh, while American fishermen in the Gulf of Maine are restricted to a 6.5-square-inch (42-square-cm) diamond mesh. The differential sounds small, at only 1.3 inches (3.3 cm), but the practical difference is enormous and the smaller mesh lands a much higher yield. Canadian lobstermen have also benefited from a contested fishing area known as the gray zone, an area of 277 square miles (717 square kms) off the coast of Maine and Canada claimed by both countries since the Revolutionary War. For years, the contested waters produced a modest lobster catch; now there is an abundance of lobster. In the gray zone, Americans must toss back any lobster with a carapace longer than five inches (12 cm). NEFSA said Canadians have no such limits. Canadians can catch jumbo lobsters while Americans cannot.”
NEFSA claims that Canadian harvesters will continue to dominate the market while they catch the most popular lobster without any interference.
Since signing the April executive order that supposedly supported the U.S. seafood industry, Trump has vaguely indicated he might be doing more to change commercial fishing and lobstering regulations along the Eastern Seaboard. But like everything with Trump, those intentions, for now, appear murky at best. And with everything the President is dealing with right now across the globe, it would be a safe bet to assume that lobster fishing might not be his most pressing file at this time of expanding geopolitical conflict.
Given the current geopolitical climate, it is highly doubtful there will be any olive branches extended from our side of the border to assist the President in dealing with his disgruntled fishermen.
As with everything Trump has been doing or attempting to do in his second term, where this potentially cross-border commercial fishing issue goes is anyone’s guess.
The best mantra the Canadian seafood industry can abide by right now is pray for the best, prepare for the worst and expect the unexpected.
