Kevin J. MacAdam, Minister of Fisheries and Tourism, reacted angrily today to the announcement of the management plan for the Gulf shrimp fishery for the 2000 season. That plan increases the quota for the Gulf shrimp fishery by over 2,700 MT, to almost 26,000 MT, but restricts PEI's access to a small temporary allocation of 84 MT which Island fishing associations must share.
"The Federal Minister had the opportunity to issue as many as 10 Gulf shrimp licenses to PEI fishermen and settle our long-standing claim over access to this fishery without taking anything away from existing shrimp fisher," stated the Minister. Instead, the 12% increase in quota will be shared among all existing allocation-holders. "This valuable resource is adjacent to our shores but, unfairly, it remains almost exclusively for the benefit of others," said the Minister.
"I am particularly distressed and disappointed that the Federal government can continue to ignore our case in the face of ongoing growth in these stocks," declared Mr. MacAdam. Overall quotas for shrimp have grown from less than 15,000 MT in the early 1980's, when Island interests first asked for the opportunity to fish shrimp in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to almost 26,000 MT in 2000.
"Successive Island governments over this time have brought this injustice to the attention of the Federal government," explained the Minister. "I have made extra efforts to set out a solid case for PEI-based fishers to participate in this fishery, including direct correspondence and several conversations with Mr. Dhaliwal and representations to all four Island Members of Parliament," he continued.
"If Mr. Dhaliwal had chosen to allocate the quota increase for 2000 to address PEI's claim, it would have supported ten PEI-based fishing operations, created about 90 shore-based processing jobs in this Province, and injected about $6 million into the Provincial economy," the Minister stated. "I'm angry that he has so openly shunned our claim to this resource," the Minister concluded.