While pleased to see a temporary agreement that will keep herring seiners farther away from the Island shoreline this fall, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Greg Deighan is hopeful a more favourable resolution can be found for the long term.
At dispute is the boundary of the exclusion zone along the northeastern shore of Prince Edward Island – the area where the seiners are not permitted to fish. Island fishers have been asking the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to move the line farther offshore. They are concerned that the large fishing vessels, which have come close to the shoreline in recent years, are damaging lobster habitat and jeopardizing future herring stocks.
Minister Deighan brought those concerns to Fisheries and Oceans Minister Robert Thibault during a meeting of the Canadian Council of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministers (CCFAM) just last month.
"I want to acknowledge the efforts of Minister Thibault and his department in bringing about a short-term compromise for this fishing season," said Minister Deighan. "This now allows time for DFO to more thoroughly address the very legitimate concerns of Prince Edward Island fishers and put a well-structured plan in place before another fishing season begins."
The compromise agreement reached earlier this month reconfigures the exclusion zone, moving the boundary farther offshore in the areas where it came closest to the coastline in northeastern Prince Edward Island.
"While the agreement is not what they were seeking, I commend members of the PEI Fishermen's Association and the herring advisory committee who have spent many long hours working on this issue over the past year," said Minister Deighan. "The Province will continue to support their efforts to find a long-term resolution that will protect the herring stocks off Prince Edward Island."