A number of fishermen in communities on the province's Northern Peninsula are reeling after they didn't receive an annual cash payment administered by a local organization which is supposed to represent them.
The affected fishermen say it's the first time in 17 years they won't receive a payment from the North of Fifty-Thirty Association (NOFTA) which partners with offshore shrimp companies to catch its allocation of shrimp.
NOFTA is a non-profit organization comprised entirely of fishermen from River of Ponds up to the tip of the peninsula, and to Englee on the northeast side. It was formed in 2003 to administer the allocation the Department of Fisheries and Oceans awarded core small-boat fishermen affected by declines in cod and crab stocks in the area.
The royalties from the catch were to be redistributed to all the small-boat inshore fish operations in the NOFTA region. The harvesters receive about $2,000 to $2,500 each year.
But this time some of the fishermen did not receive their money.
Noddy Bay fisherman Carl Hedderson estimates about 60 harvesters, from the region encompassed by St. Anthony Basin Resources Inc. (SABRI) — from Big Brook to Goose Cove — were cut out the NOFTA allocation this year.
He is one of them.
According to Hedderson and other fishermen from that area, NOFTA informed them they were ineligible this past spring because they also receive money from SABRI, a non-profit social enterprise based in St. Anthony with a shrimp allocation of its own, to buy bait.
That reasoning is not sitting well with the affected fishermen.
St. Anthony Bight harvester Dean Patey said the explanation is inadequate.
He said the bait subsidy from SABRI was never an issue until this year.
Patey questions why other members of NOFTA get a say on whether he gets his payment or not.
“Why should they have a say on my $2,500?” he asked.
Hedderson says he’s been trying to get more of an explanation from NOFTA for months.
But, he says, he hasn’t gotten anywhere.
“They just won’t talk to nobody,” he told SaltWire Network. “I got hold of (NOFTA chair) Eric Patey once. I’ve left up to as high as three messages a day.”
Eric Patey did not respond to SaltWire Network’s request for an interview.
Kickstarts operations
Hedderson says the money from NOFTA helps harvesters kickstart their fishing operations in the spring.
“It helped everybody out because it started in the spring, you’d buy your gas, get your boat and gear ready to put in the water,” he said.
Dean Patey calls it, “a good chunk of change.”
“That’s enough for you to buy your bait and fuel to go at your crab,” he said.
Hedderson says he’s reached out to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Bernadette Jordan, as well as Long Range Mountains MP Gudie Hutchings for help.
Hutchings was not available for an interview but released a statement to SaltWire Network which states that she has been urging the NOFTA board to reconsider its decision, but also suggests there is little the federal government can do about it.
She said an arrangement that has lasted over 16 years should stand the test of time.
“But, apparently, the NOFTA board has the right to make changes to the conditions associated with disbursements from the shrimp allocation they hold,” she added.
Hutchings suggested she had no idea what avenue SABRI fishermen might pursue going forward.
“These fishers are probably the most disadvantaged group of fishers in the province so every dollar counts, especially when this income came in at the start of the season,” she said. “It is a big loss and really hurts the fishers in this particular region.”
Hedderson felt the federal government should do more to intervene.
“I think the federal department should step in and say, ‘this was issued to all the fishermen of NOFTA and you guys got to administer that quota and share it with everybody,” he said.
Stephen Roberts is a west coast reporter in Corner Brook.
The Link LonkNovember 04, 2020 at 05:19AM
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Newfoundland and Labrador fishery group entangled in internal dispute over shrimp money - The Journal Pioneer
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