Ottawa: Indian fish plan unacceptable

YARMOUTH, Nova Scotia – Ottawa does not accept plans by some Indian fishermen to take to the waters off southwestern Nova Scotia on Monday when the six-month commercial lobster season opens.

The Shubenacadie band plans to fish as many as 3,500 traps, or a nine-license equivalent, in the district which runs from Baccaro, Shelburne County, to a point near Digby, Chief Reg Maloney said Monday. It also plans to fish up to 1,500 traps, or a four-license equivalent, in the district between Halifax and Baccaro.

The band, whose members live on the Indian Brook reservation, has not signed a fishing agreement with Ottawa and simply delivered its fishing plan Nov. 9 to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Department spokesman Andre-Marc Lanteigne said the band’s plan is unacceptable and fisheries officers will be on the water to enforce the law.

He said the department had offered the Shubenacadie band fewer than 10 licenses.

An alliance of non-Indian fishermen has urged federal Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal to inform the band that unauthorized lobster fishing will not be tolerated.

Last year, more than 5,000 people in 1,700 boats set gear in 850 square miles of ocean in eastern Canada’s most lucrative fishery.

Denny Morrow, coordinator for the Atlantic Fishing Industry Alliance, said Monday that the Marshall decision clearly stated that Micmacs are to exercise their treaty right to fish in their traditional fishing grounds.