New Brunswick fish plant limits urged

SAINT JOHN, New Brunswick – A consultant recommends limiting the number of fish plants in New Brunswick and proposes a new arrangement for distributing crab quota among them.

Gilles Theriault, a veteran of many New Brunswick fisheries battles over 35 years, said Maine’s neighboring province should license a smaller number of modern processing operations capable of operating at least 25 weeks per year.

He also proposed weekly catch limits during the spring and summer snow crab season in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence to smooth out weekly working hours for plant workers. He urged processors to form an industry association to propose a system to divide half the crab quota among themselves, while they would bid for the other half of the quota through an auction system.

Theriault, the principal of GTA Fisheries Consultants Inc. of Shediac, New Brunswick, presented his 88-page report on the province’s crab fishery to the provincial Round Table on Fisheries on Monday. Provincial Fisheries Minister Rick Doucet posted it on the departmental Web site.

Theriault, who played a crucial role in the early days of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, marshaled his knowledge of the issues facing the northeast New Brunswick fishery to make his case.

He said that only 12 of 22 plants licensed in New Brunswick to process crab actually did so this year – nine plants on the Acadian Peninsula, three in the southeast.

Using figures provided by the province, he said the nine plants in the northeast employed 2,695 people – 1,650 women and 1,045 men, average age 46 – attempting to get the six to 12 weeks of work they need to qualify for employment insurance.

They each made about $4,000 to $6,000 in wages, working as long as 100 hours per week early in the season, dropping to as low as 20 later.

He said the approximately 700 crew on the midshore and other boats who catch this crab also work mainly to get their unemployment “stamps,” with boat owners shifting toward paying wages rather than a share of the catch.

He proposed that plants that do not operate at least 15 weeks per year in five years lose their licenses and, subsequently, plants that do not operate 25 weeks per year in 10 years lose their licenses.

He proposed the quota and auction system for fish plants to allow New Brunswick plants the raw material they need to operate – without restricting their opportunity to buy crab from outside the province in years they might need it.

He also called it unfair to deny fishermen the right to sell their catches outside the province for better prices.

Theriault proposed that plants get half the quota caught by New Brunswick boats, with the rest of it going by auction to the highest bidders.

The report deals with many other issues, including biological cycles affecting crab catches, inter-provincial trade barriers and currency exchange rates.