SEA-NL calls on Ottawa to lift moratorium on Atlantic mackerel

SEA-NL is calling on Fisheries and Oceans Canada to lift the moratorium on Atlantic mackerel next year.

The organization also wants the federal government to establish a quota at least equal to that of the United States. The American quota for 2023 has been set at 3,629 tonnes.

“DFO’s decision earlier this year to slap a moratorium on the Atlantic mackerel fishery while American fishermen continued to fish the same stock — combined with relatively weak science, and then even less data without fishermen on the water — was wrong from the get-go,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s executive director.

Federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray ordered a moratorium on the Atlantic mackerel commercial/bait fisheries in Atlantic Canada and Quebec in March.