Fishing boats sit in Catalina Harbour, Newfoundland. The fishing industry brings millions of dollars into the provincial economy. In 2022, the snow crab fishery alone was worth over $1 billion in catches and export value. Photo by Telegram staff /The TelegramArticle contentI was listening to a CBC interview with John Efford, Jr., a fishing captain in which he made the statement “no one outside the fishery should have any say about the management of the fishery.”THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle contentWhile I don’t know John, I did know his father well. He was a good politician and was around at the time of the fishery collapse. I served on a committee with him. He didn’t care who was involved in saving the fishery as long as it was saved. But it wasn’t.Article contentArticle contentArticle contentJohn Efford Jr. stated that the fisher people wanted to manage the fishery so that they had some for the next year. From what I have seen in the last 50 years is that 50 per cent of the fisher people cares about the future of the fishery and 50 per cent only care how much they can catch for themselves, and don’t care for tomorrow.Article contentAs a boy I fished for a living but went to Deer Lake to better myself. I always said I went there to get enough money to buy a boat. There were no loan boards then. After 23 years I returned to the fishery in 1977 because I couldn’t get the salt water out of my veins.Article contentI soon found out there was a lot of changes in the fishery, and not for the better.Article contentBeing out of the fishery for a long time I had a different view, and had to learn all over again. I didn’t like certain things I saw. It seemed no one was concerned about quality, leaving nets out too long, using rusty prongs to unload fish, putting out caplin traps and catching a lot of small cod, too small to sell.Article contentArticle contentCatching caplin and bringing it to the plant with too much redfish or to much male caplin, and was dumped because the market didn’t want it. Couldn’t sell male caplin.Article contentThere was as much caplin dumped as was sold, what a waste.Article contentWhen the moratorium was called it was because we had destroyed the fishery, and 30,000 fisher people were out of a job. Not good management by the fisher people.Article contentThat is the reason — as the late Gus Etchegary stated many times — “our oceans are producing only a small percentage of what they did, (and could produce more again) in the future if managed properly.”Article contentGus didn’t live to see it happen and I’m sure I won’t either, all because the will is not there by the people who fish and by Ottawa who is supposed to manage our oceans and has not done a very good job according to their record.Article content(Ret.) Capt. Wilfred BartlettArticle contentCBS, NL wilfbartlett@hotmail.com Article content
LETTER: Half of the fisher people don’t care about the future of the fishery, only what they can catch for themselves
