e-3343 (Fisheries)

Petition to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

• The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) mandate includes promoting the stability and economic viability of fishing operations;
• DFO has recently re-interpreted the existing fishery regulations to assert that a tub of frozen-at-sea spot prawn tails no longer meets their requirement that fish are ‘readily determined’ for inspection purposes;
• No clear reason has been provided for the re-interpretation, and no means for compliance for tubs of prawn frozen at sea has been provided;
• The practice of freezing-at-sea spot prawn tails in tubs has been ongoing for 50 years without incident or concern;
• Prawn size limits are a market issue, not a conservation issue, and there is no minimum prawn size regulations for recreational or for food, social and ceremonial (FSC) harvest;
• The commercial prawn fishery in British Columbia (BC) has been consistently recognized, both internally by DFO and externally by third party assessment, as a sustainable fishery;
• By preventing fishermen from the practice of freezing-at-sea prawn tails, which is the primary format for domestic sales, the DFO is effectively forcing the freezing vessels to create an export-only product;
• This sudden change will decrease the stability and economic viability of prawn fishing operations, fishing families, coastal economies and restaurants; and
• This reinterpretation will increase the export of BC prawns and weaken local food security.