Fisheries and Oceans Canada has published three amended regulations for inshore fishing.
The amendments were made to the Atlantic Fishery Regulations, 1985 and the Maritime Provinces Fishery Regulations to clarify the rules governing inshore commercial licenses and to create new enforceable requirements.
Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Bernadette Jordan, says these amendments have been years in the making.
“It’s something that has been worked on for at least two and a half years,” said Jordan. “It was put in the fisheries act as we modernized the fisheries act. My job was to make sure that we continued to work to put in place the regulations that modernize the fisheries act and these are some of those regulations”
The three amendments ensure the license holder retains the benefits generated by fishing, prohibit certain types of corporations from holding inshore licenses and will establish an eligibility criteria that will prevent inshore licenses to be issued to holders that have transferred the use of the privileges given by the license to a third party.
Jordan says that this is something inshore fishers have wanted for a long time.
“This is something that fishers have been asking for for years because their independence is so important to them,” said Jordan “What we’re going to do now is, this is going to provide more clarity, there’s going to be no grey areas. And it’s going to give some teeth to the act, so that we’re able to better enforce the owner operator policies”
