Shrimp fishing inside 200 miles vs outside — quota vs. fishing effort

While Newfoundland and Labrador fishermen anxiously await the province’s fish price setting panel to set the 2021 summer price of shrimp — $1.22/lb (FFAW) or $1.10/lb ASP — it’s interesting to note the difference in shrimp management inside vs outside Canada’s 200-mile limit.

Independent licensed owner-operators are encouraged to join SEA-NL here. These blog posts will be public for a limited time, before becoming exclusive to the membership.

Inside territorial waters, Fisheries and Oceans Canada sets annual quotas for northern shrimp, with strict enforcement and penalties for illegal/overfishing.

Outside 200 miles, in rich fishing grounds like the Flemish Cap just outside the Grand Banks — where the northern shrimp fishery reopened in 2020 after nine years of moratorium — there is no set quota.

Instead, the fishery is managed through effort control, or fishing days— limits on the number of vessels and days on ground for each member country.

CANADA’S FISHING DAYS 4.3% OF TOTAL

Again, for 2021 there is no set quota for shrimp on the Flemish Cap. Instead, an allocation of 2,640 fishing days have been set aside, and divvied up among 12 countries.

Canada’s total fishing days — 114 — work out to 4.3% of the total, which is shockingly low considering Canada is the adjacent state/historical attachment.

Other countries that have more fishing days include:

European Union: 823 days, 31%;

Russia — 525 days, 20%;

Norway — 496 days, 19%;

Denmark — 531 days, 20%.

CANADA’S COD SHARE IS WORSE

Canada’s share of shrimp fishing days on the Flemish Cap works out to more than our share of the cod quota in the area — .8%.

Canada’s share of the turbot quota — from the edge of the continental shelf to the shores of NL — is 15%.

If a strong fishery/access to resource doesn’t represent a critical economic lifeline — what does?