Minister pleased with collaborative science initiative in the Northern Gulf

Yvonne Jones, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, responded today to the announcement of federal funding for a collaborative science initiative in the Northern Gulf. "I am very pleased that Minister Thibault has announced additional scientific effort will go into assessing Northern Gulf cod. Fishers have consistently indicated that they believe the stock to be stable. They are seeing fish distributed over a large geographic area and with a good cross section of year classes, including some large fish."

Robert Thibault, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, announced a three-year collaborative program with $500,000 of annual funding, designed to bring DFO scientist together with Northern Gulf fishers to jointly produce additional knowledge that will aid the minister in making decisions on critical conservation issues. This is part of the Atlantic-wide Fisheries Science Collaborative Program (FSCP), which has a budget of $1.6 million per year.

"We have been very critical of the inconsistency in the science associated with the assessment of the Northern Gulf cod stock," said Minister Jones. "The last three reports of the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council have consistently pointed out that fishers believe the biomass is higher than the scientists suggest.

There has always been a feeling of uncertainty in the assessment. In addition, we asked the federal government to assess the fishers� log book data and use the information in the stock assessment. I am pleased to see that he has addressed this in his announcement."

Minister Jones added, "As Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, I am very supportive of the groundfish sentinel fishery. The continuation of the program by DFO in 2003 will contribute significantly to the quality of data we will be able to review in conjunction with the fishers log book data. In keeping with the province�s call for joint management of adjacent fish stocks, it is appropriate that the provincial government have representation on the management committee of the FSCP. At present DFO is suggesting five industry representatives and DFO scientists make up the committee. I will be requesting that Minister Thibault ensure that a representative from the provincial government be part of this management committee.

"As a government, we believe that the scientific assessment of the Northern Gulf cod should be completed within the Newfoundland region of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans because most of the resource is adjacent to this province and fished by Newfoundland-based boat," said Minister Jones. "Hopefully, into the first year of this scientific review the minister will be willing to review this data in the context of opening the fishery."

Media contact: Cynthia Layden-Barron, Communications, (709) 729-3733

2003 06 20                                      1:10 p.m.