Sustaining Canada’s Major Fish Stocks—Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans

Sustaining Canada’s Major Fish Stocks—Fisheries and Oceans Canada

(Report 2—2016 Fall Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development)

7 February 2017

Julie Gelfand
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainble Development

Mr. Chair, I am pleased to be here today to discuss my report on sustaining Canada’s major fish stocks, which was tabled in October 2016. I am accompanied by Sharon Clark, the principal responsible for this audit.

As Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, I wanted to perform this audit to ensure that Canada was not heading toward the collapse of another fish stock. You may recall the effects of the closure of the northern cod fishery in the early 1990s. I wanted to make sure that Fisheries and Oceans Canada was managing our 154 major fish stocks in a sustainable way.

Fisheries are an important economic driver. Some 600 Canadian communities (often small, rural, and hard to access) depend on fishing and fishing-related industries for their livelihoods. The rest of us depend on fish to eat. The economic value of the Canadian fish and seafood exports was $6 billion in 2015.

Our most distressing finding from my perspective was regarding fish stocks in critical condition. Of the 15 major fish stocks that were in critical condition and still being fished, 12 did not have the required building plans in place, nor were there timelines for putting them in place. These included certain stocks of cod, mackerel, herring, and scallop. Continuing to fish stocks that are in critical condition without having a rebuilding plan increases the risk of the stocks’ collapse.

Officials at Fisheries and Oceans Canada told us that they needed Integrated Fisheries Management Plans with detailed information on each stock in order to manage each fishery sustainably. We found that these management plans were in place for 110 of 154 (71 percent) of Canada’s major fish stocks, including those with the greatest economic value. However, for the remaining 44 stocks (29 percent), these plans were missing or outdated.

We also found issues with gathering, analyzing, and managing information on fish stocks. In particular, we found that Fisheries and Oceans Canada was unable to complete all of the scientific surveys it had planned. This was partly due to the unavailability of ships, including Coast Guard ships. Also, we found the Department had systemic problems with their third-party observer programs which calls into question the data’s reliability and usefulness. We found issues related to conflict of interest and to the timely provision of data. For example, data from third party observers in at least one case was only made available two years after it was gathered.

These deficiencies in surveys and observer programs contributed to the Department’s information gaps regarding the health status of Canada’s major fish stocks. The Department reported that 80 of the 154 stocks (52 percent) did not have all of the reference points required by the precautionary approach framework. These reference points are used to delineate the healthy, cautious, and critical zones for each major fish stock. This meant that the department was less certain about the health of these stocks. For 24 of the stocks (16 percent), the department classified the health of the stock as “unknown.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada had no consistent way to manage data on fisheries across the Department. For example, in one case, fisheries observers in two neighbouring fishing regions used different codes for the same species. This inconsistency put the Department at risk of not having access to sufficient information to make effective and timely decisions.

Our audit concluded that Fisheries and Oceans Canada had identified the following five key elements it needed for fisheries management:

However, the Department had not put all of these elements in place for all major stocks.

Without a clear sense of how many fish there are and how many are being caught, Fisheries and Oceans Canada cannot ensure that fisheries are sustainably managed for the benefit of current and future generations.

The Department agreed with our eight recommendations, and its responses appear in our published audit report. I am encouraged by these responses.

Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening statement. We would be pleased to answer any questions the Committee may have. Thank you.