About those traps
I really should stop depending on the news for inspiration here. Instead, I could simply change to simplistic fiction, and have the same quality as today offers.
I’ve been trying to glean a few grains from the chaff, but it is much harder than expected. Do I really want to reference “the worst Oscar presentations ever?” (from 1989). How about a closer look at a large seafood company that fell afoul of regulations? OK, that one has potential.
Among the myriad of regulations faced by lobster fishers in Canada, one region (LFA 41) is unique. The control of the quota is in the hands of one corporation, and rather than facing a fixed season, the firm faces a fixed quota. So far, so good. In normal practice, traps are set and then checked on a very regular basis, but in the case of LFA 41, the firm decided to simply store their traps, for several months – on the ocean floor where fishing continued, probably. We just don’t know. Now, the government is trying to fix the problem, which affects stocks. Complicated? Yes. The penalty for random fishing is usually heavy, but this time around the courts decided on an arbitrary amount of $30K. take note, this is not the first time the company has offended.
Why this story takes on importance, locally, is that a lot of my neighbours live by their lobster fishery. This last two years, the DFO has forced closure on parts of the area, whenever a particular species of whale swam through. Meanwhile, a self-policed corporation seems to have little to fear from the heavy hand of the law. Two measures.
