St. John’s, NL (Thursday, March 16, 2023) – The Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) is expressing its concern with the methodology and underlying assumptions that DFO adopted for its 2023 science assessment for 2J3KL Capelin. Despite positive environmental signs indicating potential growth, DFO’s overall tone was negative, eliminating any glimmer of hope for those involved in the capelin fishery.
“We have serious concerns with the methodology that DFO applied to its recent science assessment for capelin, said Jeff Loder, Executive Director, Association of Seafood Producers (ASP). “It is important to ensure the application of the principles of resource management and assign a proper Limit Reference Point based on justified and reasonable factors. Something DFO failed to do.”
“Setting the LRP to the biomass of 640 Kt is setting the stock at unattainable levels based on ecosystems of the 1980s.” adds Loder.
With positive environmental signs such as larger and heavier, higher quality capelin, and increased food availability with larger zooplankton, indicating a potential for increased growth, as well as the larval index being the highest it’s been in almost 10 years, a more positive outcome and assessment would have been reasonable.