Building Economically, Socially and Ecologically Resilient Fisheries and Coastal Communities: A Policy Paper

Neis, Barbara and Ommer, Rosemary and House, Doug and Fiander, Winston and Foley, Paul and Fleming, Ian A. and Lavers, Carolyn and McCay, Bonnie and Sinclair, Peter R. and Sullivan, Keith (2014) Building Economically, Socially and Ecologically Resilient Fisheries and Coastal Communities: A Policy Paper. Working Paper. Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Building resilient fisheries and coastal communities for Newfoundland and Labrador’s future is one of the most important opportunities and challenges of our time. In many of our coastal communities, fisheries continue to be the major source of employment and wealth generation, a crucial part of rural economies, of our identity and our cultural heritage. The owner-operator small and medium-scale enterprises and fish plants generate most of this wealth and employment. In recent decades our fisheries and coastal communities have weathered some severe storms, including the 1990s collapse of our groundfish stocks. Their capacity to respond to such challenges without fundamental cultural, social and ecological change is evidence of their resilience, which is now in serious jeopardy. It is threatened by unfounded claims that our fisheries are broken and the best way to fix them is by turning fisheries quotas and licenses into commodities that can be bought and then sold to the highest bidder. It is also suggested that we get rid of policies that limit vertical integration, although such policies have kept access to many (not all) of our fish resources widely dispersed around our coasts. As a result they have both enhanced the employment and wealth they produce for the province, and anchored much of that wealth in the households of people who work in the industry and in the communities where they live. This is not the time to jettison them.

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