Abolish LIFO shrimp policy and replace with new regime, panel says

A panel on the Last In, First Outshrimp policy has recommended abolishing the controversial LIFOpolicy and replacing it with a new way of allocating quotas.

An advisory panelreport released Tuesday says the current policy is not sustainable, adding it does not "provide the basis for all sectors of the industry to plan and adjust to changing realities and does not promote sufficient ownership and stewardship of the resource by all involved."

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Instead, the panel is recommending a newallocations regime which includes permanent proportional sharing for shrimp fishing areas.

LyndonSmall, a shrimp fisherman based out of La Scie, and president of the Independent Fish Harvesters Association, saidthe report is great news.

"I feel like this huge dark cloud that's been hanging over the Northeast Coast of Newfoundland and Labrador is starting to leave, and the future is looking a lot brighter today," he told CBC Radio's The Broadcast on Tuesday.

A win for the inshore

The decision is a win for the inshore vessel operatorsin this province, who were highly critical of the LIFO policy and said it had a detrimental affect on their livelihoods and communities.

The Last In, First Out policymeant that smaller inshore boats had to leave fishing areas first when quotas were cut, while larger offshore vessels were allowed to remain.

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Offshore factory freezer trawlers were allowed to catch northern shrimp this spring, even though scientists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans saidthe stock had declined.

The policy was the subject of protests and emotional pleas,and on April 18then-fisheries minister Hunter Tootooannounced an advisory panelto undertake an external review of the Last In, First Out policy.

Act quickly, fisherman urges

Small saidthe federal government should act quickly to implement the recommendations of the four-person advisory panel.

He sidthe government should act within days to set up the new system.

"There's a lot of people that's involved in this fishery, that they want to get fishing and they've had a lot of downtime," he said Tuesday from his ship offshore.

The proportional system recommended in the report would see each quotaholder get a fixed percentage of the total allowed catch. That would see each boat's quota rise and fall in proportion to the year's total allowable catch.

"Hopefully, when they look at proportional shares, the department takes into consideration the people who are mostadjacentto the resource and are most dependent on it," Small said.

The provincial government said in a statement that they were still reviewing the report and its findings, but were cautiously optimistic about the results.

Read the panel's full report here.