Minister of Fisheries Sells Out National Interests.

I’d like to publicly call for an RCMP investigation into the whereabouts of Loyola Hearn. I don’t mean the guy parading around Ottawa pretending to be the Minister of Fisheries, no, in fact they should start the investigation by asking that guy, “Where is Mr. Hearn and what have you done with him?”

When Loyola Hearn sat in opposition he told anyone who would listen about what needed to be done to protect fish stocks. That was before he had the power to actually do anything so it was easier I guess. He shouted louder than anyone that taking control of the Nose and Tail of the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap was the only way to protect species from foreign vessels bent on raping the ocean of every living thing. He pounded the table, fought in the trenches and bent the ear of anyone who would listen and it worked. It got him elected. That was then, this is now.

Where is that Loyola Hearn now? He certainly isn’t the same man who sits on the government side of the House and who now has the power to do something but isn’t. The powerless Mr. Hearn screamed that custodial management was the only solution. Now that the empowered Mr. Hearn has assumed the top job in fisheries he, like other MPs before him (Liberal John Efford immediately springs to mind) seems to feel that the best course of action is to side with the foreign affairs office and to represent Ottawa to his constituents rather than the other way around.

According to Mr. Hearn, if Canada took control of these nursery areas it might offend some of our trading partners. I don’t know about anyone else but I personally find it extremely offensive that our trading partners have no problem destroying fish habitat that Canadian fishermen depend on for centuries and I find it disgusting that Mr. Hearn is all too happy to let them do it.

For decades Canada has idly watched as a vital, vibrant and valuable resource has dwindled and died. For just as long politician after politician has done nothing about it. Now, instead of taking control and actually doing what he was elected to do, save a dying resource, protect fish stocks and help coastal fishing communities, Mr. Hearn has decided to simply give it all away once and for all and get it off his plate.

Instead of taking control of fishing practices the Canadian government has issued public tender calls in the U.S. for fishers to catch quotas of various species inside Canadian waters. They have also decided to use foreign patrols to police the area outside the 200 mile economic zone in an effort to identify illegal fishing vessels. Fishing vessels that are subsidized by the same governments who own the patrol boats and who pay the salaries of those now being assigned to arrest and prosecute the offenders.

Rather than fighting for custodial management, Mr. Hearn has signed a much touted agreement with NAFO which he claims will protect fish stocks. The new deal would see illegal vessels boarded however the captain of the rogue vessel will be permitted to decide where in the world he wishes to dock and enforcement officers have no choice but to leave the rogue vessel if requested to do so. Oh, I almost forgot the best part. The government that subsidized the illegal fishing activity in the first place will determine the punishment to be meted out. Does this sound like a good system to anyone except Loyola Hearn and perhaps the Minister of Foreign Affairs?

Adding insult to injury, Mr. Hearn most recently decided that even though most of the world supports a UN sponsored ban on bottom dragging fishing gear, gear known to strip the sea bed clean and leave nothing but a lifeless wasteland behind, his government will not support it. Hell, even George W., not a man known for his level of intelligence, recognizes that this ban as a no-brainer. Apparently Loyola H. doesn’t.

Instead of supporting the ban, Mr. Hearn has once again taken the side of rogue nations known for their destructive activities on the high seas in areas including very Grand Banks nurseries he claims to be protecting. Hearn isn’t actually saying he supports foreign fishing fleets over his own countrymen though. Instead he is attempting to put a different spin on it by saying that the science doesn’t provide all the information needed for him to support a ban. I guess the old adage, “Perception is Reality” was never truer.

Mr. Hearn has taken his stance even though documents released by DFO just this summer show that the trawl gear can strip the ocean floor so clean that it can take hundreds of years to recover, if it does at all. It also shows that some species never return to those areas after the destruction has taken place. Unfortunately the same document also says that since it can take centuries for the environment to rebuild itself the studies done to date, which only cover only a few decades, do not tell the whole story. I guess this is the lack of full scientific information he refers too.

It looks like our government intends to study this issue for several more centuries so they can see for themselves what happens when you run a massive scraper over a fragile sea bed. Maybe they’re depending on Loyola’s great, great grandson to make the call on bottom dragging. I doubt he’ll have too though because at the rate the fish stocks and the ocean floor itself are being destroyed there won’t be any fish left to protect in a couple of decades. Good work Mr. Hearn.