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Postpone Labrador seal harvest urges
Jones
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Yvonne Jones, MHA for the District of Cartwright-L=Anse Au Clair is calling on both the FFAW and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to defer the seal hunt for Labrador fishers until ice conditions in the region improve. The Liberal MHA says she held discussions with the federal officials in DFO earlier this week to encourage the department to delay the start of the spring seal hunt for those sealers in the Cartwright-L=Anse au Clair district who are unable to travel to the front because of the presence of heavy ice. AI also presented the option of at least reserving a quota of seals for this group of vessels for a few days until they could determine their next move to engage in this year=s sealing season. AThe Department informed me that neither of those suggestions could be considered without the full support and representation of the union involved, the FFAW.@ Jones says that following consultations with the fishing enterprises in the region, she sent a letter to Earle McCurdy and asked him to intervene on the sealer=s behalf. AThis is a very important issue for the sealers in my district, as 90 percent of them are not able to participate in the harvesting of this year=s sealing quotas. For some, this also represents a large portion of their overall catch for the season. This could mean a huge loss of revenue for these enterprises and our region if this decision is not immediately put in place to delay the start of the season. Jones points out that this is not the first time that the sealers have experienced similar problems on the eve of the hunt. She is recommending that the union and DFO agree to separate allocations of seals for the Labrador fishers to address this annual problem. DFO announced on the Easter weekend that it would delay the start of the seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for a few days as heavy ice was clogging the water. AThe department argued that the move would even out the playing ground for the Newfoundland fishers. That is all we are asking for the Labrador fishers - a level playing chance to keep their financial operations afloat.@
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