QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
Commercial Seal Hunt
June 4, 2024
Welcome, minister. The Senate’s Fisheries and Oceans Committee released its report on the seal study, which you heard about earlier today. It’s clear from our formal and informal work that the data available from Canada’s West Coast and Alaska’s southeast coast is sorely lacking. There’s a big difference between Victoria, British Columbia, and Haines, Alaska, near and dear to our hearts.
We remain aware through anecdotal evidence from fisheries and First Nations that an overabundance of seals — specifically on the Alsek, Stikine and Taku rivers — is a factor in dwindling salmon stocks. What specific work is Fisheries and Oceans Canada, or DFO, doing or funding with B.C., Yukon and southeast Alaska to establish the size of the seal population in the Northwest?
As I mentioned a little earlier, when I visited the East Coast, the idea that seals could be economically profitable and properly harvested for the benefit of all communities was a very delicate subject for people in the fishery and the processing sector, as well as for the Government of British Columbia.
It is therefore important for me that we have more openness toward an environmentally responsible fishery. That is why it is so important to get Indigenous communities involved and to have access to their traditional knowledge so that we can fish other species. Seals eat fish and that harms other wildlife.
Respectfully, minister, there’s a big difference between having a conversation in southern British Columbia and having a conversation in southeast Alaska and Yukon, where this is clearly an issue — an international one.
Will you commit to having a conversation with your Alaskan counterparts and with the First Nations that cross borders between the Yukon, northern B.C. and southeast Alaska?
We entered into discussions with Alaska to reach an agreement to suspend wild salmon fishing for seven years to allow stocks to rebuild. That work is being done in partnership with First Nations and governments. It is one of my priorities in terms of marketing seal products.
