The recreational fishery ended over the Labour Day long weekend, but the Food Fishery Committee wants to see it extended throughout the rest of the month.
Chair Merv Wiseman says the rainy and windy weather over the weekend was a “stark reminder” of the serious safety concerns that can come with being out on the water.
While harvesters in areas under the expanded, seven-day-a-week recreational fishery had the flexibility to wait for better weather, Wiseman says people on the south and west coasts, where the fishery is only three days a week, could not.
Wiseman says they advocated for a seven-day fishery in those areas too, but the proposal wasn’t considered by Ottawa.
He is calling for the recreational fishery to be extended throughout the month of September to offset a “significant shortfall” in fishing opportunities due to unsafe conditions.
