by Cory Francis, MCG Commercial Fisheries Liaison Coordinator

Spring is upon us and many First Nation communities are busy readying and hauling in their catches from the sea. I hope that all of our Mi’kmaw Member Communities are enjoying a bountiful communal commercial spring harvest. Your CFLC has been very busy attending DFO/Industry advisory committee meetings, pre-meeting and debriefing sessions with First Nation Fishery Coordinators, issuing/administering tags and addressing an array of other ongoing fishing issues.
I note below some ongoing and important Mi’kmaw Community Communal Commercial Fishery issues that all fishery coordinators should be aware of:

Tagging

As all of our communities are aware MCG is a DFO Nationally certified tag supplier and is responsible to ensure the timely delivery of original and replacement fishing tags to its Mi’kmaw Member Communities. Some of the communal commercial fisheries currently ongoing or that will start in the near future in our Communities is:

Gulf Fisheries – Lobster LFA 26A, LFA 26B, Rock Crab 26A and Snow Crab 19.

SF Maritime Fisheries – Lobster LFA 32, LFA 35, Snow Crab CFA 23 and CFA 24.

To date very little effort has been needed to address replacement tags for our Communities and I think this speaks volumes in the professionalism status gained by all of our Fishers and Managers and a little bit of luck afforded by Mother Nature. If any MCG Member Community has questions regarding the replacement tag process or require replacement tags, please contact me, Cory Francis, cfrancis@mikmawconservation.ca or 1-902-895-6385.

As a final note on tags, I want to thank all of our First Nation Fishery Coordinators in making mine and MCG’s job as a tag supplier, easy!

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