| Montreal, 16/10/2009 – Yesterday, the North Coast Steelhead Alliance (the “Submitter”) filed with the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (“CEC”) a submission asserting that Canada is failing to effectively enforce the federal Fisheries Act, the Pacific Fishery Regulations, and, in particular, ss. 22(1) and 22(2) of the Fishery (General) Regulations in connection with the alleged violation of fishing licenses and notices in the Skeena River, British Columbia, Canada.
In submission SEM-09-005 (Skeena River Fishery), the Submitter asserts that Canada is allowing commercial salmon fishers to “ignore license conditions aimed at protecting and conserving certain kinds of fish.” The Submitter alleges that the federal government of Canada and, more specifically, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans ("DFO") “is legally required to protect steelhead from the effect of by-catch.” Specifically, in 2006, the Submitter alleges that with respect to licenses involving gill net fishers, Canada did not enforce requirements in licenses such as: ‘gill net fisher vessels must have necessary equipment on board when fishing’; ‘prohibited species must be sorted and released causing the least amount of harm’; ‘operation and fishing of gill nets must be done in a specified time (short sets)’; ‘taking of steelhead is prohibited at all times’; and ‘taking and possession of chum, coho and chinook salmon is only permitted at specified times’. The Submitter also alleges that a disproportionate amount of time has been spent on sport and aboriginal fishery patrolling as opposed to commercial fishing, and that during the summer of 2006 there was a short period of time when the Department’s enforcement of fishing licenses was allegedly weak and/or non-existent.
The CEC Secretariat is reviewing SEM-09-005 to determine whether it meets the criteria for submissions set out in Article 14 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation ("NAAEC").
Articles 14 and 15 NAAEC include procedures allowing private parties to make submissions to the CEC Secretariat asserting "that a Party [to the NAAEC] is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law." The CEC has published "Guidelines for Submissions on Enforcement Matters" explaining these procedures.
In appropriate cases, and upon instruction from the CEC Council, the CEC Secretariat may examine a submission further and develop a factual record.
For more information, please visit the CEC’s “Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters” webpage, and the registry of Submission SEM-09-005 (Skeena River Fishery). |
