Question Period Note: Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization Yellowtail Flounder Arrangement between Canada and the United States

• Our government is committed to supporting economic opportunities for Canadians in the fisheries sector, while ensuring fisheries are sustainably managed.
• In 2020, my department reached a non-binding arrangement with the United States that will protect Canada’s interests in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization.
• This arrangement includes an annual transfer of less than six per cent of Canada’s Yellowtail flounder quota to the United States, for the next five years. The arrangement also promotes mitigation of bycatch; maintenance of favourable quotas for Canada’s harvesters; and, the long term sustainability of this stock.
• This arrangement supports Canada’s overall interests in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization and will reinforce Canada’s relationship and history of close fisheries management cooperation with the United States.

• From 2009 to 2018, Canada transferred up to 1000t (5.9 per cent) of its annual Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) 3LNO Yellowtail founder quota to the United States (US) under what was known as the “Vigo Arrangement.” That ten-year agreement provided the US with a meaningful fishing opportunity for Yellowtail flounder, and supported the cooperative relationship shared by our two countries on fisheries management and conservation.
• DFO has reached a non-binding agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States on the Yellowtail flounder resource in NAFO Divisions 3LNO on the Grand Banks.
• The arrangement recognizes both Parties’ support for minimizing bycatch and maintaining the stability of the NAFO allocation key for this and other straddling stocks, including those currently under moratoria. An additional component of the arrangement is the transfer of 1,000 t of quota from Canada to the US annually for five years. In accordance with the arrangement, the transfer has been completed for 2020 and 2021.
• Prior to reaching the new arrangement, the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union, the Newfoundland and Labrador Ministry of Fisheries and Land Resources, Ocean Choice International (OCI), and the Atlantic Groundfish Council had expressed some opposition to continuing to provide the US with an allocation transfer of Yellowtail flounder.
• Some NAFO advisors have also acknowledged that the arrangement has the potential to protect Canada’s overall NAFO interests, such as by reducing often divisive allocation debates over other NAFO stocks, thereby bringing a degree of stability to the organization.
• After the signing, Gerry Byrne, former Minister of Fisheries and Land Resources in Newfoundland and Labrador, publicly expressed his frustration with the arrangement and the annual transfer, noting particularly OCI’s investment in a new vessel which should enable the full utilization of Canada’s Yellowtail flounder allocation.
• Allocation transfer among nations has been a common practice within NAFO. Canadian harvesters have and continue to transfer some portion of their annual NAFO allocation to other Contracting Parties.

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