NUNAVUT
The Baffin Fisheries Coalition is set to harvest its entire quota for the season - but the Inuit-owned company is not quite sure what that quota may be.

The 64-metre Arctic shrimp trawler, the Sivulliq, is one of three ships owned by Baffin Fisheries. - photo courtesy of Baffin Fisheries Coalition

The company in the past has had 100 per cent of the quota for Northern shrimp from the waters around the Nunavut Settlement Area, around 4,500 tonnes. Last month the minister of Fisheries and Oceans recommended the quota be divided for the next two years - with Baffin Fisheries Coalition maintaining 70 per cent of the quota and Qikiqtaaluk Corporation taking the remaining 30 per cent.

The decision has yet to be finalized, and could come into effect as early as this current season.

Baffin Fisheries is the largest fisheries enterprise in Nunavut and, since 2015, it has been 100 per cent Inuit-owned, the first of its kind in the territory. In 2015 it acquired all of the outstanding foreign partner shares.

The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board followed the recommendations of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada on July 19 to alter the quota, a change to the board's previous position that the minister maintain the status quo.

However, a spokesman for the company told Nunavut News/North that even if the quota is reduced, the total amount of shrimp caught might not actually change, regardless of the quota.

The spokesman said the minister could increase the total allowable catch - a number roughly 15 per cent of the total biomass of the species.

"From what we understand from the science there's room to increase the total percentage of the entire biomass within the accepted international rules of good stewardship and conservation. Because that's number one for us, we want a sustainable resource, year after year, long term," said the spokesperson, who was not authorized to give his name.

If the quota is reduced without the total amount rising, it could mean a reduction in the revenue of the company - which could have repercussions for the level of infrastructure investment in the territory. Owned by five Hunters and Trappers Associations, the company plans to construct new offices in Pangnirtung and Pond Inlet, as well as explore other development opportunities in other communities in Nunavut. Despite the change in quotas, an Aug. 3 news release states the company is also exploring options to expand its commercial inshore turbot fishery.

"There is the potential for Nunavut fisheries companies to have a tremendous impact on the economy and the lives of Inuit in our communities," stated Jacopie Maniapik, president and chairperson of Baffin Fisheries, in a news release. "We will continue to maximize the benefits from our shrimp and turbot allocations and to reinvest in new infrastructure and opportunities in Nunavut."

This decision led Baffin Fisheries to suspend its participation in the Nunavut Offshore Allocation Holders Association (NOAHA) which represents Nunavut's offshore fishing industry.

'Supporting one company'

Company vice-president and vice-chairperson Methusalah Kunuk says the split was over concern the chairman of NOAHA, Jerry Ward, also works for Qikiqtaaluk.

"The current chairman as far as we are concerned is supporting one company, not the whole fishing industry in the North," said Kunuk.

Ward disagrees. "The goal of NOAHA is to help grow the industry pie, not to consider how the pie is to be divided," he stated in an e-mail to Nunavut News/North. "As in any fishery, it is unreasonable to expect one company to have 100 per cent of the allocation."

Either way, a spokesperson for Baffin Fisheries says when Northern companies fight each other, everybody loses, adding all the Inuit fisheries companies should be working together to lobby for additional quota for all of Nunavut, not squabbling over who gets what piece of the pie.

According to the spokesperson, while other provinces, like Newfoundland, will give their own companies up to 90 per cent of the quota in the region, Nunavut only has about 50 per cent of the total quota to fish the waters around Nunavut.

"That's why we want an independent chair of NOAHA, to be able to fight for that common right, and stop this fighting for each other's quota, because that will just keep going back and forth and nobody will win," said the spokesperson, adding the worry is additional quota will be sold for a royalty to companies outside Nunavut.

And while these sales can include a stipulation to employ Inuit on the vessels, the spokesperson says Inuit only get a small fraction of the economic benefit. "What really happens is if you fish the entire quota yourself you have more money to reinvest in things like vessel upgrades and new vessels, buying out partners and when you get all that done then infrastructure in the North."

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