Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada-based Connors Bros. is laying off over 20 percent of its staff at its herring processing plant and is placing the blame on Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).
The company announced the layoffs in a press release and said they directly follow the DFO’s decision to reduce the total allowable catch for herring in the Bay of Fundy by 24 percent. DFO announced its decision in July and said it would keep this lower quota for the next four years – maintaining a 16,000-metric-ton (MT) quota for the 2024 through 2027 seasons.
“We’ve been operating in this community for over 130 years, and this is a heartbreaking decision but it’s necessary to keep our plant viable moving forward,” Connors Bros. General Manager Chad Baum said in a release. “We were surprised and disappointed by the DFO’s decision to slash the quota by so much and by the unprecedented four-year directive.”
DFO defended its decision to cut the herring quota, though DFO Spokesperson Lauren Sankey told the CBC that the decision was not made lightly.
"We recognize the economic impacts this decision will have on the families and communities that rely on income from fishing and processing herring," she said. "But, such a decision is necessary to ensure recovery and protect the resource for future generations.”
The quota has been sharply reduced in recent years. In 2016, the quota in the Bay of Fundy was 50,000 MT.
Environmental groups have criticized DFO’s handling of its oceanic resources and its apparent lack of progress on rebuilding and maintaining the sustainability of its fishing stocks. In December 2023, Oceana released a fishery audit that pointed out DFO has made little progress on its fisheries management.
“Once again, less than one-third of Canada’s marine fish and invertebrate populations can be considered healthy and nearly 40 percent of fisheries lack enough information to assign the health status needed to properly manage them,” Oceana Canada Fishery Scientist Rebecca Schijns said soon after the report came out.
That report said DFO’s past management decisions ignored scientific advice when making its quota decisions. Sankey said its latest decision was made entirely based on DFO science and that the stock needs to be rebuilt.
In its layoff announcement, Connors Bros. asked DFO to “reconsider its science” and reevaluate the quota recommendations, “as there is disagreement among experts on the status of the herring stock.”
The Fundy North Fishermen’s Association is also warning that the quota reduction will have an impact on the nearby lobster fishery, as herring is frequently used for bait. The organization shared a letter with the CBC from Connors Bros. that said the company can no longer provide herring bait to the lobster industry.
Connors Bros. filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada in 2019 as part of a larger filing by its parent company: San Diego, California, U.S.A.-based Bumble Bee Foods.
