All three shark-fishing tournaments remaining in Nova Scotia have been cancelled this summer, a potentially permanent end to annual events dating back 30 years.
This year, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) stopped issuing the science licences used to authorize the derbies and organizers cannot swallow DFO conditions that would have allowed them to continue.
“The bottom line is we’re not going to be able to hold the tournaments any longer,” said Bob Gavel, organizer of the Yarmouth Shark Scramble, largest of the derbies. It ran for 24 years in southwestern Nova Scotia before this summer’s cancellation.
“I’m very disappointed to say the least. It has a great impact on the local economy. It brought tons of tourists to the waterfront — in the thousands.”
This week the Petit de Grat Shark Derby in Cape Breton was called off as well.
The Lockeport Sea Derby in Shelburne County will continue, but only for mackerel and groundfish.
All the derbies are usually held in August.
No scientific justification
For almost a decade, the tournaments have been authorized based on the scientific information they can provide. But Fisheries officials have decided there is no longer any justification for landing sharks for research.
Since 2018 only one species — blue sharks — can be kept. Derby fishing for porbeagle, thresher and shortfin mako sharks have been banned.
A shark is dissected for research at a previous Yarmouth Shark Scramble. (Yarmouth Shark Scramble website)
DFO said the sample size is also unrepresentative because it includes only a few dozen large, mostly male, blue sharks.
“The issue we are facing today is that the scientific data gained by landing sharks from tournaments in recent history is not contributing or advancing departmental DFO shark research,” DFO resources manager Carl MacDonald told organizers according to records of an October 2022 meeting on the future of the shark tournaments.
Other options impractical or dangerous
DFO told tournament organizers a recreational fishing licence was an option. But organizers say bringing sharks on board to weigh, or even alongside to measure, makes catch and release too dangerous for people handling the fish
The other requirement — that landed blue sharks must be used for human food — was impractical, said Lockeport Sea Derby president George Benham.
“If we had say 10 or 15 sharks landed, we don’t have a market for 100 per cent of that. It would be too hard to get rid of that many. We just couldn’t do it. I don’t think any of the derbies could do that,” Benham told CBC News.
Tournament take too small to make a difference
Ending the tournaments will likely have little effect on the blue shark population.
In 2022, 60 sharks weighing 5,800 kilograms were landed between the three tournaments.
That represents a tiny fraction of blue sharks caught accidentally by commercial fleets fishing for other species like swordfish and tuna.
A 2017 Marine Stewardship Council assessment of Atlantic Canada’s longline swordfish fleet estimated between 2011 and 2015 an average of 1.5-million kilograms per year of blue sharks were retained or discarded as bycatch.
Lockeport Sea Derby is one of four annual shark derbies in Nova Scotia. (Lockeport Sea Derby/Facebook)
“From a conservation point of view, the number of sharks that tournaments are taking are not a threat to the population.” said Shannon Arnold of the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax.
“We’ve never been opposed to the shark tournaments, especially since they were no longer allowed to land any threatened species.”
Arnold said some catch-and-release shark tournaments in the United States use cellphones to document catches at sea and broadcast it back live to shore.
“There’s a beer garden, whatever. And they have a big screen set up and people are out there like in real time with their cellphones, they can measure it and it’s on video and people are watching it. It’s pretty cool.”
Scientific team measuring a shark at a 2003 shark derby. (Canadian Shark Research Lab)
Number of sharks taken is down
The number of tournaments and sharks landed in Nova Scotia has steadily fallen over the past decade.
Since 2006, tournaments have been held in eight different ports. That was whittled down to three in recent years. The Riverport derby was last held in 2016 and Louisbourg in 2018.
According to a DFO report, since 2006 a total of 2,964 sharks of all species were taken.
Between 2011 and 2016 tournaments were landing about 300 sharks per year with an average of about 23 boats participating.
“We’ve reduced the number of sharks. Last year, even though we had over 100 participants, only 40 odd sharks were landed,” said Yarmouth’s Gavel.
VANCOUVER – Environment Canada has issued several rainfall warnings for British Columbia, covering much of Vancouver Island and the coastal regions as the first atmospheric river of the season approaches.
It says heavy rain is expected to reach inland sections of the central coast that will intensify throughout the day before peaking this afternoon, bringing up to 70 millimetres.
The weather office says west and inland Vancouver Island will see rainfall amounts of about 100 millimetres, possibly more than 200 millimetres in mountainous terrain.
It says Metro Vancouver will also see up to 70 millimetres, and the Sea-to-Sky corridor may get up to 100 millimetres.
The atmospheric river will also roll over B.C.’s southern Interior with prolonged periods of heavy rain expected to persist through the weekend.
The expected rain has prompted flood watches by the River Forecast Centre for several rivers along the central and south coasts, Lower Fraser tributaries, waterways in Metro Vancouver and on Vancouver Island.
Wind warnings have also been issued for exposed sections of Haida Gwaii, North and Central Coasts, and North Vancouver Island.
Environment Canada is also maintaining snow warnings along the B.C.-Yukon boundary that may bring up to 25 centimetres in some areas.
It says rapidly accumulating snow may make it difficult to drive, so it is asking travellers to be cautious while on the roads.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2024.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain nearly 100 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 87.36 points at 24,777.84.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 85.55 points at 43,153.50. The S&P 500 index was up 17.22 points at 5,858.69, while the Nasdaq composite was up 118.13 points at 18,491.74.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.42 cents US compared with 72.52 cents US on Thursday.
The December crude oil contract was down US$1.75 at US$68.34 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.27 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$26.60 at US$2,734.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up five cents at US$4.37 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2024.
The Canadian Cancer Society says a proposed settlement that may see tobacco companies pay out billions of dollars would do little to prevent future generations from becoming addicted to smoking.
More details are expected today on a proposed $32.5-billion deal filed in an Ontario court that would see three major companies financially compensate provinces and territories as well as some smokers and their families.
Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst and lawyer at the Canadian Cancer Society, says that while the settlement is a good first step, it fails to support public-health measures that would change the fact that tobacco is the leading cause of death in Canada.
Cunningham says the $1 billion earmarked for research into tobacco-related diseases should be modified to also account for awareness, education and community prevention programs.
Lung Health Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Jessica Buckley says financial restitution can’t make up for the loss of life tobacco use has caused, killing 46,000 Canadians every year.
Buckley says the close to $25 billion that would be handed to provincial and territorial governments should be reinvested into preventing people from vaping and smoking.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2024.
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