US embassy cable - 05OTTAWA983

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 000983 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR OES/OA, OES/OMC, AND WHA/CAN 
NOAA FOR OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND NMFS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIS, SENV, CA, Environment 
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON FISHERIES AND OCEANS ISSUES FROM THE 
DEPUTY MINISTER 
 
 
1.  (U) Sensitive but Unclassified. 
 
2.  (SBU) Summary: Charge and ESTOFFS paid a courtesy call 
April 1 on Department of Fisheries and Oceans Deputy Minister 
Larry Murray, who reviewed a range of bilateral fisheries and 
oceans issues.  Among the topics discussed were U.S. 
participation in NAFO and our request for an allocation of 
Yellowtail Flounder, ocean policy talks, Canada's upcoming 
high seas conference, the Tulsequah Chief Mine, Machias Seal 
Island, and the 2005 Atlantic seal hunt.  End Summary. 
 
NAFO/YELLOWTAIL FLOUNDER 
------------------------ 
 
3.  (SBU) Murray commented that Canada welcomes a continued 
strong U.S. role in NAFO, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries 
Organization.  The GOC, he said, is continuing to look for 
ways to accommodate the long-standing U.S. request for an 
allocation of Yellowtail Flounder (YT) in the NAFO regulatory 
area.  He noted that Canada had previously offered 500 metric 
tons of YT to U.S. fishers, on condition that the fish be 
processed at Canadian plants, while the U.S. has requested 
1000 metric tons to be landed in Nova Scotia and shipped 
overland to New England for processing.  Murray added that 
the GOC is under great pressure from the Canadian fishing 
industry not to give up any allocations, although he 
acknowledged that scientific assessments confirm that the YT 
stock is healthy and growing.  Nevertheless, Murray said that 
an Ecological Assessment may be necessary if any licenses or 
allocations are transferred.  Another option, Murray said, 
may be to transfer an allocation of whiting to U.S. fishers. 
The upcoming U.S.-Canada fisheries bilats in July will 
provide an opportunity to discuss this matter further, Murray 
suggested. 
 
OCEANS POLICY TALKS 
------------------- 
 
4.  (SBU) Murray noted that Admiral James D. Watkins (ret.) 
was coming to Ottawa on April 12 for an unofficial briefing 
on the report prepared by the U.S. Commission on Ocean 
Policy.  Murray said he had agreed to meet with NOAA 
Administrator Lautenbacher to move to 
government-to-government talks after that, either in 
Washington or Ottawa.  Given the specific mention of oceans 
policy in the Security and Prosperity Partnership, Murray 
said it would be useful to schedule meetings fairly quickly 
after the Watkins visit. 
 
HIGH SEAS CONFERENCE 
-------------------- 
 
5.  (SBU) Murray said there has been great interest in the 
GOC's plans for a conference on high seas fishing, to be held 
in May in St. John's, Newfoundland.  He said the GOC is 
currently working on a draft declaration, which will be used 
to launch the conference.  The conference itself, he said, 
will produce a final report that will address a strategy for 
controlling overfishing on the high seas. 
 
TULSEQUAH CHIEF MINE 
-------------------- 
 
6.  (SBU) Regarding plans by the Canadian mining company Red 
Fern to build a road and re-open a mine in the Taku River 
basin, which could impact on an Alaskan salmon fishery, 
Murray said the DFO review process would probably be 
completed in a few weeks.  He offered to give Emboffs advance 
notice of how it would come out.  Murray noted that it was 
unlikely DFO would change the outcome of a permitting process 
that took 10 years the first time around.  He said he 
understood the concerns of Alaskan and First Nations 
opponents, but thought the proposed changes in the road would 
not warrant reversing the mine project. 
 
MACHIAS SEAL ISLAND 
------------------- 
 
7.  (SBU) Murray said that the effort to get lobster 
fishermen to resolve their differences in the disputed area 
is not working, and asked if there was some forum to discuss 
the practical fisheries management issues between the 
governments.  He said that this approach would allow the 
governments to come up with a plan to avoid lost fishing 
gear, minimize the prospect of violence, and manage the 
resource. 
 
2005 ATLANTIC SEAL HUNT 
----------------------- 
8.  (SBU) This year's hunt, Murray said, is off to a slow 
start because of ice conditions.  Murray portrayed DFO as 
occupying a middle ground, in-between animal rights activists 
opposed to the hunt and fishermen who want to increase the 
number of seals taken annually.  He said the hunt is 
scientifically justifiable and sustainable as long as the 
populations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence stay above 3.8 
million individuals.  Currently, he said, there are about 5 
million seals in the Gulf.  This year's total allowable 
catch, the final year of a three year plan, is set at 319,000 
seals.  Murray said that next season the GOC will implement a 
new, five-year plan.  Murray noted that the seal skins are 
marketed mainly in Scandinavia, Russia and China, and that 
DFO is committed to full utilization of the pelts.  He 
acknowledged that only about 30 percent of the animal 
carcasses are processed for meat and blubber, citing the high 
cost of quickly getting the skinned seals from remote ice 
floes to processing plants. 
 
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa 
 
DICKSON