As the elver season opens, a First Nation is pushing back hard against DFO
Millbrook First Nation says it will conduct its own fishery, warns DFO not to ‘harass’ band members
In the coming weeks, Matthew Cope will anchor his cone-shaped fyke net along a river, and as the overnight hours creep by and the ocean tide comes in, he will catch tiny but highly lucrative juvenile eels.
He will do so, however, without authorization from the Department of Fisheries, asserting that as a Mi'kmaw harvester, he has a treaty right to fish for the young eels, known as elvers, even outside of federal regulations.
He expects to be stopped, and even arrested by fisheries officers, as he was last year during an elver seizure at a transport facility in Dartmouth, N.S.
"I'm going to tell them what I always tell them," he said in an interview this week on Millbrook First Nation in central Nova Scotia.
"I'm going to say I'm not hiding from you, I'm doing what I'm constitutionally allowed to do. I'm fishing in pursuit of a moderate livelihood, and I have every right to do so."
The regulated season for elvers is set to open this weekend along Nova Scotia and New Brunswick rivers, with DFO imposing a number of regulations aimed at bringing control to what's been a chaotic fishery in recent years.
But earlier this month, Millbrook Chief Bob Gloade issued a strongly worded letter to DFO officials, outlining the band's refusal to abide by the government's elver management plan and warning of unspecified actions if fisheries officers "harass" its members.
"We are not regulated by your colonial commercial licensing schemes, nor do we accept your proposed management plan," said the letter, which was addressed to Jennifer Ford, the elver review director at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
DFO has been concerned about widespread unauthorized harvesting in recent years driven by skyrocketing prices for elvers, which are shipped live to Asia and then raised for food in aquaculture facilities.
Some of those fishing outside of DFO's licence regime have been Mi'kmaq asserting an Indigenous and treaty right to catch elvers and sell them. Others are non-Indigenous, simply cashing in on the boom.
But Gloade argues that when the quota is divvied up among so many groups, it doesn't amount to much for each fisherman. The band has tried for several years to assert its rights, he said, but has been frustrated by DFO's insistence that Millbrook must follow federal rules.
"It's the big brother mentality, that philosophy that 'Our way is right and your way is wrong,'" Gloade said in an interview at the Millbrook band office.
"And that's the attitude that we no longer want to accept. I said, 'We can govern ourselves, we can create our own plans.' We don't need DFO to tell us how to do things."
Gloade said Millbrook's own elver plan is set to be approved by council next week. He emphasized that safety along the riversides, which have been the site of threats and even violence in previous years, is crucial for Millbrook harvesters.
The band has hired two former DFO officers, he said, and there's a team in place to run the fishery. There will be logging requirements and accountability, he said. His letter said harvest numbers and river locations will be shared with DFO under the band's "good neighbour policy," but only at the end of the season.
In a statement Thursday, a DFO spokesperson said the department is committed to reconciliation, and "has a fundamental role to support the implementation of treaty rights."
But the statement also said the courts have upheld the federal government's role in licensing the fishery, including the exercise of inherent and treaty rights.
One of the major changes this year will be the requirement for anyone with an elver fishing or possession licence to log reports through a traceability app.
"All aspects of the fishery, from the river to the point of export, are subject to compliance verification by fishery officers, who conduct inspections across all fisheries regulated by the department, including commercial, communal commercial and rights-based fisheries in the pursuit of a moderate livelihood," the statement said.
"Fishing activity occurring without a required licence or not in compliance with conditions of licence is subject to enforcement action."
Gloade said Millbrook will pay for lawyers for members fishing under the band's plan who are charged by DFO under the Fisheries Act.
In his letter, he said fisheries officers will only be allowed on Millbrook land with the permission of the chief and council, and are otherwise barred from inspecting elver holding facilities.
"Should any of your fisheries officers continue to harass or infringe our members' rights, you and your department will be at risk of actions against you," the letter said.
For commercial licence holders, DFO's talk of enforcement needs to be backed up by more arrests and stiffer fines. Riverside cameras set up this month have already spotted people fishing before the season opened.
"For the most part, I think most First Nations communities see the benefit of working with DFO in this fishery," said Stanley King, with Atlantic Elver Fishery Ltd., a commercial licence holder whose quota was cut without compensation.
"I think we have a few that don't want to play by the rules, which means that there's not going to be any accountability, it's going to hurt traceability, it's going to undermine market value of the fish."
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