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In general...
- The MFU was founded in 1977 in the small coastal town of the Baie-Ste-Anne in East Coast Atlantic Canada, in the Province of New Brunswick.
- The Maritime Fishermen's Union (MFU) represents over 1,500 owner-operator fish harvesters with small businesses actively fishing in the Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
- Our members are also multi-species owners and some harvest all of some of the following species: herring, scallop, mackerel, snow crab, groundfish (cod, hake, flounder, plaice and turbot)
- MFU harvesters operate with vessels under 15 meters in lenght.
- The MFU works to maintain a sustainable inshore fishery in the hands of fishers for the benefit of coastal communities.
- The organization grew around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence fishers' fight to preserve the gillnet herring fishery from the intensive fishery practiced by large senners. The unity and determination showed by inshore fishers around the issue reversed DFO policy and 80% of herring quotas finally reverted back to inshore fishers.
- On the East Coast of New Brunswick, the MFU is the official representative of inshore fishers in accordance to the Inshore Fisheries Representation Act of New Brunswick.
- In Nova Scotia, membership in the MFU is voluntary.
- Lobster consitutes the main catch of our fishers and often represents 85% of the annual revenue of fishing entreprises.
- The Maritime Fishermen’s Union is a founding member of the Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters.
- The Maritime Fishermen’s Union is made up of 8 locals in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Our core values...
In time, MFU interventions have taken various forms, but these could essentially be regrouped in the realms of the following :
· Democratic representation and participative management for general orientations and major decision making;
· Equitable access to the general resource;
· Equitable and collective approach to the distribution of MFU services;
· Recognizing scientific knowledge for the management of the resource;
· Promoting the traditional knowledge of fish harvesters for the management of the resource;
· Recognizing the respective governmental responsibilities in the fisheries;
· Defending the interests of the inshore fleet when confronted with other fleets and governments;
· Sustainability of the resource for future generations to come.
Please clic on following for additional MFU background information:
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