01 March 2005

Owen Myers, Etchegary and overfishing

Too bad the Express didn't link Owen Myers column on the fishery last week.

He made some interesting comments about overfishing practices by local companies like Fishery Products during the 1980s. According to Myers, FP issued orders that its vessels couldn't bring back any fish less than 16 inches long. That's called highgrading and involves dumping millions of tons of dead fish that fall below the size standard set not by international regulation but by corporate policy.

Oddly enough that was the same time Gus Etchegary was a senior official at the private sector FPI and then the company rescued with tax dollars.

This is the same Gus Etchegary who maintains that it was foreigners who destroyed the fishery and that Canadian fleets were so heavily regulated they couldn't do anything wrong. Questions about Etchegary's past behaviour have been raised before, but Gus just comes out swinging whenever his past surfaces. I especially like Gus' threat against DFO at the end of that link to The Independent.

It pays to read all the news media sources out there, not just listen to Open Line. (Hint hint for political types on the Hill)