Canada: Ecology Action Centre report shows potential returns for century-old fishery

Ecology Action Centre report shows potential returns of over $2.5 million for century-old fishery adapting to climate change. A report from the Ecology Action Centre finds that Nova Scotia’s commercial swordfish harpoon fleet could be seeing returns of $2.5 million by adding charters as another stream of income and a new gear type to adapt to low catch rates caused in part by climate change. “Keeping a century-old fishery alive” details two years of trials of a new rod-and-reel gear type, an economic analysis of adding charter operations to the fishery, results from surveys of industry stakeholders and recommendations for regulatory changes. The Nova Scotia swordfish harpoon fleet is one of the oldest and most storied fisheries in Atlantic Canada and was once a highly successful fishery. Over the last several years, however, changing ocean conditions have made swordfish increasingly hard to find for this fleet, as the swordfish must be visible at the ocean surface to be ...