In letter to Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans MacGregor asks for emergency review of changes to regulations on frozen spot prawns
COWICHAN, BC – Today, MP Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) sent a letter to MP Ken McDonald, Chair of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, asking for an emergency review of changes to regulations regarding frozen spot prawns.
Upon learning that Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has annouced a re-inturpretation of regulations making the sale of spot prawns frozen at sea illegal, Vancouver Island NDP MPs Gord Johns, Rachel Blaney, and Alistair MacGregor met with the BC Prawn Industry Caucus to discuss the devastating impacts the new regulations would have on west coast prawn fishers.
“At a time when BC residents are looking to support local food producers by enjoying the seafood caught right off our shores, the federal government is actively making that more difficult”, stated MacGregor. “I look forward to my letter being addressed with the urgency it demands at upcoming committee hearings.”
The amended DFO regulations, aimed at conservation, come after decades of prawn fishing without any significant violations of catch guidelines. MP MacGregor’s efforts are widely supported among local prawn fishers including small scale indigenous harvesters.