Byrne Requests Ad Hoc Arbitration Panel in Shrimp Dispute

The Liberal fisheries critic in the house of Commons if offering what he calls a means for the federal government to attempt a resolution of its dispute with Denmark over shrimp off Newfoundland’s east coast. Gerry Byrne said an immediate request for an ‘ad hoc arbitration panel’ should be made within the context of the newly renegotiated Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) convention.

Byrne said that “The new process of establishing an ‘ad hoc arbitration panel’ within NAFO, the international body which manages straddling fish stocks shared under Canadian and international jurisdiction, was toasted by Conservatives as a huge victory for Canada, saying this one provision would effectively end foreign overfishing forever.”

“While we all recognize that the revised NAFO Convention won’t likely come into force under international law for another few months, we heard very clearly from fisheries minister Gail Shea and her officials that all NAFO members were totally committed to the principles and requirements of the revised Convention. We were even told that all NAFO member countries have already been living and acting as if the revised Convention were law since it was re-negotiated. That being the case, let’s ask Denmark to agree to participate in a binding arbitration of the 3L shrimp dispute to see if we can get a resolution before the February 15, 2010 deadline  Canada has set before closing Canadian ports to fishing vessels from Greenland and the Faroe Islands under Danish protection.”

Byrne said that the suggestion is an interesting test of the strength of the NAFO and the federal government’s sales job of it.

“If Denmark doesn’t readily agree to engage in this dispute settlement mechanism, one has to wonder about whether or not Gail Shea was providing honest information to the Canadian public about the revised NAFO convention and its international support”, Byrne said.

“If Denmark does agree, we will all get a test drive of how well this revised Convention actually resolves international disputes over the quotas, quota shares and the conservation of fish stocks.

Despite a specific NAFO directive that set the combined quota’s for fishing companies from Greenland and the Faroe Islands at 340 tonnes of shrimp, Denmark has filed an objection with the NAFO secretariat on behalf of its protectorates and has announced it will fish ten times that amount. NAFO’s own scientific council says overfishing will seriously damage stock conservation.