Inukshuk on rocky shore with mountains and lake
Adobe Stock
The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard have announced the launch of the $5-million Indigenous Fisheries Monitoring Fund to promote sustainable fisheries management.
Through this fund, Indigenous peoples will continue increasing their capacity to monitor fisheries and catch reporting activities to obtain dependable, timely, and accessible information.
According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), fisheries, oceans, aquatic habitats, and marine waterways are of "great" social, cultural, spiritual, and economic importance to many Indigenous peoples.
Finally, this initiative will allow communities to share better practices and useful information and highlight the importance of federally regulated fish stock management and populations across Canada.
On the DFO's Indigenous Fisheries Monitoring Fund webpage, all information can be found, and proposals can be submitted until December 31, 2028.
Thanks to the technology used during fishery monitoring, data is collected at sea and in the port by fishers and external sources. Specifically, fishers complete logbooks and catch surveys, while others conduct vessel monitoring systems, aerial gear counts, and port sampling.
"Indigenous harvesters have always made an important contribution to fishery monitoring and stewardship in Canada. This funding will support Indigenous groups as they continue the important work of fishery monitoring, which is essential to effective fish stock management in Canada, assured Lebouthillier.
In late July, Canada granted an additional allocation of up to 125,000 striped basses to develop communal commercial fisheries in Indigenous communities in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
