The Quebec Fish Processors Association (AQIP) held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Québec on January 30, 2014. The Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, took the opportunity to reiterate the government’s support for the fishing and seafood industry.

The Inuit of Canada hunt narwhals and bowhead whales to meet some of their subsistence needs. The sustainable management of these populations depends on reliable estimates of their abundance. However, obtaining a precise count of the cetaceans found in Canada's Arctic waters is a real challenge for experts because of the size of the territory, difficult weather conditions and thick ice cover that characterize these regions. Moreover, since cetaceans are highly mobile, they can move from one area to another, making it difficult to compare counts done at different times. 

As the year comes to a close, we would like to wish you and your family a happy holiday season. This joyful time gives us an opportunity to look back and take stock of our progress in the last year.

On September 1, 2013, an estimated 450 000 litres of heavy fuel oil was spilled in Sept-Îles. As the spill was from a land-based source, the lead environmental response agency was the Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec. Fisheries and Oceans Canada acted as a responder in line with its areas of activity and was represented by its North Shore Area office in Sept-Îles.

Maybe you have seen them in recent months, plying the waters of the St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St. Lawrence? The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) acquired two new vessels for Quebect his past spring: the CCGS Leim and Caporal Kaeble V.C.

On June 18, 2013, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) launched the Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnerships Program (RFCPP). This two-year $10 million program falls under the Government of Canada's Economic Action Plan 2013, which includes the commitment to improve the protection of Canada's fisheries.

From November 2012 to July 2013, Fisheries and Oceans Canada held a consultation in Quebec on the possibility of adding five Atlantic Salmon populations to the List of Wildlife Species at Risk under the Species at Risk Act (SARA).

Late in the afternoon of September 9, 2013, the helicopter assigned to Canadian Coast Guard Ship CCGS Amundsen crashed in the Arctic, resulting in the deaths of the three people onboard: CCGS Commanding Officer Marc Thibault, helicopter pilot Daniel Dubé, and University of Manitoba Scientist and ArcticNet Network member Dr. Klaus Hochheim. These three men were onboard a BO-105 helicopter on an ice reconnaissance mission in the M'Clure Strait, north of Banks Island in the Northwest Territories.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is continuing its efforts to better understand the impact of climate change on the St. Lawrence's marine ecosystem. Scientific teams in the Quebec region are therefore conducting several research projects to learn more about the situation.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada will soon hold a consultation on the Eastern Canada Coral and Sponge Conservation Strategy. For this consultation, the Department will target different stakeholders from the fishing, shipping, mining and oil industries, as well as non-governmental organizations, First Nations, and federal and provincial departments.