Abegweit First Nation says it won't launch treaty lobster fishery off P.E.I. this year

The Abegweit First Nation says it won't be launching a treaty lobster fishery this year.

The community held a press conference on Friday saying it is still negotiating with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to get an agreement on the fishery, clarifying that it will not follow the decision of Lennox Island First Nation to launch such a fishery without the federal government's support.

Once it finalizes an agreement, Abegweit said it will launch its self-regulated moderate livelihood fishery when the community deems it is the right time.

"What's happening in Lennox Island and the implementation of their moderate livelihood is well within their right to do so, and I applaud the community for doing that," Abegweit Chief Junior Gould said Friday. "My brothers and sisters are exercising their right, and I think it's a great thing for First Nation people across the country. 

"At the same time, we are not at the same stage, we are not on the same level, and the negotiations are completely different."

Gould wants to make sure all commercial fishers on the Island realize Lennox Island and Abegweit are separate communities, and Abegweit is conducting its own negotiations with DFO independently. 

Abegweit First Nation fishes commercially using communal licences owned by the band, and the chief said he is proud of the relationships his community has built with non-Indigenous harvesters in the surrounding area.

Tensions have periodically risen between Indigenous and non-Indigenous lobster fishers in Atlantic Canada as the legal landscape has changed.

In the fall of 2020, the Sipekne'katik First Nation in Nova Scotia launched a moderate livelihood fishery without an understanding in place with DFO. Non-Indigenous commercial fishers objected to the fishery, resulting in violence and a fire that levelled a Mi'kmaw lobster facility.

"The Abegweit First Nation for years has done very well fishing beside them," Gould said of P.E.I.'s non-Indigenous commercial fishers, adding: "We are 100-per-cent First Nation owned and operated. We are proud of that.

"I don't see a lot of rhetoric from the fishermen. I see a lot of frustration towards the federal government inability to come to an agreement."

Gould said Abegweit received an offer from the DFO two weeks ago during moderate livelihood fishery talks, but was not satisfied with it.

"They brought nothing to the table but trinkets and beads," the chief, who is also a fisherman, told the news conference.

"This is not good-faith negotiation.... I have the numbers, I have the knowledge, I've fished my entire life."