Cuts at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are continuing the federal government's trend of de-funding science, coming alongside cuts at Environment Canada and Statistics Canada, says Boris Worm, a world-renowned marine biologist at Dalhousie University.
Worm’s disturbed that “there's another cut to a department that already essentially has been gutted, in terms of its scientific capacity,” he says. Many of the cuts will be realized at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, a major DFO centre.
In a letter from DFO deputy minister Claire Dansereau Oct. 12, obtained by CBC, employees were told that $56.8 million would be hooked, lined, and sank by 2014. They plan to scuttle the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, the Maritime Rescue Sub-Centre, and moving fishing licence renewal and payment services online. And fishermen are worried at the lack of science, too. Underestimates in one pollock fishery, monitored by scientists and fishermen through the Fishermen and Scientists Research Society, almost lead to the fishery being shut down.
These cuts are “a trend that has been going on for a long time, “ says Worm. “It's not unique to this government or this year, but it's coming to a point where I'm really questioning our ability to really understand what's going on in the oceans around us."
Jeff Hutchings, another marine biologist at Dalhousie, echoes Worm’s concerns. "It reflects a steady reduction, or erosion, in the perceived value of science to resource management decisions within the (DFO)," says Hutchings. “DFO has been cutting the science budget for at least two decades.”
Hutchings had a front row seat to the cod collapse in 1992. He had a postdoctoral position at DFO, and saw the department ignoring their scientists' advice. And he says they’re still not listening to scientists---and not monitoring the pulse of the seas.
"One thing I am particularly worried about is a loss of, or reduction in, research surveys by DFO," says Hutchings, who told ipolitics.ca “Accurate estimation of fish stock abundance relies upon annual estimates of fish abundance as obtained from DFO’s annually deployed multi-species research surveys.”
Stock assessments gather data, like population numbers, death rate and migratory habits, on species of fish. This data is used to set safe levels for fishing and avoid overfishing. "We actually need more of this, not less because we have a bunch of new species that we have very little idea about… Things like sea cucumbers, or hagfish or some of the deep water clams, as far as I know, these so-called emerging stocks have almost no knowledge and science associated with them."
Worm says his fear with the new cuts is that if "even the species that are currently assessed are getting less attention," these new species might never be properly assessed.
"I often feel like a physician or something who is trying to evaluate the changing condition of a patient and imagine you don't have the data on the blood pressure and the pulse and some of the vital signs," Worm says. "My understanding is that the stock assessment side, which is kind of the nuts and bolts of fisheries management… is being reduced."
Not only will DFO will cut monitoring programs like the Fishermen and Scientists Research Society, but will set quotas for three or five years, instead of one, reducing the department’s ability to respond to changes in fish stocks---stocks they’re less effectively monitoring.
Greg Roach, the assistant deputy minister for Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture, says he'd also like to see more stock assessments.
“To be frank, it's very difficult, in the marine science world, to ever have all the science you need,” he says. “In reality, we may never get all the science that we need."
"There are just other species out there that may have commercial potential but it's very difficult to exploit them without a knowledge of how much and when and how you should harvest them,” he adds.
DFO spokesperson Frank Stanek says the cuts will be covered mostly through attrition. "The total impact on staff will be less than one percent a year over three years, while DFO's attrition rate---the rate people retire---is between two and six percent."
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has an annual budget of about $1.8 billion, $900 million of which is staff costs, but Worm cuts could be better realized by trimming managers and policy people, and replacing scientists lost to attrition.
“It's easy to say that, as a scientist, but my feeling is that all the policy in the world won't get any better if it's not based on hard facts and actual information," says Worm. "There are a number of really world class people that went out and nobody came after to replace them, and I think that this is increasingly a trend. It's like a slow bleed of the department.
We’ll be following this story as it develops.
Vincenzo Ravina is a freelancer based in Halifax.
