Engineers Canada has published a new Issue Statement about the federal regulations surrounding the design of small fishing vessels in Canada, calling for a new regulatory framework that ensures that fishing vessel emissions are reduced, while maintaining the safety of fishers as paramount.
The Government of Canada has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. One sector of the economy that can make a dramatic contribution to GHG reductions is the small fishing vessel fleet. Consumption of hydrocarbon fuel is, by far, the single largest non-labour cost of the small fishing vessel fleet. There is a real opportunity to reduce this fuel consumption and the associated greenhouse gas emissions from its current level by as much as 50 to 80 per cent.
However, the current regulatory framework that governs the design of small fishing vessels in Canada has evolved over time to result in vessels designed not to reduce fuel consumption, but rather to circumvent regulations aimed at reducing catch capacity. Currently, a design must: meet a simple length restriction imposed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) aimed at reducing the catch capacity of the vessel; and, at the same time, meet the minimum static stability requirements of Transport Canada’s Small Fishing Vessel Regulations. To circumvent the length restriction, vessels have become much wider and deeper. Static stability, though, is a function of vessel width, so by increasing vessel width, the static stability requirement is easily reached. However, this regulatory framework has resulted in vessels of extreme proportions that consume more fuel and emit as much as three times more greenhouse gases. As importantly, though, from a safety perspective, such vessels are extremely stable. Yet an excessively stable vessel has motions so extreme that crew members must tie themselves to the vessel to avoid being thrown around.
Engineers Canada’s new Issue Statement calls on the federal government to undertake all steps necessary to create a new regulatory framework with respect to the design of small fishing vessels in Canada. The Issue Statement calls for this new framework to be developed in a manner that ensures that:
- Fishing vessel emissions are reduced from the extreme levels of the current fleet to a target in line with Canada’s net zero goal.
- The safety of fishers is a paramount concern.
- Vessel fishing capacity limits are imposed in a manner that is effective in resource management, such as simply imposing either individual enterprise allocations or maximum trip catch limits for all fisheries, rather than the ineffective limit of length overall.
- Vessel design is performed under the supervision of a licensed professional engineer.
Read the full Issue Statement here.
