While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Paul Withers.
A Nova Scotia Liberal MP is objecting to the federal government's decision to cancel the 2024 season for harvesting baby eels, also known as elvers, in the Maritimes. Three-term MP Darren Fisher wrote on Tuesday to the federal Fisheries and Oceans minister expressing his "concern and disappointment" and to question the sincerity of consultations with licensed harvesters that preceded the...
The federal government has served notice it intends to close the commercial fishery for baby eels, or elvers, in the Maritimes this year — six weeks before the season is set to open. Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Diane Lebouthillier informed licence holders Tuesday and gave them until Feb. 23 to respond.
Nova Scotia Power joined the Houston government Wednesday calling for financial assistance from Ottawa to stabilize power rates in a province where they have jumped 14 per cent in two years — with further increases to come as the electrical system transitions from its reliance on fossil fuels. "We've been pleading with the federal government," Nova Scotia Power president and...
An unexpected decision to increase the minimum legal size of lobster in the United States has appeared like a rogue wave on the Canadian industry, threatening to curtail live exports south of the border. With total Canadian live shipments worth $545 million in 2022, the potential trade implications was the first item on the agenda in the annual U.S.-Canada lobster...
The Trudeau government is poised to allocate fishing access to the massive redfish population in the Gulf of St Lawrence at the end of the month, a highly anticipated decision generating both dread and hope throughout the industry in Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Nova Scotia, which has the most to lose, is warning Ottawa that "hundreds of jobs" are at...
It's going to take three times as long as expected to complete a refit of the recently renamed Canadian Coast Guard Ship Kopit Hopson 1752. As is often the case with older coast guard vessels when they enter refit, the 38-year-old light ice breaker and buoy tender encountered unexpected problems. A compartment below the waterline, known as the aft sea...
The federal government says 7,700 seasonal workers in Nova Scotia are eligible for a top-up in employment insurance benefits worth a total of $12.5 million due to the latest tweak in the program. Pilot project 22 — as it is called — will be available to 42,000 eligible seasonal workers, all but 100 in Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
MPs in Ottawa heard "alarming" accounts Thursday of failed Canadian government efforts to thwart the black-market fishery for baby eels, or elvers, earlier this year. It included a claim that 25-tonnes of the tiny, translucent eels were flown out of Canada in illicit shipments, part of an organized crime to meet an "insatiable appetite" in China where they are grown...
DFO scientist reviewed sea surface temperatures in satellite data dating back 4 decades