Floundering in Troubled Waters: The Political Economy of the Atlantic Fishery and the Task Force on Atlantic Fisheries

Abstract

Mired in yet another economic crisis, the Atlantic Canadian commercial fisheries are undergoing a reorganization of immense proportions and far-reaching consequences. This essay examines the analysis of the industry and the blueprint for reorganization advanced by the Task Force on Atlantic Fisheries in their final report, Navigating Troubled Waters: A New Policy for the Atlantic Fisheries. The basic assumptions and intellectual perspectives of the Task Force concerning the causal elements precipitating the economic crisis are revealed and challenged. Moreover, the essay shows that the Task Force ignored the implications of its own data in order to arrive at desired conclusions concerning the necessity of fisheries development policy to genuflect in the direction of industrial capitalist imperatives.