Clearwater Seafoods will keep its Arctic surf clam monopoly

With Indigenous ownership in place, Halifax-based Clearwater Seafoods will keep the company monopoly on the Canadian arctic surf clam fishery, a business with annual sales topping $100 million.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced Wednesday it would not issue a fourth surf clam licence, ending a 4-year effort to increase Indigenous access to the fishery.

Thered, tongue-shaped seafood is shipped to Asia for sushi.

Minister Joyce Murray said expanding the fishery was no longer necessary since the sale of Clearwater to a consortium of Mi'kmawbands and the company Premium Brands of British Columbia. Clearwater shareholders approved the sale in January 2021.

The deal was the single largest investment in the seafood industry by any Indigenous group in Canada.

The Mi'kmawbands put up $250 million borrowed from the First Nations Finance Authority.

Increased Indigenous participation

"I'm pleased that the purchase of Clearwater has increased Indigenous participation in the fishery, and we see the benefits of the Arctic surf clam fishery flowing to Indigenous communities,"Murray said Wednesday in announcing the decision.

"It's important that we continue to focus on a fishery that benefits Indigenous communities with good jobs across Atlantic Canada, while we work to advance reconciliation."

In 2021 Fisheries and Oceans Canada reissued the three existing Arctic surf clam licences to First Nations Coalition Quota Limited Partnership, known as the E'sukutumekewey partnership a company owned by the Mi'kmaq Coalition.

The Membertou band of Nova Scotia and the Miawpukek in Newfoundland and Labrador led the coalition.

Chief Terry Paul of Membertou told CBC News "it's incredibly encouraging to see the minister's actions on the surf clam file."

The decision means 14Mi'kmaw communities"will see the economic benefits come back to support our communities," he said in a statement.

'It has ended happily'

Clearwater Seafoods pioneered the fishery decades ago. The company's specially built vessels, costing $65 million each, harvest surf clams on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and Labrador and Banquereau Bank off Cape Breton.

In the fall of 2017 the federal government announced it was taking about 9,000 tonnes of surf clam quota from the company and would award it to an Indigenous entity.

The process collapsed after the winning consortium was revealed to be connected to then-federal Fisheries Minister Dominic Leblanc. The winners also lacked a vessel and were only 25 per cent Indigenous owned.

Lawsuits were threatened and Clearwater maintained an uncertain control over the harvest.

Company co-founder John Risley told the business website Allnovascotia.com one rationale for the sale was that involvement of the Mi'kmaq would take a target off Clearwater's back.

"In any event it has ended happily and we are delighted the company is performing so well for its new owners," Risley said in an email to CBC News.

"And you can imagine this is a huge relief to the folks who work in the fishery for Clearwater."