Fisheries Protective Co-operative Newfoundland Labrador
Fisheries Protective Co-operative (FPC)
Newfoundland Labrador
The FPC is a for-profit co-operative incorporated in February, 2024 to protect and advance the economic interests of licensed independent inshore enterprise owners. Ryan Cleary, Merv Wiseman, and Bruce Layman, whose names appear on the Articles of Incorporation, serve as the Board until a founding convention can be held. The four also take direction from a steering committee of inshore enterprise owners.
A founding convention for the FPC is planned for the coming months, and we expect to be in a position to sign up members soon.
More details to come.
The FPC's vision is of a thriving fishing industry driven by prosperous fleets to the benefit of rural communities, and future generations of harvesters.
Our mission is to empower members to collectively become masters of their own fishing destiny by maximizing the economic potential of the seafood resources they harvest from the sea.
The FPC acronym, as well as the choice of the word Protective in the incorporated name, is a deliberate reference to the Fishermen’s Protective Union (FPU), founded by William Coaker in the early 1900s to provide harvesters with a greater share of the wealth produced by their labour.
More than that, the FPC will endeavour to provide independent owner-operators with greater control over their fishing enterprises and commercial licences, and ensure them a fair, transparent, and more consistent return on their investment.
The FPC's motto, To each their own, is a direct reference to the Coaker's motto for the FPU— To each his own.
In the early 1900s Coaker argued that clergymen, clerks, lawyers, and merchants all received "their own" from society (and often a great deal more) at the expense of the fishermen. He demanded fishermen receive "his own."
The FPC takes the stand that all inshore harvesters deserve "their own."
The rallying cry is generational.
