Canada says France has not issued a snow crab licence off Newfoundland

Ottawa says a reported French snow crab licence off Newfoundland has not been issued. The Canadian Press, in a CBC News story posted Oct. 4, 2026, quotes Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson from a Friday evening statement. She said Canadian officials had been in contact with French officials and confirmed that France had not issued a new licence. The reports she was answering, from franceinfo and Radio-Canada, said President Emmanuel Macron had pledged an exploratory snow crab licence on Canada’s continental shelf to a fishing company in St-Pierre-Miquelon.

Thompson’s statement, as quoted, says Canada claims the extension of its continental shelf, “which includes all snow crab in this area,” and that “Canada does not agree with any foreign snow crab fishing in this area.” She added that licensing questions would go through formal processes and that no such talks have taken place. The story says the pledge appeared to catch Canadian officials off guard. It was reported a day after Prime Minister Mark Carney met Macron in the French islands, described as the first official visit to St-Pierre-Miquelon by a Canadian prime minister. Fishing is a main part of the economy there. The story puts the population at roughly 5,800.

The piece walks through the shelf dispute. Canada filed an Atlantic extended-shelf submission with the United Nations in 2013. France filed for the area around St-Pierre-Miquelon in 2014 and said the claim overlaps Canada’s, particularly off Nova Scotia. A 1992 ruling gave the French islands a 24-nautical-mile zone and a narrow 10.5-mile strip, called the French Baguette, that stops short of Canada’s 200-nautical-mile limit. Canada told the United Nations it rejected French claims outside that 1992 decision. Kevin Anderson, head of the School of Fisheries at Memorial University’s Marine Institute in St. John’s, told the Canadian Press the area in the reported pledge is beyond the 200-mile line and inside Canada’s extended shelf, and that snow crab live on the seabed, which is what that commission process covers. He said Canada has been fishing the crab there for a long time.

Thompson said Newfoundland and Labrador and Saint-Pierre-Miquelon have been close partners and that she hopes that continues. She also said Canada will defend the harvesters, families, and communities in Newfoundland and Labrador who depend on the snow crab fishery.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: CBC News / The Canadian Press — France hasn't issued crab licence off Newfoundland, despite surprising pledge: Ottawa (posted Oct. 4, 2026).