Where is Roundnose?

The "Worth Saving" spokesfish, the Roundnose Grenadier arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia on May 27th, having swum from its home in the deep sea off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Its plight — the decimation of many hundreds of thousands of its family members, complete lack of regulation or management of the grenadier fish stocks and destruction of its habitat by bottom trawling.

In search of protection and models of sustainability, the Grenadier made its first appearance at the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market, the oldest market in North America. After having a few conversations with market goers about the importance of sustainable seafood, sadly, the Grenadier was asked to leave by the Halifax Port Authority (although the individual guards expressed support for the Grenadier's situation).

Swimming across the Harbour, to the shores of Dartmouth, the Grenadier emerged from the water, beneath the MacDonald Bridge. While gathering its thoughts, and trying to find someone to help — the Bridge Commission sent some commissionaires to ask the Grenadier to move along.

The Grenadier hasn't received much of a welcome here on the shores of Nova Scotia (which is surprising because one of the tourism tag lines is '100,000 Welcomes' or 'Céad míle fáilte' in Gaelic). So far for the Grenadier, it is 0 for 2.

Making its way to NAFO, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, the organization responsible for managing fisheries on the high seas in the Northwest Atlantic, again — the Grenadier was met with closed doors. The Roundnose Grenadier high tails it for New York City, where the Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group to study issues relating to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction is meeting from May 31-June 3rd, 2011.