LeBlanc Says Newfoundland's Inshore Harvesters Will Be First to Get Northern Cod Allocations  Canada's Federal Fishery Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Newfoundland's inshore harvesters will be allocated Northern cod quota. The Minister made the cod quota assurance during a meeting this week with members of Newfoundland's Fish, Food and Allied Worker's (FFAW) Union. He said the Liberal Party is committed to ensuring the first 115,000 metric tons of Northern cod is allocated to the inshore fleet. He also stood by the government's commitment to increase strict enforcement of the Owner Operator policy. "We look forward to continuing to work with Minister LeBlanc to ensure the benefits of the resources on the doorstep go back to coastal communities", said FFAW President Kieth Sullivan. "We are optimistic, given his track record since taking on the portfolio, that the Minister will take swift action to address the challenges facing harvesters and plant workers in the province." SalmonChile President Felipe Sandoval said Marine Harvest Chile's decision to leave the association will damage the entire industry’s ability to improve salmon farming regulations across Chile. "More than ever, the industry needs to be united and committed to the future of the sector. These individual decisions are regrettable and will damage the work in various fields, not only in regulatory but also for social and environmental issues, where we are making an effort to implement new policies of transparency,” Sandoval said. The statement was a reaction to Marine Harvest’s announcement that it would pull out of SalmonChile after federal fishery officials permanently cut pen densities 27 percent this week. In other news, the F/V Alaska Juris, a 220-foot catcher processor owned by Fishing Company of Alaska, was abandoned yesterday as it began taking on water on Petrel Bank in the Western Aleutians. All 46 crew members were rescued by Good Samaritan vessels after they put on survival suits and boarded three life rafts. The crew could not control flooding in the vessel, which may have started with mechanical problems in the engine room. This is not the first time the 41-year-old vessel has encountered trouble in recent years, nor is it the first sinking for the Fishing Company of Alaska. The incident is being closely monitored by the Alaska Dept. of Environmental Conservation office in Adak. Meanwhile, the final outcome of China Fishery Group's bankruptcy proceedings will largely depend on what the company is able to get by selling off the assets to its Peruvian fishmeal operations. The group told investors on July 21 that bids for those operations-- its single most valuable asset -- peg the business at about half the $1.7 billion valuation it received last year. “The recovery prospects ultimately hinge on whether China Fishery is able to sell the Peruvian assets,” Yee Man Chin, primary analyst at Fitch Ratings in Hong Kong. “The company has gone into bankruptcy protection and they haven’t been able to provide any update on the sale of the assets, so there is a huge amount of uncertainty as to whether it will ultimately happen.” Finally, the United Food and Commercial Workers confirmed that The Barry Group will not open its shrimp processing plant in Clarenville, Newfoundland. The facility's closure is being blamed on the recent cuts to the province's Northern shrimp quota. It appears the Barry Group will process all of its shrimp at its other plant in Anchor Point on the Northern Peninsula. The Clarenville plant employs over 100 workers in the region.