The Harper government is about to open Canadian fishing grounds to foreign control, former federal fisheries bureaucrats warn.

The former Department of Fisheries and Oceans employees, meeting with politicians and industry officials in Newfoundland, said the federal government has agreed to open Canada's 200-mile limit to member countries of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO).

The new arrangement will give European countries a hand in setting quotas and even the inspection of Canadian vessels, they said.

"This is really the most important thing that Newfoundlanders should be thinking about," Bob Applebaum, former director general of DFO's international branch, said Thursday. "We are about to lose what we thought we had locked in forever, which is total control of the 200-mile zone off our coasts."

During the closed-door meeting, the former bureaucrats urged MPs and provincial politicians to do whatever they can to block the Conservative government's plan to push the deal through Parliament.

"The province of Newfoundland needs to send a clear, unmitigated message to Mr. [Stephen] Harper that they will not stand idly by while he sells out Canadian interests and sells out Canadian sovereignty on the nose and the tail of the Grand Banks," said Scott Parsons, former director of DFO's science branch.

Federal officials say the deal with NAFO does not endanger Canadian sovereignty.