Tag Archives: Nove Scotia

Endangered right whale movements ‘totally different’ in Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2023

“What we saw this year was totally different compared to other years,” said Marcel Hebert of the Acadian Crabbers Association in Shippagan, N.B. “The North Atlantic right whale were found in very shallow waters, under 20 fathoms. It’s the first time we saw that since 2017 when we started to watch.” Their first appearance in the Gulf was a disastrous surprise for a species on the brink of extinction and the people who earn their living in those waters. Twenty of the whales died in the Gulf between 2017 and 2019. In Atlantic Canada, a single right whale detection closes a 2,100 square kilometre area of open water for 15 days and in the Gulf for the entire season if they keep showing up or stay. “Let’s be honest, this is hard for harvesters,” Gilchrist said. >click to read< 09:47

SmartNet Technology Under Development in Yarmouth

“The goal is to give the fishermen a better tool to assist catching fish, that is more efficient and is also aligning with what DFO wants to do with environmental issues with gear that is sustainable and that can achieve those goals well,” said SmartNet Technology Marc d’Entremont, founder and CEO of Katchi Technology in Yarmouth. The idea behind the SmartNet technology is that it eliminates the use of traditional trawl doors and uses a set of hydrodynamic blocks to open and fly the net at different levels in the water column, lessening the impact to the seabed floor and the ecosystem and enabling more selective fishing. >click to read< 15:33

EDITORIAL: A different kettle of …lobster

lobsterDM0811_468x521We’ve supported the idea of a two-cent-per-pound lobster levy since an independent panel recommended it last fall in a report on the fickle Maritime lobster fishery. We even suggested that the Nova Scotia government, in particular, should legislate the levy, even if it couldn’t reach a consensus with lobster fishermen across the province. Read more here 22:57