Tag Archives: P.E.I. fishermen

P.E.I. fishermen compete for $1,000 in lobster trap stacking competition in Summerside

Sweat dripped down Ryan Murphy’s face as he caught his breath after winning the Journal Pioneer Lobster Trap Stacking Competition in Summerside on July 6. “The last one, I couldn’t feel my legs there. They were a little bit rubbery,” said Murphy, laughing. Altogether, only four of P.E.I.’s toughest lobster fishermen tested their strength and competed for a grand prize of $1,000. The competition has been part of the Summerside Lobster Carnival at Credit Union Place for a number of years. The fisherman had to move eight lobster traps about nine metres across the fairgrounds on a sweltering summer evening. >click to read< 11:12

P.E.I. fishermen ‘optimistic’ about spring lobster season amid record prices

Island fishermen are anticipating the start of the spring lobster season in a few weeks with a heightened sense of optimism. In areas where the season has already begun, the catch is fetching record prices. Some fishermen in the Maritimes are reporting getting as much as $20 a pound for their lobster. “It makes us feel really good. The fishermen are optimistic,” said Charlie McGeoghegan, chair of the Lobster Fishers of P.E.I. marketing board.  Last spring, lobster prices in P.E.I. hit record prices, starting the season at the highest they’ve been in 15 years. But expenses have climbed,,, >click to read< 08:09

Some P.E.I. fishermen feeling left out of lobster market

This year due to considerations around the coronavirus (COVID-19 strain) pandemic, P.E.I. lobster fishers will be setting traps on May 15 instead. Beach Point fisher Brayden Handrahan says he was ready to fish April 30 as usual, and he says he’s not alone. “That’s when everybody gets the most lobster, in the first two weeks, and that’s why everybody wants to go,” he said. Federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan said her department chose May 15 after fishers in licensed fishing areas (LFAs) 24 and 26a voted on the date. Ian MacPherson, executive director of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association, who co-ordinated the vote, says it was close, but the majority asked for a delay. By the time the vote was underway, many felt it was too late for the season to start on time, said MacPherson. As the decision date approached, Jordan added a “new wrinkle” by including processors into her considerations, he said. >click to read< 09:50

P.E.I. fishermen, Indigenous groups pleased with Northern Pulp decision

P.E.I. fisheries and Indigenous rights organizations, and the province say they are pleased the Nova Scotia government has rejected a plan by Pictou’s Northern Pulp plant to pipe treated effluent into the Northumberland Strait between Nova Scotia and P.E.I. Nova Scotia had until Tuesday to decide whether or not to approve Northern Pulp’s proposal for a new treatment facility that would pump up to 85 million litres of treated effluent daily into the strait. >click to read< 09:31

P.E.I. fishermen feel unjustified blame in right whale deaths, says PEIFA

Island fishermen feel they’re being blamed in some cases of right whales becoming entangled in fishing gear and dying this year, according to the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association. Several of the eight dead right whales found this year have been entangled in fishing gear. “This year a number of the deaths that were necropsied already show to be due to vessel strikes rather than the entanglement,” >click to read<  19:45

Collusion or delusion? – Welcome to spring 2018 and a more realistic lobster market reality for P.E.I. fishermen

The lobster sector: The port-by-port, wharf-by-wharf lobster sector. More, specifically, the price to the fishermen at any given moment on any wharf throughout Atlantic Canada. Is there a topic about which more is said publicly that is scandalously inaccurate? Does anything generate more publicity than lobster pricing and competitive practices? Is there any price high enough to satisfy those complaining about $6 per lb.? There should be a requirement that to comment publicly, from the vaunted editorial perch, the Charlottetown editors would have at least done a tiny bit of homework. >click to read<08:26

Fishermen finding carapace increase hard to swallow

Fishermen returning to port in Miminegash on Wednesday were not so much concerned with the size of their catch as they were with what they were throwing over. “It’s scary,” said Peter Hustler, a fisherman’s helper with captain Michael Myers. He estimated the amount of lobsters he had to return that would have been legal size last year, would have meant eight to 10 more pans of canners. The carapace measure was increased by two millimeters this year following a one-mm increase last year, and Myers had plenty to say about that. “The measure is not going to prove out,” he said, suggesting Federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc should have listened to P.E.I. fishermen’s pleas and trimmed the carapace increase to just a millimeter this year. click here to read the story 11:35

New safety regulations frustrating Island fishermen

Some P.E.I. fishermen say new federal safety rules that came into effect Thursday has forced them to spend thousands of dollars unnecessarily. Under the new Transport Canada regulations unveiled in 2016, fishing vessels are required to have specific safety gear on board, including a life rafts, survival suits and a location signaling device.,,, “Nobody wants to be seen as anti-safety,” explained one fisherman. “But this isn’t about safety, it’s about reasonability.” “We’ll spend $5,000, and never need [the gear],” said another. “I can understand if you’re fishing on your own 50 miles out. But for us, there’s always 10 boats within a two mile radius.  If you’re in trouble, by the time you get out the gear, somebody is next to you.” click here to read the story 13:08

P.E.I. Fishermen hope for the best – first lobsters of the 2017 season will be hauled in on Monday

P.E.I. Lobster fishermen will be crossing their fingers as they head out onto the waters this morning for the first landing day of the 2017 fishery. Long-time fisherman, Norman Peters, also known as the Bearded Skipper, went out from North Rustico Saturday on his boat Silver Wave with his brother Keith and son Corey. Peters, who has been fishing for longer than 55 years, said the day went well, although it was impossible to tell what the landings will be like. Like many others, Peters was remaining cautiously optimistic. “We’ll have to wait and see,” said the 75-year-old Peters. “No doubt there’s going to be lobster, a pound or two to a trap would be nice, but whatever we get, we get.” click here to read the story 08:11

P.E.I. lobster levy will launch this spring

When the lobster fishery begins this spring, P.E.I. will become the first province in the region where a two-cent-per-pound levy will be collected. The levy will take one cent per pound from P.E.I. fishermen for lobster they bring in and another cent per pound from the buyers. The money will be used for marketing. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are expected to launch their own levies in 2017. A lobster marketing board — comprised of six executives from the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA) and six lobster fishermen — has been established to decide how to spend the harvesters’ half of the money. Read the story here 08:06

Low-interest loan expands to all lobster fishermen, ‘Takes pressure off’ P.E.I. fishermen, says association president

863a4ac9dc_64635696_o2In an ideal world, the loan program wouldn’t be needed because fishermen would be making enough money, said Mike McGeoghegan, president of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association. However, the announcement comes as welcome news, he said. Read more@cbcnews  07:54

P.E.I. fishermen, processors still in disagreement about price of lobster

The Canadian Press – CHARLOTTETOWN — A meeting between Prince Edward Island fishermen and seafood processors ended in frustration Sunday as the contentious dispute over the price of lobster continued. Michael McGeoghegan, president P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association, said his organization could not reach an agreement with the P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association after meeting in Charlottetown for about two and a half hours. continued