Tag Archives: Cape Sable Island
Nova Scotia cracks down on lobster operators to protect industry’s ‘integrity’- Suspensions issued at 2 lobster pounds
In August 2018, Fisher Direct in Shag Harbour, N.S., was caught with lobster harvested under an Indigenous licence, which bars selling the catch. The pound, which has annual sales upwards of $20 million, had received a shipment of 1,400 kilograms of lobsters the day before federal fisheries officers descended on the facility. Inside the 31 crates, officers found 48 lobsters tagged for Indigenous food, social or ceremonial purposes that the department had previously microchipped. Meanwhile, a larger operation in southwestern Nova Scotia is also facing at least one licence suspension. In 2021, Atlantic ChiCan on Cape Sable Island was convicted for illegally shipping American lobsters to China, claiming they came from Canada. >click to read< 07:16
Atlantic ChiCan investment in Nova Scotia lobster business tops $45M
Clark’s Harbour Seafood is set to open a new $15-million lobster processing facility this month as the China-focused exporter brings its investment on Cape Sable Island in southwest Nova Scotia to more than $45 million. The new plant, located in Clark’s Harbour, will be capable of processing up to four million pounds of cooked lobster a year allowing the company to make money from lobster not hardy enough for lengthy live shipments, says chief operating officer John Crandle Nickerson. The He family, which operates seafood processing companies in China, owns the business. Owner Jim He is a Canadian citizen who splits his time between Vancouver and Nova Scotia. >click to read< 13:54
N.S. lobster pound guilty of ‘egregious’ handling of egg-bearing female lobsters
One of Nova Scotia’s largest lobster pounds has been convicted for holding undersized and egg-bearing female lobsters at its facility on Cape Sable Island. Atlantic ChiCan pleaded guilty in provincial court Thursday on two Fisheries Act charges and was fined $25,000 and ordered to pay another $50,000 into an environmental damages fund. “This was an egregious amount” of egg-bearing, or berried, female lobster that were located and seized by fishery officers, federal Crown lawyer Derek Schnare said in Shelburne provincial court. >click to read< 08:56
‘It’s been an interesting life,’ Cape Sable Island fisherman reflects on decades of fishing
Bradford (Baffy) Symonds Jr. was only a-year-and-a-half old when his mother took him to Seal Island for the first time. “I’ve pretty well been on the ocean every year since,” said the retired Cape Sable Island fisherman. “It’s been an interesting life.” Symonds attended his first year of school on Seal Island in 1936. “There were about 40 to 50 students,” he says, explaining the island fishermen all took their families there in November. “Some stayed all winter. We always came home.” >click to read<14:00
Cape Sable Island fisherman recalls ‘sea monster’ encounter 42 years later
Shag Harbour UFO Festival goers were treated to an eye witness account of a sea creature encounter, experienced by Cape Sable Island fisherman Rodney Ross in July 1976, while fishing with his father on the fishing grounds known as Pollock Shoal. The opening night of the UFO Festival (Aug. 3) was only the third time that Ross has told the story to an audience. He is the last of the five fishermen aboard three different boats that saw the creature during a one-week period 42-years ago. “Some like to call it the South Side sea monster and I think I probably agree it looked like a monster,” said Ross. The story begins on a Monday when a fellow fisherman, the late Eisner Penney, was out fishing on the Pollock Shoal. >click to read<13:18
Nova Scotians eager to crack lobster caper
Small fishing villages along Nova Scotia’s southern shore are buzzing over a whodunit involving 48 crates of pricey, premium-grade lobster that were hauled out of an ocean-based pen in a brazen night-time heist. Theories are swirling among fishermen and residents around Cape Sable Island about how someone made off with dozens of heavy plastic crates that were packed with high-grade lobsters valued at up to $31,000.“Everybody’s talking about it,” said RCMP Cpl. Mike O’Callaghan, who has been investigating the unusual caper since the company holding the crustaceans noticed they were gone last week. Read the article here 15:04
Nova Scotia fisherman concerned about recent thefts of live lobster
A Nova Scotia lobster fisherman says he is troubled by the recent thefts of roughly 2,700 kilograms of live lobster in the province. Hubert Saulnier, a former president of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union Local 9, says the valuable crustaceans were someone’s livelihood and a lot of work and money went into catching them. The RCMP say 48 crates of live lobster, more than 2,100 kilograms, were stolen from an outdoor pound at a business on Cape Sable Island early Wednesday. Read the rest here 18:45
UPDATED – Five rescued from sinking fishing boat off Cape Sable Island
Five people were rescued from a sinking fishing vessel off Clark’s Harbour on Thursday evening. The 
received a call at about 7:30 p.m. that the vessel was taking on water. The five people managed to get aboard a second fishing vessel, which took them to shore at nearby West Head on Cape Sable Island. A coast guard vessel escorted the second fishing vessel to shore. “Everybody’s safe on shore now,” said coast guard spokesman Steve Bornais. Read the article here 11:46
Province to consider lobster plant proposal in Cape Sable Island
The proponents of a new lobster processing plant in Cape Sable Island will be meeting with the Economic Development Minister Graham Steele at the end of this month in an effort to leverage provincial funding for the project. continued@shelburncountycg
