Tag Archives: lobster fishermen
Crabby start to southwestern N.S. lobster season
Jonah crabs instead of lobster have been filling traps set by many southwestern Nova Scotia lobster fishermen fishing in lobster fishing area 34 the first week of the season. “Across the board, we’re hearing a massive biomass of female Jonah crab right now is loading up a lot of the traps, which is a pain for the crew,” says Heather Mulock, executive director of the Coldwater Lobster Association. “It’s always discouraging to see traps full of something you don’t want. One of the biggest concerns this year is the amount of crab.” Mulock said it’s not unusual for crews to have some crabs in their traps, but this year is different. “I’ve talked with enough fishermen, some who have been fishing 30 or 40 years, and they have never seen this much crab in their entire fishing career, so things are changing. Hopefully, this is another anomaly for LFA 34,” she said. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:31
Newfoundland and Labrador recorded its highest lobster landings ever this past season
And so, this past spring, when I was hearing so much about the abundance of lobsters in our waters, I wanted to find out what was going on. I called around to several harvesters in various parts of the province to find out about their catch rates. The thing is, when lobsters are plentiful, lobster fishermen can be a tight-lipped bunch. I knew after a few phone calls, it would be hard to get anyone to go on camera for a Land & Sea show to brag about their bounty. And that was confirmed for me by Fortune Bay fisherman Alfred Fitzpatrick, who fishes out of Garnish on the Burin Peninsula. “Fellows will tell you they poached a moose before they tell you they caught a lobster. If you hauled 200 pots and you got 10 lobsters, and your brother asked you, you’d say, ‘Boy, I got five,'” explained Fitzpatrick. Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:14
Bay of Fundy fishermen see uptick in poaching patrols
Many lobster fishermen say they have seen an uptick in Coast Guard patrols in the Bay of Fundy less than a week after a protest against poaching in Saint Andrews, N.B. “Last spring I didn’t see any fisheries on the water at all,” said Jaret Mawhinney, a sixth-generation fisherman. “Last fall I think I might have saw one boat and that was probably the first day. After that I never really seen too much.” Mawhinney notes lobster catches have dropped in recent years, something he attributes to poaching. Last Saturday, roughly 50 fishing boats from Lobster Fishing Area 36 – which covers waters from Alma to the American border – docked in Saint Andrews to peacefully protest illegal fishing and what they see as a lack of enforcement by the government. Video more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 19:32
Layoffs at Connors Bros. seafood plant ‘punch in the gut’ for community
Connors Bros., a leading supplier of canned herring and a major employer in southwestern New Brunswick, is laying off 20 per cent of its workers, the company announced Thursday. The plant in Blacks Harbour, near St. George, employs up to 450 people, depending on the season. A Connors spokesperson did not respond when asked exactly how many people had been laid off. A news release from the company blames the federal government’s July decision to cut the herring quota in the Bay of Fundy. “We’ve been operating in this community for over 130 years and this is a heartbreaking decision, but it’s necessary to keep our plant viable moving forward,” Connors Bros. general Manager Chad Baum said in the release. A southwest New Brunswick fishing association is warning of tumble-down effects on the lobster fishery this fall after the herring quota reduction. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 19:00
Lobster fishermen say tiny change in legal sizes could disrupt imperiled industry
Gerry Cushman has seen Maine’s iconic lobster industry survive numerous threats in his three decades on the water, but the latest challenge, which might sound tiny, could be the biggest one yet. Lobster fishing is a game of inches, and the number of inches is about to change. Fishing regulators are instituting a new rule that lobster fishermen must abide by stricter minimum sizes for crustaceans they harvest. In addition to causing a dispute between fishermen and regulators, the change has led to confusion about the ramifications for international trade in one of the world’s most popular seafoods. “We don’t need any more, really, on our plate. It’s just a lot going on, one fight after another,” Cushman, 55, a boat captain who fishes out of Port Clyde, said. “We don’t need anything in the marketplace to lower the price of lobsters.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:59
The Truth About Offshore Wind: Busting Oil Money Myths and Misinformation
The various organizations, news outlets, and elected representatives that have been promoting misinformation about offshore wind have two things in common: 1) conservative politics and 2) ties to the oil industry. Seemingly locally run nonprofits have been leading public anti-offshore wind campaigns, purportedly out of concern about the dangers offshore wind farms present to whales and local economies. Yet many of these same organizations have proven ties to major conservative lobbyist groups funded by “Big Oil.” Meanwhile, both local and congressional conservative politicians have jumped on these misinformation campaigns, especially in the Northeast, where the first offshore wind farms are set to be constructed this year. This is despite several state and national polls showing that Americans overwhelmingly support the construction of offshore wind farms. >click to read< 08:04
Low prices, high costs face southwest Nova Scotia lobster fishermen
As captains and crews wait for an opening in the weather to drop their gear off southwest Nova Scotia, they’ve also got other big worries: low prices for their catch and historically high costs. The price at the wharf is expected to be somewhere around $6 to $6.25 a pound, down nearly half from $11.25 on opening day for Lobster Fishing Area 34 last season. The neighbouring LFA 33, which runs from about Halifax to Cape Sable Island, opened earlier this week but weather has meant most captains there have only had the opportunity to haul their traps once. >click to read< 16:08
How could Maine lobster get off Monterey Bay Aquarium’s red list?
Jeff White, a lobsterman of 30 years out of York Harbor, said lobstermen from Maine are not hitting or having gear tangled in the endangered North Atlantic right whale’s path, which is the basis for all the increased regulations and legal battles in the first place. “Anyone using this body of water, interacting with the right whales, needs to sit at the table… you can’t just pick one, especially one that has no impact,” White said. “If you are interested in rebuilding the right whale population that is the wrong road to take.” But if the lobster industry wants to be taken off Monterey Bay Aquarium’s red list, and to be taken off suspension from the MSC, what exactly needs to be done? Video, >click to read< 09:34
With thousands of traps lost to Fiona, N.B. lobster fishermen ask for extended season
The fishing season for Zone 25, which includes fishermen along the Northumberland Strait in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, began on Aug. 9 and was scheduled to end on Oct. 12, said Luc LeBlanc, an advisor with the Maritime Fishermen’s Union. However, with early reports those fishermen may have lost about half of all of their lobster traps, LeBlanc said the plan is to ask the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for the season to be extended until at least Oct. 15. LeBlanc said there are 388 lobster fishermen in Zone 25, with each using 250 traps at a time. That means around 42,000 traps are unaccounted for. >click to read< 07:35
I’m for the local guys
Just to let you know, in case you might have forgotten, that I am a Hoosier. I was born and raised in Indiana. I am from away. I tell you this stuff to let you know that while I am from away, my bride convinced me to adopt this state and switch my allegiance to reflect the views of my friends and neighbors. So, I think it is a damn shame that a scientific organization, from away, from California, no less, declared war on my local friends, the lobster fishermen. Somehow, without evidence, a respected marine scientific institution encouraged the nation to eliminate lobsters from stores and menus. Despite their statistical evidence to the contrary, they decreed that lobster fishing gear is the main reason the population of the mighty right whale is in peril. >click to read< 07:36
Lobster fishermen angry about low prices refuse to fish
About 250 southeastern New Brunswick lobster fishermen gathered outside the new Homarus Centre in Shediac on Thursday after refusing to fish. The fishermen say prices are 40 per cent lower than last year, when they were getting $7 for a pound of lobster. This season, they said, they’re getting $4.50 to $5 a pound, which they say isn’t profitable with the higher expenses they’ve faced because of inflation. Luc Leblanc, the spokesperson from the Maritime Fishermen’s Union said the gathering was peaceful. “The fishermen just wanted to let their feelings known and to make a little bit of a splash, which is what they did.” Geoff Irvine of the Lobster Council Canada said prices are declining because of consumer behaviour and market patterns. >click to read< 18:21
Lobster fishing is not profitable this year, fishermen explain
Rampant inflation and cooling markets are hitting Maritime lobster fishers hard. Six days after the start of fishing in the Northumberland Strait, some of them are receiving a price up to 40% lower than last year for their catch. A fishermen’s organization believes that this is not profitable. The atmosphere was not festive at the Cap-Pelé wharf on Tuesday afternoon. Fishermen have learned what price they will get for lobster this season: between $4.50 and $5 a pound. Last year at this time they were getting $7 a pound. We have prices, but it is not strong. They say it’s blocked everywhere, that lobster doesn’t sell, that’s the reason, explains Captain Guy Cormier. I take it one day at a time, we’re not dead today. >click to read< 07:50
Lobster Fishermen in Mexico’s Yucatán Organize to Protect Their Catch
For the last four months, fishermen in the community of Río Lagartos, Yucatán, have operated as a vigilante group to protect lobster populations on local fishing grounds, according to a report (photos) by newspaper Milenio. The group is made up of five fishing cooperatives, who stated that a sharp rise in illegal fishing had led to a rapid decline in lobster stocks. The fishermen reported that on July 1, the first day of the open season, which usually yields the largest lobster hauls, the catch was two-thirds lower than usual. Where each boat would normally catch 60 kilograms of lobster a day, they barely made it to 20 kilograms this year, Milenio reported. >click to read< 19:14
Proposed herring quota would put lobster fishermen in a pinch for bait
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is pursuing a commercial quota on herring for areas off Southwest Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy. DFO is proposing the use of a new stock modeling process, that could see quotas slashed to 13,050 tonnes from 35,000 tonnes, a 62 per cent reduction. Commercial herring fishing operators have already voiced their opposition to those plans, including Bay of Fundy Herring Industry who in a statement proposed a compromise of lowering their quota to 25,000 tonnes from 35,000 tonnes for the 2022 season. >click to read< 19:52
Prince Edward Island: Lobster fishermen sail out to start the spring season
It’s setting day, the start of the season when fishermen drop their traps and begin the two months of intensive work of bringing ashore the east coast’s famous delicacy. The season is starting with lobster prices high. While prices are up, so are costs. Diesel is at record-high prices, and bait is harder to come by with a moratorium on herring and mackerel fisheries. photos, >click to read< 08:47
How lobster fishing began in southern Maine
“Until the twentieth century lobsters could be pulled out from under the rocks,” the preservation society said. “The smaller ones of two pounds or less were often thrown away. Men in a variety of boats, dories, peapods and recently the easily recognized lobster boats powered by motors, set traps along the ledges. Increasing numbers of pots have been attached on a line to a buoy on which each man’s colors can be identified. Most lobstermen spent the winter months making traps, painting buoys and knitting bait bags. Lobstering was usually done in the summer when lobsters moved into warmer waters.” photos, >click to read< 21:37
Lobster fishermen oppose plans to build land-based salmon farm
Two southwest Nova Scotia lobster fishermen say an aquaculture company’s proposal to build a land-based salmon farm south of Yarmouth, N.S., could threaten the region’s coastal environment and economy. They want the Municipality of the District of Yarmouth to reject an application by Boreal Salmon Inc. to build a facility on wetland in Chebogue Point. The New Brunswick-based company, backed by Chilean investors, has already bought about 22 hectares in the area and a public meeting about their proposed project is scheduled for July 20. >click to read< 18:20
Enviros and lobster fishermen are unhappy with proposed federal regulations to protect right whales
In a public hearing Tuesday night, conservationists and fishermen alike roundly criticized federal regulators’ proposed changes in fishing rules to protect endangered whales from fishing gear. Much of the discussion focused on so-called ropeless lobster fishing technology, which allows traps to be located and retrieved using remote-control systems. Conservationists see that as the ultimate solution, But many Maine fishermen scoff at the idea, and Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher agreed it’s not practical for Maine’s diverse fishing grounds. >click to read< 15:33
P.E.I. lobster fishermen want exemption from new gear rule aimed at protecting whales
Island lobster fishermen should be be exempt from using gear designed to break free in the event of a whale entanglement, according to the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA). The PEIFA wrote a letter to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to request lobster fishermen be exempt from new rules, which are expected to become mandatory by the end of 2022. The group says sighting data shows the endangered North Atlantic right whale is rarely in P.E.I. lobster fishing grounds. >click to read< 10:46
Richard “Max” Strahan ‘Man in Final Legal Effort to Protect Whales
Strahan seeks a court order to prevent the state from licensing vertical buoy ropes and to make Massachusetts revoke all existing licenses. The ropes connect traps and pots under water to buoys on the surface so lobstermen can more easily find their catch.,,, Strahan distinctly remembers his first case, Strahan v. Coxe, which he frequently cites. The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts said in that 1996 opinion that gillnets and lobster gear have harmed endangered whales “and are likely to continue doing so.”(But he never mentioned ship strikes!) >click to read< 10:12
Lobster fishermen call for ‘dumping day’ changes
Repeated delays to the start of the lobster fishing season in part of Nova Scotia’s most lucrative fishery have some harvesters calling for a change to the rules to prevent the money-burning setback in years ahead. The launch of the season, known as dumping day, happens on the last Monday in November for Lobster Fishing Areas 33 and 34, two large fishing regions that wrap around the southwest coast of the province.,, Lobster fisherman Michael Larkin said he’d like to see some flexibility added to the rules around dumping day,,, >click to read< 07:56
Number One? Bridlington could officially become the Lobster Capital of Europe
Moves are underway to officially promote Bridlington as the Lobster Capital of Europe. Academics believe the resort could attract thousands of new visitors by making the most of its unique lobster fishery. They say adopting marketing techniques used by similar American and Canadian fishing ports could put Bridlington on the global tourism map with more festivals and merchandising. And they want cafes and restaurants in the town to start putting lobster landed in Bridlington Harbour on the menu. For none of the 300 tonnes of shellfish currently landed there every year is actually available to eat locally. >click to read< 14:48
Lobstermen and boat builders catch break on diesel engine standards until cleaner-running engines are available
Lobster fishermen are getting a temporary reprieve from federal diesel engine emissions standards because the cleaner running engines have yet to hit the commercial market. “This relief gives boat builders and operators flexibility to meet EPA standards during the next several years,” Wheeler said in a prepared statement. “The larger market for diesel engines can’t build new models quickly enough for marine users – putting these operators in potential violation of pollution rules through no fault of their own.” The diesel engine standards controversy, and the possibility of a reprieve from Wheeler, has been building slowly for years, overshadowed by lobster bait shortages, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S.-China trade war on lobster exports, and the possibility that saving the North Atlantic right whale from extinction could mean an end to lobster fishing as it currently exists. >click to read< 08:42
Consultation lacking on decision to reactivate licenses for Indigenous communities
The reactivation of dormant lobster fishing licences by the federal government has prompted a terse statement from the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA) and the Maritime Fishermen’s Union (MFU). The two organizations say they were left out of consultation over the reactivation of 10 lobster licences by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in the Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 25, located on the western end of the Northumberland Strait between P.E.I. and New Brunswick.,,, The statement said fishermen were “frustrated” by the lack of consultation prior to the decision and called for the federal government to bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishermen’s organizations. >click to read< 09:54
Prince Edward Island Lobster fishermen prepare for fall season after challenging spring
“I’m feeling good about the season,” said Peter Hustler, who has been fishing since he was 15. “Everybody has to make an income.” Demand for lobster plummeted as the pandemic forced restaurants to close earlier this year. The price dropped as low as $3.50 per pound. “It hurts, it hurts, and it hurt this spring, too, but I think everything is going to work out,” he said. “I’d like to see the price at $4.50 or $5 … and I believe it might happen.” >click to read< 19:09
Atlantic Canada Fish harvesters still waiting for federal Coronavirus aid to flow
As the policy analyst for CFIB in P.E.I., in early May I worked with my colleagues to write a letter to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Member of Parliament for Nova Scotia’s South Shore, Bernadette Jordan. This letter pleaded for help for fish harvesters, the folks who risk their lives on the water harvesting one of Atlantic Canada’s most important resources and exports, lobster. Lobster harvesters were deeply concerned about a quickly evaporating market and a glut of product driving down the price of their livelihood.,, While this was going on, the federal government was rolling out its array of programs to subsidize business: the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) , the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Agreement (CECRA). by Marley Kingston >click to read< 07:43
Lower prices, reduced markets ‘doesn’t make for good math’ – P.E.I. fishermen ask for four day season extension
The P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA) has asked for a four-day extension to the spring lobster season. The PEIFA made the request to the federal fisheries minister and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) on June 16 to help offset the delayed start to the season. The season started two weeks late because of coronavirus and concerns over the safety of crews on boats, and questions over the demand and markets for lobster. According to the P.E.I. Lobster Marketing Board, about 200 fishermen have been dealing with quotas for most of the season, and prices are down substantially this year — most fishermen have been getting between $3.50 and $4.50 a pound for their catch. >click to read< 21:57
“We were pumped”! Lobster fishermen find and retrieve big anchor outside of Malpeque Harbour
Matt Wall was out fishing last week, hauling lobster traps, when he noticed something unusual. “It just seemed like the traps were stuck on the bottom,” he said. Wall and the crew quickly realized they had snagged an anchor. “I didn’t think it was a big deal at the time, there’s all [kinds of] anchors out there, net anchors, small stuff,” Wall said. It was bigger than they first thought and when they pulled it up it slipped out of their grasp. But Wall marked the spot. He had a diver scheduled to come out and look for the anchor on Tuesday, but after fishing on Saturday, Wall decided to head back out and look for it again. Photo’s, >click to read< 18:30
Body found on Placentia Bay beach – RCMP in communication with family of missing fisherman
In a release, police said they were notified that lobster fishermen had found a body in the area of Doughboy Cove, east across the water from Arnold’s Cove. Clarenville RCMP and Forensic Identification Services travelled to the beach and secured the body and had it sent to St. John’s for examination after consulting with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Police said they have been in communication with the family of Isaac Kettle, the lone crew member of the Sarah Anne who has not been found, but there has been no positive identification of the body. >click to read< 20:26
Cape Breton lobster fishermen struggle – ‘This is the first year I had to tell my fishermen I couldn’t move their product,’
There is a lack of demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the price for lobster has dropped to $4.25 a pound. In some areas, buyers are restricting the amount they purchase from fishermen. Marlene Brogan, the manager of Ballast Grounds Fisheries, a lobster buyer in North Sydney, said they’ve had to tell fishermen they can’t buy their catch some days. “We’ve been in business 21 years and this is the first year I had to tell my fishermen I couldn’t move their product,” said Brogan. She said there have been many days the fishermen at their wharf haven’t gone out to fish. >click to read< 14:19
