Tag Archives: lobster fishing
People who fish off P.E.I. have mixed reaction to new parental leave benefits
Some lobster fishing captains on Prince Edward Island say they think there will be little interest in new parental leave benefits just announced by the federal government. On Thursday, Ottawa announced maternity and parental benefits for people licensed to fish in Atlantic Canada, saying that could encourage the next generation of harvesters to join the fishing industry and provide more flexibility to those with new families. “I don’t think there’ll be a lot of uptake on it,” said lobster captain Charlie McGeoghegan, who fishes out of Pinette on P.E.I.’s south shore. “I haven’t heard anybody even ask for it, so I’m not sure where this came from.” Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:26
Lack of fishing prohibitions in ‘grey zone’ could pose risk for right whales, expert says
One marine conservation expert has questions about the efforts on the part of Fisheries and Oceans after North Atlantic right whales were detected in the Bay of Fundy in recent weeks, including in an area where both Canadian and American fishermen catch lobster. In October, Fisheries and Oceans announced several temporary prohibited fishing areas as the whales were detected in multiple fishing spots across the Maritimes, including in the bay. Some fishing prohibitions for parts of the Bay of Fundy started on Oct. 25 and included the fisheries for crab, herring, mackerel, groundfish, hagfish and lobster. The so-called “grey zone” is an area of disputed water near Grand Manan. Both Canada and the United States have claimed sovereignty over the area, so fishers from both countries harvest there. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:57
Retired commercial fisherman Hiram Allen Gerrish of Winter Harbor, Me. has passed away
Hiram Allen Gerrish, 85, of Winter Harbor, passed peacefully at home June 20, 2024. He was born July 3, 1938, in Gerrishville, to parents Gib and Lillian (Hamilton). Hiram attended Winter Harbor schools and first worked as a teenager at Milt Torrey’s sawmill and egg farm. He then pursued his love for the ocean and went seining, lobster fishing, shrimping and scalloping. He met and married Nancy Ray, and they were together for 63 amusing years. Together they raised four unique children, Pam, Bonny, Allen and Kevin. Hiram was a founding member of the Winter Harbor Co-op and an active member of the fire department. He was very passionate and dedicated to town government. In 1977, he started working for the Dixon family until his retirement in 2016. Many of his local friends and neighbors relied on his knowledge, expertise and assistance with fishing gear, motors, electrical problems, welding and building projects. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:07
Lobstermen and Scientists See a Fishery in Flux
While overall the fishery seems stable, some lobstermen are seeing changes that have them worried about its future. Scientists are looking into what role the changing climate may be playing in those changes, but they don’t have definitive answers. “It’s horrible,” said Mike Rego, a lobsterman and owner of the F/V Miss Lilly who operates out of Provincetown. “Last year was the worst year I ever had.” Dana Pazolt, another Provincetown lobsterman who owns the F/V Black Sheep, said that the last four years have been slim for lobsters around the Outer Cape. “You’ve got to hunt for them,” he said. “I can’t tell you why that is.” The surface waters of the Gulf of Maine are warming at a rate of about one degree per decade, faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, according to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Meanwhile, in other areas, warming has already had an effect — it played a major role in causing the collapse of the lobster fishery in Long Island Sound in 1999. more, >>CICK TO READ<< 21:20
Lobsters prices fall. Crates of crustaceans pile up on Cape Breton
There are so many lobsters ready for processing or live sale in some eastern Cape Breton harbours that they’re being stored temporarily in large flotillas of plastic crates. Some seafood buyers have stopped buying altogether and others are implementing daily limits on the amount of lobster they will buy. Fishermen worry the oversupply is driving down the price and while some in the industry say it could be a sign of longer term problems, one buyer says the backlog is evidence that lobster conservation efforts are working, and it will ease off in a couple of weeks. “Our processing facility is maximized daily, seven days a week and our holding facility is pretty darn full as of Saturday night,” said Osborne Burke, general manager of Victoria Co-operative Fisheries in New Haven, northern Cape Breton. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:41
Wind turbines and a shadow over Island fishers
Their boat is named Redemption. And as seventeen-year-old Tegan Gale walked onto the lobster boat docked at Tashmoo landing on a warm March Day, he was thinking about what the boat meant to him and about his future. Tegan says he loves being out on the water, and he wants to keep the family tradition alive, but he’s up against what he sees as big business and a lot of uncertainty. And now, there’s another layer of uncertainty: the new offshore wind industry. Tegan isn’t alone. Several Island fishermen say the new industry has the potential to disrupt their work for years to come. They have questions about the impacts of underwater cables extending from the turbines and dragging nets over the high-voltage wires. They also have fears about the impact to sea life during construction of the offshore wind farms. more, >>click to read<< 13:26
Federal Government Picks New England Offshore Wind Power Site, Drawing Cheers and Questions Alike
The federal government on Friday designated a large area off the New England coast for offshore wind production development, setting the stage for a possible lease sale within the Gulf of Maine. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said in a statement that the New England zone, which renewable energy advocates have identified as crucial for the growth of wind power, “avoids important areas for lobster fishing, North Atlantic right whale habitat, and other important fishing areas and habitats.” The move came a day after the country’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm opened off Montauk Point, New York. Environmental groups cheered the announcement, but some members of the commercial fishing industry, which has opposed wind development in areas where they trap lobsters, said they still have concerns about locating offshore wind in the area. more, >>click to read<< 12:23
Welcome to the Next New Reality TV Show Full of Drama, Betrayal and … Lobster Fishing?
The show, and the book, finds its leading man in Connor Nichols, not exactly rolling in dough, but an outsider from a wealthy family who wants to make a career on the waters as a lobsterman. “His plan was simple. Buy a boat. Buy traps. Set traps. Catch lobster. Sell lobster. Pay off debts. Have a life.” The hardened lobster lifers, however, are not welcoming of anyone outside their “fraternity” and act accordingly, sabotaging Connor’s every effort. “These inbred jerkwads in Tranquility had an industrial-strength hard-on for anyone without ten generations of headstones in the local cemetery.” First among them is Wade Baxter, who will do everything from put rocks in Connor’s lobster traps to damage his boat to ruin his truck. >click to read< 13:31
Court decision offers new hope for Maine lobstermen fighting new regulations
A small sign of hope for Maine Lobstermen as a federal judge in D.C. District Court has ruled that new lobster fishing restrictions designed to protect North Atlantic Right Whales will be delayed until 2024 to give the government time to draft more effective regulations. “We need to have time to get this done right,” said Maine Lobstering Union Executive Director Virginia Olsen. Judge Boasberg had previously ruled that fishing restrictions issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA didn’t go far enough to protect the whales. His new ruling sends the current biological opinion, which is the document containing the rules and the science behind them, back to NOAA. >click to read< 10:43
Father and son rescued at sea share emotional reunion with police officers that saved them
The father and son who were rescued at sea by a Boston Police harbor vessel last week had an emotional reunion with the officers that saved their lives. Joseph and Tommy Azeredo were dropping lobster traps in Boston Harbor on Wednesday when their boat’s motor got caught in a line. Joseph says after their boat’s motor was cut, the pair crashed into some rocks and started sinking, and at the time he couldn’t find his son Tommy. “I was thinking about my family, didn’t think I was going to see them again, I can hear my father screaming for me, it was terrifying man, it was very terrifying,” said Tommy Azeredo. The father and son floated in the water with the help of a cooler not far from Graves Light before they were rescued by Boston Police officers Stephen Merrick and Garrett Boyle. Video, >click to read< 09:10
The fisherman’s helper By Vincent Joyce
Since man first went out in his own fishing boat, he has had a fisherman’s helper. When I first went lobster fishing, I didn’t know a thing about it. I had to learn everything from scratch. The only thing that a person had to have is the love of the sea. A person had to learn all about fishing from his boss as you went about your daily work. You had to do what you were supposed to do in all areas of peaceful and dangerous times in a boat, weather-wise. A person learned very, very fast. For example, always watch those traps and rope when you were pushing them off the boat and back into the water. Most times, a fisherman would hire his helper through the winter months or in the early spring. Once the fisherman had a good or great helper hired, he would keep him for as long as he wanted to stay or until he bought his own fishing gear. >click to read< By Vincent Joyce, a former long-time fisherman’s helper 17:18
Lockdown Lobsters: How Brexit has impacted lobster fishing on the Llŷn Peninsula
Sion Williams is a third generation lobster fisherman on the Llŷn Peninsula. But in March 2020, with the onset of the pandemic, he had to restructure his business in order to adapt. “Between Brexit and Covid there was uncertainty with buyers,” When coronavirus hit, everything changed suddenly for Sion, as it did for so many other people: “All I got was a text from the traders saying ‘we don’t want anything for five weeks and maybe five months’. And that was it.” Everything was closed and they couldn’t sell. >click to read< 07:55
A Complicated Battle in the Gulf of Maine
It was two hours before dawn in the village of Friendship, but for a Maine lobster crew, it was already getting late. Captain Dustin Delano, his sternman, Chris, and his bait guy, Tim, moved in coordinated loops around the deck of the F/V Knotty Lady, stacking traps, thawing redfish heads and coiling lines to the gentle bass notes of engines rumbling below decks. In its own way, it had the feel of a chamber orchestra tuning up. Last cigarettes were lit, smoked and flicked away. And with that, we were off to the grounds. Soon, though, if things go according to a ruling by a federal court in Portland, that schedule would be thrown into chaos. In accordance with a recent modification to a federal whale plan, a 950-square-mile area of prime lobster fishing grounds was set to close in an effort to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. Enter Green Energy – Where and how Maine would site farms to exploit this potential is an open question. >click to read< 11:09
The ‘Lobster Trap’, Part II – Protests and Prayers
When she heard the news, in the middle of her shift selling tickets at the ferry terminal, Cathy Watt broke down in tears. The U.S. government had just ordered the unprecedented closure of a 1,000 square-mile swath of ocean off Maine’s coast to traditional lobster fishing for four months a year, starting in October. It was a crushing consequence of climate change: Warming oceans have hastened an endangered whale’s journey to the brink of extinction, and now Maine fishermen would pay the price. photos, video, part II of a series, >click to read< 09:49 ‘The Lobster Trap’ >click to read<
Crackpottery? A Ropeless Future for Lobster Fishing, they say!
The object thrown overboard was not in fact a trap but a ropeless fishing system deployed in a demonstration for passengers on the boat, including a film crew, a reporter and three people who study or advocate for right whales. Zack Klyver chartered the boat and arranged the demonstration. Through his consultancy, Blue Planet Strategy, he has been working as an intermediary between manufacturers, whale advocates and lobstermen, who find themselves on various sides of a regulatory survival equation as the federal government moves to protect endangered right whales. In ropeless fishing, Klyver sees a potential win for everyone involved, but getting there may take time and a fair amount of persuasion. Some funky photos, >click to read< 17:40
Lobster fishing 101: Everything you wanted to know! From Setting Day to Fishers pay!
In early May, hundreds of Prince Edward Island fishing boats head out into the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to sink their traps and bring back lobsters,,, Jada Yeo has been a fisherman’s helper aboard her father David’s boat, Let Her Go, for the past six years, since she graduated from high school. Sheila Eastman has been North Lake’s harbour manager for 20 years, and is like a mother to most of the fishermen. In fact, her son, one of her brothers and other relatives fish out of North Lake. From Setting Day, lobster boats, sharing up, fishing areas, and terminology preferences such as fishers, fisherman, fisherwoman, with lots of photos!, >click to read< 13:12
“It was really fun, I was excited.” 7-year-old Trent Collins skipped school to continue the lobster fishing family tradition!
Trent Collins may only be seven years old, but he knew he was ready to be part of his grandfather’s lobster fishing crew this week when the season opened. The Grade 2 Bathurst student has grown up going out on “Pa Daley’s” boat, Daley Catch, but Tuesday was different. It was the first time he went out on the boat with his grandfather, Keith Daley, and the crew without his parents. Daley, 63, remembers going out lobster fishing with his father and grandfather when he was five or six years old. He loved it, and his father bought him his own lobster licence when he was just 13. >photos, click to read< 10:37
Lobsterman: A day in the life
“Let Her Go” is oversized for Frenchtown’s small harbor, so Ledee bases her in Red Hook, where his day begins in darkness. Rising at 3 a.m., he packs hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, curried chicken for lunch and a cooler of drinks for himself and his mate, 19-year-old Kyle LaPlace. Lobsters and fish support him and his brother Gregory, who co-owns the business, as well as the men who crew with him, build the fish traps, survey and repair the boat and provide dock space. It’s a complete microeconomy. “Fishing has been good to me,” Ledee says. 18 photos, >click to read< 07:50
Boat parade to honor Andy Gove, July 12th event to memorialize well-known fisherman
On Sunday, July 12, a day when Andy Gove might have been racing his fishing vessel—and winning—his friends and family will stage a boat parade in Stonington Harbor. Gove, a well-known and well-liked fisherman, died June 20 shortly after celebrating his 90th birthday at his home on the harbor. “He didn’t want a funeral and all his friends and the fishermen felt terrible,” said Gove’s daughter, Myrna Clifford. The plan is for boats coming from the east, south and west to slowly come together and form a line from the point of Greenhead and then down toward the Fish Pier. >click to read< 07:13
Good Karma! Catching two coloured lobsters, one blue and one calico, comes days after child saved from drowning
A fisherman for 42 years, Gary Robichaud was out fishing lobster with his three sons, Alex, Zachary and Sylvain, when they found a blue lobster in a trap. After celebrating that catch, taking pictures and posing with the bright blue lobster they were even more surprised when 15 minutes later another rare coloured crustacean was found trapped inside another trap. The market sized lobster was calico coloured, another rare catch for the fisherman. Asked if this had ever happened before, Robichaud said no. “It’s never happened to me,” he said of catching two rare coloured lobsters on the same day. But Robichaud said he will take it all as signs of the good luck he’s been experiencing including how things fell into place during the rescue of a 10-year-old boy May 29. >click to read< 20:00
Daunting task begins: Reducing lobster gear to save whales
The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission met Monday outside Washington to discuss the implementation of the new rules, which are designed to reduce serious injuries and deaths among whales by 60 percent.,,, The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission met Monday outside Washington to discuss the implementation of the new rules,,,, Colleen Coogan, who coordinates the federal government team designed to protect the whales, said during the meeting that cooperating with Canadian authorities is also going to be very important. “We’ve set a pretty high bar,” Coogan said. “They’re going to have to show that their measures provide similar protections to right whales.” >click to read<08:58
Canada MPA’s – Ban oil, gas, bottom trawling in marine protected areas, urges panel
A panel that has spent the year studying marine protected areas (MPAs) in Canada says no oil and gas development, seabed mining, or bottom-trawling fishing should be allowed within their boundaries. In its final report released Tuesday, the National Advisory Panel on Marine Protected Area Standards, which was created earlier this year by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, recommended that the federal government adopt International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) standards and guidelines for all MPAs. That would also make dumping off-limits.>click to read<18:09
MPA’s – Report silent on whether lobster fishing should be allowed – >click to read<15:07
The Future of Lobstering May Mean Fishing by Computer
Lobster fishing used to be pretty straightforward. But there may be big changes ahead for fishermen in New England. “First thing you have to remember is, you’re taking the lobster industry and flipping it around on its head and shaking it,” Mike Lane said, sitting on his lobster boat in Cohassett Lane. Lane is a life-long fisherman. His dad fished for lobster before him. He’s concerned about the proposals. “How are you going to teach 60-year old men that don’t use computers to use a computer?” >click to read<08:51
Sometimes the opening of lobster fishing off southwestern Nova Scotia goes off without a hitch. And sometimes not.
In the present day, there are 979 licences in Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 34, which is slated to see its season start with Dumping Day on Monday, Nov. 28. The neighbouring LFA 33 along the province’s south shore also opens the same day. As fishermen gear up for the start of another lobster season, he’s a look back at some season starts of years gone by. 2015: Good start, good price Last year’s lobster season got off to a good start with decent opening day weather and better yet, a better price than in previous years. Fishermen were being paid around $6 a pound for their landings. 2014: Six-day weather delay,,, Read the rest here 10:05
NFL Hall of Famer Warren Sapp- shark bit while lobster fishing and the photo is not for the squeamish
I haven’t done much (translation: any) lobstering, but I’d imagine that there’s some possibility of getting pinched by one of those large claws, which sounds like it could be painful. I’d take that any day, though, over getting bitten by a shark. Warren Sapp probably would as well, but it happened to him anyway on Wednesday. The former Buccaneers star was in the act of pulling a crustacean from waters near the Florida Keys when a shark apparently decided that he looked pretty tasty in his own right. The result was a very nasty gash on Sapp’s left arm, near his elbow. The charter company he hired that day posted a photo of the gory aftermath to its Instagram page (warning: not for the squeamish). Photo’s, read the rest here 11:57
What’s the craziest question YOU’VE been asked about lobster fishing?
Maine is a unique state. Lobster fishing is a unique occupation. In the summer months, tourists flock to Vacationland, eager to eat lobster in the rough and learn about our way of life. I grew up working as a sternman on my father’s lobster boat and conversations with tourists were a common and often entertaining addition to the process of unloading our catch. I enjoyed the intense eagerness people ‘from away’ showed in wanting to learn more about Maine’s most famous fishing industry but was also often amused by the questions they asked. Read the rest here 08:43
Central Northumberland lobstermen have high hopes after downturn
1906, 1932, 1959 and 1987. “Those were the really good years for lobster fishing in the central Northumberland Strait,” Eben Elliott said Wednesday. “There’s lots of different theories about what’s caused the highs and the lows for lobster landings, but in the end, it’s what’s going on in nature that is responsible.” The fortunes of Elliott’s family have been tied lobster stocks in the central Northumberland Strait since his great-grandfather set his first traps in Port Howe around the beginning of the 20th century. Read the rest here 21:34
PEI – Three generations of lobster fishing Jollimores
On an early spring morning in French River Jimmy Jollimore wakes to see the sunrise over New London Bay. He then heads down Jollimore Lane to the boat that will carry three generations of his family to the lobster grounds. “It goes back five generations, at least,” said Jimmy, who has 60 years of fishing in so far. “My grandfather, my father and myself. Two sons with gears of their own and one son here with me is three. Sons and grandsons. Brought up to be fishermen, I guess.” Read more here 21:11
