Tag Archives: Molly Aylward
‘Alarm bells should be going off’: P.E.I. fishers reflects on low prices, poor weather throughout 2023 spring lobster season
Charlie McGeoghegan, chair of the P.E.I. lobster marketing board, wants answers as to why the price of lobster per pound was so low throughout the 2023 spring season. According to McGeoghegan, the price of lobster was $13.50 per pound up until the start of the season when it suddenly dropped by more than six dollars. As a result, fishers in the province lost more than $300 million in revenue, as the yield last year was more than 47 million pounds. “Alarm bells should be going off with the province as well, that’s a lot of revenue,” said McGeoghegan. Lobster fisher Art MacDonald of Souris said he’s had a hard time remembering a colder and wetter fishing season. >click to read< 17:07
Lennox Island, DFO strike deal for 2023 moderate livelihood lobster fishery off P.E.I.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it has struck a deal with Lennox Island First Nation for a treaty-protected lobster fishery off P.E.I.’s North Shore for the 2023 spring season. In a statement to CBC News, DFO says the one-year interim understanding was reached on Wednesday. The band had said its boats would begin to set about 1,000 lobster traps on Saturday with or without DFO approval. “The Government of Canada is committed to advancing First Nations’ Supreme Court-affirmed treaty right to fish,” DFO officials said in a statement sent to CBC News on Friday. “Designated community members are authorized to fish up to 1,000 traps total in Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 24 during the spring 2023 commercial lobster season … >click to read< 15:40
It’s time for Canada to relax fishery closures around right whale sightings, committee says
The standing committee on fisheries and oceans is recommending that the federal government relax the fishing closures it imposes when endangered North Atlantic right whales are sighted in Canadian waters. In a report released Tuesday, the committee said the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada should modify its rules for the 2023 season in the Gulf of St Lawrence, Bay of Fundy and Roseway Basin off southern Nova Scotia since most single-whale detections are animals in transit and not staying to feed. It also says season-long closures should rarely be imposed. >click to read< 07:20
Concerns on P.E.I. about the risk foreign bait might pose to ecosystem
In March, DFO put a moratorium on commercial fishing for herring in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and mackerel across the East Coast, saying urgent action is required to allow those fish stocks to recover. That moratorium led to fears of a shortage of bait for use in the lucrative Maritime lobster fishery. Mark Prevost, the co-owner of the Bait Masters alternative bait company in Nine Mile Creek, P.E.I., appeared before a federal fisheries committee earlier this week. He is calling on the federal government to regulate the kinds of fish being used for bait. >click to read< 15:36
P.E.I. fishermen seek province’s help in wake of herring, mackerel moratorium
In March, the federal DFO put a moratorium on commercial fishing for herring in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and mackerel across the East Coast, saying urgent action is required to allow the stocks to recover. Fishers were not pleased, and said a complete moratorium goes too far. “This has been a devastating and direct blow for these fishers,” said Molly Aylward, the association’s executive director, appearing before a legislative standing committee on natural resources. The P.E.I.F.A. represents independent core fishers who depend on the commercial herring and mackerel fishery for their main source of income, as well as lobster fishers who use the fish for bait, often fishing it themselves to keep their costs down. >click to read< 09:17
