Tag Archives: Nova Scotia
Pictou Landing reports peaceful season of moderate livelihood lobster fishery
Generations of Craig Francis’s family have fished the waters between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, so being a part of Pictou Landing First Nation’s moderate livelihood fishery is a big deal for him. “It’s nice to have our rights recognized,” he said. “We were given these inherent rights, so to go out and do that on our own and have support with DFO and local fishermen is pretty good.” Francis is one of the community members designated by the First Nation to fish lobster under the plan. It’s the community’s first moderate livelihood plan with an understanding from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. >click to read< 06:57
Saltbox Brewing Brings Back Crustacean Elation Lobster Ale
Crustacean Elation celebrates the lifeblood of our Nova Scotia fisheries community. We use whole lobsters and fire-roasted lobster shells to infuse the taste and aroma during the brewing process. The result is a pale coloured, lightly hopped beer with a hint of bitterness and a slightly sweet briny finish that is the essence of the sea. Try our Crustacean Elation creation – yes, it’s a mouthful, but one you’re sure to enjoy with your next lobster roll! >click to read< and get the link to order online and visit their website!. They ship everywhere! 11:45
N.S., N.B. herring fishery swallows 33 per cent quota cut
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) reduced the 2022 quota, or total allowable catch, from 35,000 tonnes to 23,450 tonnes, but environmentalists say the cut does not go far enough to rebuild the stock. The Bay of Fundy Herring Industry said the TAC for this year “will create challenges for industry but is at a level that will help protect jobs, businesses and communities in the region that rely on the fishery.” DFO echoed industry in its announcement, saying its decision was a balance. This decision reduces pressure on this stock, while recognizing the needs of communities that depend on this fishery for jobs and bait,” >click to read< 13:24
Management Plan Released for Atlantic Herring in Southwest Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy
Atlantic herring is a vital species in Atlantic Canada. As one of the largest commercial fisheries in Atlantic Canada, the Southwest Nova Scotia / Bay of Fundy herring stock directly or indirectly employs more than 1,000 people in rural Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and contributes over $140 million to the local economy. Atlantic herring is also an important source of bait for other commercial fisheries, such as lobster and snow crab. Despite a number of measures taken in recent years to encourage rebuilding, the Southwest Nova Scotia / Bay of Fundy Atlantic herring stock remains in the critical zone. Stronger sustainable management actions are needed to protect this important species and return it to abundance. >click to read< 13:29
Huge deep-water area off N.S. declared a marine refuge – will be off limits to almost all fishing
An area off Nova Scotia’s coast nearly four times the size of Cape Breton was declared a marine refuge by Canada on Wednesday — World Oceans Day. Eastern Canyons Marine Refuge is a 44,000 square kilometre swath of ocean running from the edge of the continental shelf near Sable Island to Canada’s exclusive economic zone more than 300 kilometres offshore. All bottom-contact fisheries, including trawls, traps, and longlines, will be prohibited inside the marine refuge, with the exception of one fishing zone for smaller vessels that use longlines. It was criticized by some in Nova Scotia’s lucrative halibut fishery which will be blocked from most of the area. >click to read< 14:55
Lobster Season Comes to an end in LFA’s 33 & 34
Today is the last day in the season. It was a season of record prices according to the executive director of the Brazil Rock 33/34 Lobster Association, Dan Fleck. He says prices reached over $17 and discussed where they are at the close of the season “I would say $10. There are certain deals where people might be offered more in certain areas but we’re looking between $10 and $11 for a closing price in LFA 33 and 34.” Fleck is looking back on the season. While it was marked by rising fuel costs, he says it was also very safe. >click to read< 08:18
Nova Scotia shrimp trawler returning to port after ice encounter in Labrador Sea
A Mersey Seafoods shrimp trawler headed back toward its Nova Scotia base Thursday after suffering ice damage while fishing off the coast of Labrador earlier this week. The bow of the 70-metre Mersey Phoenix struck ice. It caused a small crack that led to a small amount of water leaking into the ship. Mersey Seafoods CEO Greg Simpson said the vessel, with a crew of 30 on board, is not in any danger. >click to read< 13:21
‘The spot is beautiful’: Chief William Saulis crew remembered with memorial
Lori Phillips was at a loss. She didn’t want to go to just any random cemetery and place a headstone with her son Aaron’s name on it. She would have no relationship to that spot, she says. It would just be a stone on a piece of land. Her son, Aaron Cogswell, was one of six fishermen who lost their lives in the Dec. 15, 2020, sinking of the Chief William Saulis scallop dragger. The others were Charles Roberts, Daniel Forbes, Michael Drake, Eugene Francis, and Leonard Gabriel. Phillips needed a place for her and others to remember the crew. >click to read< 09:01
We’koqma’q gets federal approval for moderate livelihood fishery
We’koqma’q First Nation in Cape Breton reached an understanding with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans this week. Certain harvesters can now fish lobster and sell the harvest during the established 2022 commercial seasons in Lobster Fishing Areas 27 and 31A, which run until mid-July and the the end of June, respectively. “Our harvesters continued to voice how they wanted to be able to exercise their Treaty Rights safely and they are excited to be able to provide for their families and our community through exercising their inherent rights,” said We’koqma’q Chief Annie Bernard-Daisley in a release Friday. Both fishing areas are off the Cape Breton coast. There will be a limit of 210 traps per fishing area, according to a DFO release. > click to read < 14:18
Nova Scotia: Fisheries critic calls for fuel price relief for fishermen
The rise in fuel prices is having disastrous effects on fishermen according to Fisheries critic and South Shore – St. Margaret’s MP Rick Perkins. During Question Period this week, Perkins said that fishermen in his area who primarily use diesel as their fuel have seen prices increase by 140 per cent since the fall fishing seasons. “Fishermen are now only going out every other day, in Nova Scotia 70 cents of diesel prices goes to governments, it’s time to lower government fuel taxes,” Perkins said. > click to read < 11:06
Snow crab prices plummet in Newfoundland
It wasn’t the news fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador wanted to hear. They’ll get less for their snow crab after today, as the result of a decision by the province’s fish price setting panel. After reviewing a request from the Association of Seafood Producers and arguments by the Fish Food and Allied Workers, the panel went with the processors’ pitch of $6.15 per pound. That’s down nearly 20 per cent from the $7.60 per pound price that was set for the start of the season on April 1. In Nova Scotia, fish harvesters also saw a drop in snow crab prices a couple of weeks ago. They are now getting $8.25 a pound for snow crab, according to Gordon Beaton, local president with the Maritime Fishermen’s Union. >click to read< 11:06
Questions linger for mother as monument erected for lost fishermen in Nova Scotia
Questions about how a scallop dragger sank suddenly in 2020 are lingering for a crew member’s mother, who this week installed a stone monument close to where the boat was lost. The bodies of Aaron Cogswell, Leonard Gabriel, Dan Forbes, Geno Francis and captain Charles Roberts were never found after the sinking of the Chief William Saulis on Dec. 15, 2020. The body of crew member Michael Drake came ashore near Delaps Cove, a coastal village about 50 kilometres north of Digby, N.S. Lori Phillips, Cogswell’s mother, has worked alongside Darlene Roberts, the wife of the captain, to create a stone memorial to honour the men on a wilderness trail within sight of the coastal waters where the dragger went down. >please click to read< 16:22
Another big Maritime fishery quota cut looming
Another Maritime fishery is facing a big quota cut this year. The only question is how big. This time it is the large herring fishery in southwestern Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy. The stock is in the critical zone where serious harm is occurring, but the fishery employs hundreds of people in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. What happens next will again test how far Canada’s fisheries minister is willing to go to rebuild a depleted stock. >click to read< 09:35
Bay of Fundy Herring Industry Proposes Sustainability Plan
The Bay of Fundy Herring Industry, in collaboration with the Herring Science Council, today unveiled a plan to sustain and rebuild the herring stocks in the Bay of Fundy. The plan calls for a reduction of the TAC for the 2022 fishing season to 25,000 metric tons (“mt”) from 35,000 mt, representing a decrease of 30% from the previous year and 50% over the past five years. The plan also calls for increased management measures and scientific support by industry. >click to read< 13:38
N.S. lobster fishermen feel pinch of rising diesel prices
Merrill MacInnis is a lobster fisher in Victoria County. He said the price of diesel is an ongoing conversation in the community, since most fishing boats in his harbour run on diesel. “It’s going to have a big impact on the profit margin, of course,” MacInnis said. “But you need to have it. MacInnis estimates fishers will be hit with a fuel bill about $4,000 to $5,000 higher compared to the same period last year. “It’ll be a big bill,” he said. >click to read< 10:21
Trial begins for fisherman and fish buyer accused of illegal halibut landings
A trial is underway in Halifax for a Sambro fisherman, a fish buyer and two related companies accused of illegal halibut landings The case is centred on seven trips made by the fishing vessel F/V Ivy Lew between May 2019 and June 2020. Captain Casey Henneberry is accused of failing to follow licence conditions in several instances, including on three trips when halibut catches were unloaded without a dockside monitor present. Buyer Samir Zakhour is accused of being at the wharf to buy halibut during the last “illegal offload” in June 2020 and “was a party to the events of offloading without a monitor,” Conrod said. He is also charged with misleading a fishery officer the night of his arrest. ALS Fisheries, which owns the boat, and Law Fisheries are also charged in the case. >click to read< 13:20
Pictou Landing to operate DFO approved moderate livelihood lobster fishery
The Pictou Landing First Nation is getting ready to operate a moderate livelihood lobster fishery in waters off Nova Scotia starting Tuesday with the approval of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. About 25 members of the community have registered to fish and sell their catch under the plan and are being issued traps and tags by the First Nation, according to Chief Andrea Paul. In a news release, the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs said the Pictou Landing First Nation held formal consultations with DFO and came to an understanding without having to sign any agreements or changing its position on treaty rights. >click to read< 18:24
Missing Digby County man found dead in Sissiboo River
Graham Cromwell, a lobster fisher from Weymouth Falls, N.S., who went missing in the Sissiboo River on Wednesday, has been found dead about a kilometre away from Gates Lane crossing. According to an RCMP news release, Cromwell’s body was located at 5:30 p.m. AT on Friday. Police were informed on Wednesday that Cromwell, 48, had entered the river near Gates Lane crossing but was not seen exiting. >click to read< 11:38
Search continues for Nova Scotia fisherman who jumped in river after DFO intervention
The search for a missing 48-year-old lobster fisherman who jumped into a river in Digby County continues today. Graham Cromwell from Weymouth Falls, N.S., was last seen by Fisheries Department inspectors jumping into the Sissiboo River Wednesday night. A Fisheries Department spokesperson says Cromwell and three others were fishing near Weymouth Falls around 9 p.m. and allegedly fled when two fishery officers attempted to carry out an inspection. >click to read< 15:40
DFO: ‘no plan’ to cut commercial lobster catches to implement treaty fishery
The issue has swirled through Maritime coastal fishing communities since the federal government relaunched a voluntary commercial licence buy-back program last year to make room for more Mi’kmaw access, so far without success. The departmental statement followed a response from Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray to Conservative fisheries critic Rick Perkins during Question Period Monday. “DFO sources tell me the minister was about to expropriate 15 per cent of lobster traps from licence holders, without compensation, to give to First Nations,” Perkins said Monday. “This would be devastating for these fishermen. >click to read<13:43
Nova Scotia: Wharf price for lobster has plunged in April
Lobster prices paid to fishermen have plunged between 37 and 42 per cent in Nova Scotia this month. The decline, from $17.50 a pound on April 3 to $10 and $11 on Monday, comes as the lobster fishery is set to open in more locations in Nova Scotia and the Maritimes. What made the drop in the shore price more unusual in 2022 were the historic highs that preceded them. >click to read< 07:56
Will Atlantic Canada lobster season break another sales record? Or will inflation curb consumer appetite,,,
Roger Fowlow is paying a lot of attention to the long-range marine forecast these days. Lobster season opens soon and he’s hoping the unsettled spring weather will ease off, giving him light winds to set his lobster pots. He used to catch cod, but with quotas so low, cod prices stalled for years at less than a dollar a pound, and fuel prices soaring this year. He said it’s not worth bothering with. Lobster is the money maker, and the last few years have given him good catches and good prices. Fowlow is confident of good catches again this year. But on the question of the price he might get paid, he’s not so certain. For P.E.I. lobster fisher Bethany McCarthy, inflation is already driving up the cost of running her boat. In addition to higher prices for fuel, she’ll have to shell out more money for bait this year, thanks to DFO’s decision to kill the mackerel fishery. photos, video, >click to read< 12:15
The value of Canadian lobster exports has skyrocketed driving the wharf price toward a record high
Two weeks ago, at wharfs in Nova Scotia, the price of lobster was the highest it has ever been. Stewart Lamont, managing director of Tangier Lobster Company, a live lobster exporter in Nova Scotia, said the shore price for lobster, the amount fishermen get from buyers, was $18 a pound. That’s more than double the regular pre-pandemic price. It has since gone down due to a drop in exports and higher supply. Lamont said this week lobster was around $12 to $12.50 a pound. While high prices mean more money for lobster exporters and fishermen, Lamont said he is scared that if lobster becomes too expensive, people and businesses will simply stop buying it. >click to read< 10:52
‘Expensive lobster is good for everyone in N.S.’: Winners and losers as prices of crustaceans skyrocket
Unless you buy it regularly, you may not have noticed lobster prices have quietly skyrocketed over the last couple of years. “Also, people had some more disposable income because the government programs, whether it be Canada, the U.S. or elsewhere, and I think everything has led to an uptick in prices, and the markets have remained strong.” Restaurant demand has now recovered, Berry says, but retail has remained strong and international demand has exploded. Wharf prices now are said to be nearly five times what they were during a slump at the start of the pandemic. Video, >click to read< 09:10
‘Our lobsters are gold plated now:’ Atlantic Canada lobster exports, prices soar
“Our lobsters are gold-plated now. Prices have been the highest in commercial history,” says Stewart Lamont, managing director of Tangier Lobster Co. Ltd, a live lobster exporter on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore. When the pandemic hit, export and restaurant industry demand plummeted. The shore price of lobster, the amount fishers get at the wharf from buyers, sunk as low as $4 a pound. “There was an initial glut of lobsters on the market at the start of the lockdown but then it spun back the other way,” says Colin Sproul, president of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association. >click to read< 16:47
Federal court dismisses DFO appeal of ruling in fisherman’s licence fight
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Fisheries and Oceans Canada against a federal court judgment involving a lobster fisherman’s charter rights on Friday. Parkers Cove lobster fisherman Dana Robinson, 60, has a disability that limits his ability to stand on a boat for long periods of time. He was operating his boat in the Bay of Fundy under a DFO provision that allows fishermen to designate a substitute operator once they provide adequate medical proof of their condition. The provision only allows the substitution for five years. An extension was denied in 2019. >click to read< 11:42
High lobster prices push fishermen to take risk, the Captain of an all-female crew pushes for change
The F/V Nellie Row was making her return to Lunenburg, N.S., after a long night at sea, loaded with another haul of lobster, when captain Gail Atkinson lost sight of one of her crew members. When that happens, a fisherman’s mind instantly goes to dark places – out here, off the southern coast of Nova Scotia, a novice deckhand can easily be knocked off their feet, swept overboard and swallowed up by the endless black sea. Ms. Atkinson, skipper of Canada’s only all-female lobster crew, didn’t know her new employee had just gone up on top of the boat’s wheelhouse to get the docking lines ready. “I just freaked out and lost my mind,” she said. “On my boat, I need to know where everyone is at all times. I told her, ‘I’m 57 years old. You almost killed me right now.’” Commercial fishing has always been dangerous work,,, >click to read< 17:02
Illegal sales of First Nations lobster nets $55K fine for two Nova Scotia men
Two men from southwestern Nova Scotia have been convicted for illegally buying and selling lobster caught under an Indigenous Food, Social and Ceremonial (FSC) licence. Licence conditions prohibit the sale of the catch. Terry Dale Banks and Tyler David Nickerson were fined a total of $55,000 in Shelburne provincial court Wednesday. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) said the charges stemmed from a September 2018 inspection of a Shag Harbour lobster pound. >click to read< 20:16
Nova Scotia: Mackerel closure causes bait concerns as fishermen prepare for lobster season
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Joyce Murray announced on March 30 that there would be no directed commercial or bait fishing for southern gulf spring herring and a closure of the Atlantic mackerel commercial and bait fisheries this year in Atlantic Canada and Quebec. Guysborough County Inshore Fisherman’s Association Manager Ginny Boudreau’s first concern was about what was not covered in the DFO news release: loss of licences and lack of compensation. Those licenses have essentially been taken away from them…How you can just take thousands of licences out of the commercial fishery and not even a mention of that in the news release?… that’s huge,” >click to read< 08:41
Canada responds to United Nations after Mi’kmaw treaty fishery complaint
Canada submitted its response last month to a United Nations committee after Sipekne’katik First Nation in Nova Scotia asked the international body to investigate violence against Mi’kmaw fishers during the “moderate livelihood” lobster fishery in the fall of 2020. However, the federal Heritage Department, which is the lead agency handling the human rights reporting file, said Canada’s submission will remain confidential. >click to read< 19:16
