Tag Archives: Nova Scotia
Striking fishery officers stand aside as poaching continues for lucrative baby eels
“Our net should be here, not some illegal fisherman,” says Brenda Golden, a co-owner of Wine Harbour Fisheries. Golden is looking under the Liscomb River bridge where a fine mesh net supported by floats stretches into the black foamy water. Hoping to have the net removed, Golden’s daughter reported it to the local Department of Fisheries and Oceans on Tuesday. Fisheries officials did not provide a response when asked about this incident. Nor to questions about the impact of the ongoing Public Service Alliance of Canada strike on its ability to rein in widespread illegal harvesting. >click to read< 07:15
“The market has collapsed.” With crab season on the line, seafood producers’ association digs in its heels on price
Jeff Loder, executive director of the Association of Seafood Producers said Monday the crab market has softened in the past few weeks, and the group will not negotiate a new price with fishermen. “The market has collapsed. Prices need to reflect that,” he said. Loder said each day the industry is delayed, with fishermen in the Maritimes and Quebec already out on the water, the worse it is for everyone. “Snow crab is not selling. There’s a glut in inventory,” said Loder, speaking for the first time since the provincial price-setting panel set a minimum price of $2.20 Cdn per pound for harvesters, who responded with protests and say they can’t afford to fish for that price. “We need raw material to get those plants going, and to have any chance to compete with our competitors in Atlantic Canada, who are all fishing in Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. at $2.25 a pound,” Video, >click to read< 16:00
Cape Breton fishermen say ice was a problem because DFO didn’t follow its own policy
Some Cape Breton fishermen say if the Department of Fisheries and Oceans hadn’t opened the Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab season too early, icebreakers would not have been needed to get boats in and out of Cheticamp harbour. Andrew Bourgeois, president of the Gulf of Nova Scotia Fishermen’s Coalition and a director of the Gulf fleet planning board, said DFO officials usually agree to wait until all the coasts are ice-free, but not this year. “I think if DFO would have followed their protocol, I don’t think there would have been an issue with the ice,” he said. “The protocol says that if there was ice at 20 fathoms or deeper that it shouldn’t open, it wouldn’t open. And they opened it anyways.” >click to read< 13:11
Maritime baby eel fishers pan federal decision to close fishery over safety concerns
Ottawa’s decision to shut down the lucrative but contentious baby eel fishery in the Maritimes has effectively ended the 2023 season, says a commercial licence holder in southwestern Nova Scotia. Brian Giroux, of Shelburne Elver, a fishing co-op that employs 39 people, said the mandatory 45-day closure announced by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on Saturday will largely run out a season that normally wraps up in early June. “Illegal activities that (DFO) failed to control have taken away the fishing from the licensed and legal fishing,” Giroux said in an interview Monday. >click to read< 10:32
Low prices could force out some snow crab harvesters
The snow crab industry in Cape Breton is in a world of trouble this year and a price of $2.25 per pound at the wharf may not be enough for some harvesters to continue. “You have the U.S. market with bank failures and they are close to a recession,” said Osborne Burke, general manager of Victoria Cooperative Fishery Ltd., located in Neils Harbour. Osborne says it’s been 15 years since the at-wharf price was that low. Factor in the economy issues and very high fuel prices and the number crunching simply isn’t working in harvesters favour. >click to read< 16:09
‘It’s a rough ride’: Ice woes persist for snow crab boats in Chéticamp
Angus Lefort got a text message Sunday morning from a snow crab fisherman who was trying to leave Chéticamp Harbour. What would normally take 15 minutes took about two hours because the Nova Scotia harbour is packed with ice. “It’s a rough ride,” said Lefort, the manager of Chéticamp’s harbour authority. The snow crab fishery opened Tuesday. On Wednesday, a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker arrived to help get the fishing boats in and out of the harbour. Video, photos, >click to read< 13:21
DFO halts baby eel fishery in N.S., N.B for 45 days over escalating conflict
A news release from DFO on Saturday said after extensive monitoring it was determined that unreported removals made up a significant percentage of elver, or baby eel, landings. Fishery officers conducted extensive patrols from March 13 to April 10 to ensure compliance with regulations for the harvesting and sale of elvers, according to the release. The release states an increase in conflicts resulting in violence and threats risks the safety of harvesting and creates a threat to the management and control of the fishery. >click to read< 14:36
Crab Fishermen stay in boats on the north coast
Unsatisfied with the prices offered to them by the mill owners, most of the crab fishermen in 16 areas on the north shore did not go to sea on Saturday when fishing began in their field. 39 owners of 54 fishing licenses in Area 16 feel hurt by the temporary price of $2.25 per pound offered by the mills and accepted by fishermen in other parts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec. According to these fishermen, the only people in the province to group around the marketing group are not honoring the price formula that allows processors to get more than $2.25 a pound. According to their representative Jean-René Boucher, all factories in the province, including the six located on the north coast, have been issued with a watchword by the Fishing Industry Association not to accept crabs from area 16. >click to read< 10:38
Canada gives Mi’kmaq 14% of lucrative Maritime elver fishery for 2nd year
For a second year, the federal government is giving Mi’kmaw First Nations 14 per cent of the lucrative Maritime fishery for baby eels — or elvers — without compensating commercial licence holders. The transfer implements the Mi’kmaw treaty right to fish for a moderate living, but also sets the stage for further court challenges by commercial elver licence holders. “I’m quite confident that we will be taking legal action based on this again,” said Michel Samson, a lawyer representing Wine Harbour Fisheries. Wine Harbour is one of several licence holders in federal court trying to overturn the 2022 decision, saying it was unfair and rushed. >click to read< 08:59
Halifax company pilots new technology to track lobster traps, locate and retrieve lost equipment
The company, Marine Thinking, has launched a pilot project that involves tagging the traps with high-tech devices. The tags send signals to specially designed consoles on fishing vessels that allow crews to monitor where their equipment is using their phones or other devices. The company is testing its equipment with three lobster fishers this season. One of them is 63-year-old Jamie Osborne, from Eastern Passage, N.S, who has fished lobster for 40 years. A big reason he’s interested in the technology is because of the financial hit he takes when he loses traps. >click to read< 10:27
Nova Scotia will lift moratorium on seafood processing and buying licences in 2023
Nova Scotia will end its five-year moratorium on issuing new seafood processing and buying licences. The “temporary” moratorium was imposed in 2018 while the province reviewed its licensing regime. Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Steve Craig says he does not know why the freeze was imposed by the previous Liberal government. “I’ve even had people tell me that the moratorium is the policy, which is not the case. The Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance lobbied for the moratorium, which still allowed for the sale or transfer of an existing licence. >click to read< 11:40
‘The people’s fish’: Atlantic mackerel stocks have collapsed – can a moratorium bring them back?
Canada’s Atlantic mackerel population is a shadow of what it once was, and its decline threatens the well-being of the people who depend on it. Mackerel supports one of Atlantic Canada’s top recreational fisheries, and one of its oldest commercial fisheries. The fish is also used for bait, and it has an important place in Indigenous cultures. The same migratory stock supports recreational and commercial fisheries in the U.S. Last March, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans closed Canada’s commercial and bait mackerel fisheries for one year and placed daily personal limits on the recreational fishery, to give the population time to rebound. But the U.S. fishery remains open, albeit with a reduced quota. Next week, federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray will decide whether to reopen the Canadian fishery. The DFO’s latest studies have found no sign of recovery in the mackerel stock. Photos, >click to read< 13:09
Starvation price for snow crab fishermen
A week into the snow crab fishing season, processors in Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on Friday agreed to a temporary dock price of $2.25/lb to $2.50/lb. “There’s more inventory on the market now than we thought, says Jean-Paul Gagne, Director General of the Quebec Fisheries Industry Association (AQIP). For his part, Marc-Olivier des Îles-de-la-Madeleine’s captain, Marco Turbide, promises to put his cages back this spring. “Expecting a price of only two or three dollars a pound doesn’t give ambition, he comments. It’s not fun. For a heavily indebted fisherman like me, we can’t expect to make a profit in 2023 because of the significant loss from crab last year. If we agree to $4/lb, I’m very I’ll be happy!” >click to read< 11:45
Nova Scotia halibut boat fined $5,000 for fishing inside Gully Marine Protected Area
A Nova Scotia fishing captain has pleaded guilty to fishing inside the Gully Marine Protected Area near Sable Island. It’s the first conviction in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Maritimes region for unauthorised fishing inside a marine protected area. Captain Phillip Chetwynd was fined $5,000 in Port Hawkesbury provincial court this week for non-compliance with licence conditions under the Fisheries Act. Images taken by a DFO surveillance plane show the captain at the rail hauling the tail end of the long line with crewmen dressing the catch on board. >click to read< 09:30
TSB report on sinking that killed 6 says fishing boat needed stability test
The report released Wednesday says the F/V Chief William Saulis should have been tested for stability, given the fact that major changes had been made to the boat by its owners. They had added a heavy, A-frame structure for scallop dragging, a protective plate to the boat’s stern, and covers to close drainage holes. On Dec. 15, 2020, the modified vessel capsized in the Bay of Fundy during a gale as it returned to its home port in Digby, N.S. All six crew on board died. The independent agency says Transport Canada inspectors during a 2017 visit didn’t tell Yarmouth Sea Products Ltd. that the modifications to the boat were stability “risk factors,” which were defined in a federal safety bulletin and questionnaire. However, the board made clear in its report and during Wednesday’s news conference that it has long urged a stricter law on stability assessments and that Transport Canada hasn’t complied. >click to read< 14:23
‘We’re not going to stop fighting’: Families of F/V Chief William Saulis crew to keep pushing for safety in fishing industry
Michelle Nickerson-Forbes had worried that the longer it took for the Transportation Safety Board to come out with its report about the December 2020 fatal sinking of the Chief William Saulis scallop vessel, that people would forget about the six-member crew whose lives were lost. Initially, the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) had said the investigation and report would take up to 450 days. Instead, it took over two years. Lori Cogswell Phillips, a resident of Cambridge in the Annapolis Valley, is also never going to give up. She’s been fighting for answers on behalf of her son Aaron Cogswell and the rest of the Chief William Saulis crew for the past two-plus years. She says the TSB report – which took too long to come out – still leaves more questions unanswered than answered. Photos, >click to read< 09:51
TSB investigation into fatal sinking of F/V Chief William Saulis recommends improved safety procedure awareness
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada recommends inspections of commercial fishing vessels verify that required written safety procedures are available to crews and that they are knowledgeable of these procedures. The recommendation to the Department of Transport was issued Wednesday as part of the investigation into the fatal 2020 sinking of the scallop boat F/V Chief William Saulis near Digby, resulting in the death of one crew member. Five crew members are still classified as missing. On Dec. 15, 2020, shortly after midnight, the Chief William Saulis, with six crew members onboard, departed Chignecto Bay, N.B., to return to port in Digby. At about 5:50 a.m., the vessel’s emergency position-indicating radio beacon activated about 12 nautical miles off the coast of Digby. >click to read< 14:37
Quota transfer to Maritime First Nations prompts Federal Court challenge
Commercial licence holders in the lucrative Maritime baby eel fishery have launched a Federal Court challenge over the decision to take 14 per cent of their quota and give it to Indigenous groups in 2022. The quota of baby eels, or elvers, was worth millions of dollars. It was reallocated without compensation to fulfil First Nation treaty rights to fish. The elver redistribution raises broader questions about what licence holders in other commercial fisheries can expect if their allocations are cut in favour of First Nations. >click to read< 09:23
Fisheries Department scrambled to claw back ‘ill-timed’ lobster tweet during Fiona
Some people can’t see the forest for the trees. Others can’t see the hurricane for the lobsters. On Sept. 24, around 9 a.m. Atlantic time, a few hours after Hurricane Fiona had slowed slightly into a post-tropical cyclone and slammed into Nova Scotia, the federal Fisheries Department issued two preplanned posts on Twitter and Facebook. The first urged everyone to avoid the coastline and stay safe. The second warned them off helping themselves to wayward lobsters. “As well, if you find lobsters washed up on the shore after the storm, remember it is illegal to harvest them,” it read. “Simply leave them there.” >click to read< 10:17
Vietnamese favor Canadian lobsters, snow crabs
Vietnam spent US$65 million importing Canadian seafood, mainly lobsters and snow cabs last year, doubling 2021 imports and trebling 2020. Among Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam was Canadian’s biggest seafood importer, Steve Craig, Minister of the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, said at a recent business networking event in HCMC. Although Vietnam is the world’s fourth largest seafood exporter with an annual turnover of $11 billion, it is still a fertile ground for Canadian products, he said, noting that Vietnamese are among the world’s top seafood consumers. >click to read< 11:47
F/V Miss Ally remembered: 10 years since tragedy claimed five Shelburne County fishermen
It will be 10 years ago on Feb. 17 that life forever changed for the families and friends of five Shelburne County fishermen, forever known as the crew of the Miss Ally. Caught in a huge storm with waves larger than 10 metres and hurricane-force winds, the 45-foot fishing vessel was on its way into port from a halibut fishing trip when it ran into trouble about 120 kilometres southeast of Liverpool on Feb. 17, 2013. The vessel’s emergency locator beacon was activated at 11:06 p.m. The Canadian Coast Guard was dispatched. But to the heartbreak of families and friends – and communities in southwestern Nova Scotia – there would be no rescue. None of the crew came back home from that fishing trip. Photos, two stories. >click to read<
Miss Ally remembered: ‘Would do it again in a heartbeat’ says diver who searched capsized vessel – >click to read< 16:10
N.S. fisheries loan board sees big demand from new entrants
A rising tide of seafood exports coupled with the retirement of older workers has more young people casting a line into the fishing industry, according to the acting chair of the Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture Loan Board. Bob Verge was part of a group who appeared before the legislature’s public accounts committee on Wednesday to discuss the most recent reports from the fisheries and farm loan boards. Nova Scotia exported $2.5 billion in seafood in 2021, an increase of 21 per cent from five years ago, deputy fisheries minister April Howe told the committee. Figures from the loan board show just how many new people are trying to reel in a piece of that seawater-soaked pie. >click to read< 19:29
N.S. Lobster Crawl kicks off with Lucy the Lobster’s Groundhog Day prediction
Lucy the Lobster won’t be the only Lob-Star at her annual Groundhog Day prediction in North East Point by the Cape Sable Island Causeway in the Municipality of Barrington this year. Bridgewater resident Heather Jeffers has been chosen as this year’s Lob-Star for the festival, getting VIP status for many of the signature events the lobster crawl is becoming known for. “My friends and I joked that I’ve been in training for this dream job all my life!” This is the fifth annual Nova Scotia Lobster Crawl, which was started by the SSTC in 2018 as a way to boost winter tourism and to celebrate the region’s economic backbone and heritage, along with the six-month Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 33 and 34 commercial lobster fishery. Photos, >click to read< 11:28
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
Fisherman sentenced for ‘blatant and overt’ interference in Membertou lobster fishery
A Cape Breton fisherman has been fined $6,200 and ordered off the water for six months for cutting lobster traps fished by the Membertou band and obstructing fishery officers. The sentence was handed down in a Sydney, N.S., courtroom Wednesday after Bernard Douglas MacIntyre pleaded guilty on two charges. Two other counts were dropped. MacIntyre and others on his boat, Kelsey & Mitchell II, were seen cutting traps in Sydney Harbour on the night of Dec. 3, 2020. The only lawful lobster fishery underway in the area was for food, social and ceremonial licence holders. Members of Membertou First Nation were fishing from the Sydport wharf. >click to read< 14:56
Transportation Safety Board calls for greater attention to safety in commercial fishing
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is calling for greater attention to safety on commercial fishing vessels as the industry remains one of the most dangerous in the country. Over the last two decades, there has been an average of nearly a dozen deaths per year. The most recent was Christian Atwood, who went overboard from a lobster boat on Boxing Day off Cape Sable Island, N.S.. The TSB is investigating that case. Glenn Budden, senior marine investigator for the organization, said there have been some improvements over the past few years, such as subsidies to buy safety equipment, but he’d like to see more done. >click to read< 07:24
‘It’s heartbreaking’: Mother mourns son lost at sea on Boxing Day
At 8 a.m. on Boxing Day, Carmella Newell received a terrible call. On the other end of the line, her son Christian’s girlfriend was crying. Christian had gone overboard early that morning while fishing for lobster off Cape Sable Island, N.S., she said. Other than that, the family didn’t know what had happened. It wasn’t until the next day that the reality of what had happened sank in. As soon as news of Christian’s disappearance became public, Newell said she began to receive messages of support, including from the other crew members who had been on board the fishing boat. “It was heartbreaking, they tried to save him and they couldn’t.” The crew was struck by tragedy again this week. The boat’s captain had a heart attack hours after the search was called off. He remains in hospital in Yarmouth. >click to read< 18:14
Support continues for family, community after fisherman lost at sea in southwestern NS
Efforts are ongoing to support the family, the community and the fishing industry as people grieve the loss of a young lobster fisherman in southwestern Nova Scotia. Christian Atwood, 27, was lost at sea after going overboard during a Dec. 26 fishing trip. Losses like this hit fishing communities extremely hard – and such is the case once again in a region of the province where virtually everyone has some sort of connection to the 
fishing industry – be it directly, or indirectly – through family, friends, employment or otherwise. An organization that promotes the physical safety of those in the fishing industry is now also focusing on people’s mental well-being during this time of heartache and loss. Fish Safe NS has stepped up to help organize and coordinate counseling and grief sessions for the fishermen’s family and the community. >click to read< 16:33
Condolences pour in for N.S. fisherman lost at sea: ‘It’s heart-wrenching’
A Nova Scotian community, along with people and fishers across the province and beyond, are mourning a fisherman who was lost at sea after what has been described as a “freak accident.” The man, whom RCMP have identified as 27-year-old Christian Atwood of Barrington, is presumed to have drowned after he went overboard Boxing Day morning about 11 kilometres south of Cape Sable Island, just off the province’s southernmost tip. Halifax’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre received a mayday about a man overboard at 8:21 a.m. that day. The statement also wished a speedy recovery to the vessel’s captain, who suffered a heart attack and was recently transferred to Halifax. “Christian’s family wishes to thank everyone for their prayers at this time and ask for continued prayer to bring him home,” the statement said. The association also shared a trust account for Atwood’s son. Donations can be made at [email protected]. >click to read< 18:55
Lost fisherman: Hearts are heavy as lobster fishery sees tragedy in southwestern NS
Hearts are heavy once again in fishing communities in southwestern Nova Scotia – and throughout the province – as people grieve another tragedy to befall the lobster and fishing industry. A Monday, Dec. 26, fishing trip resulted in the loss of a young fisherman who went overboard that morning off Cape Sable Island. Family members put up posts about their missing loved one as did community members, expressing their heartache and sadness. “Yesterday, Dec. 26th, 2022, the lobster industry lost one of their own. Christian Lee Atwood aged 27 years was lost,” read one post on Tuesday morning. >click to read< 13:45
