Tag Archives: Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia fisherman, fish buyer, violated law during unmonitored halibut offloads, judge rules
A Sambro, N.S., fisherman, a fish buyer and two related companies have been convicted for Fisheries Act violations that included two unmonitored offloads of halibut in the middle of the night. The charges centred on seven trips made by the fishing vessel Ivy Lew between May 2019 and June 2020. In a decision released Thursday, provincial court Judge Elizabeth Buckle found Capt. Casey Henneberry guilty of five counts of failing to observe licence conditions. >click to read< 08:55
U.S. inflation is sinking Canadian lobster and snow crab prices – U.S. consumers giving up pricey seafood
The price of Canada’s two most valuable seafoods is crashing this year as consumers recoil from the impact of rising inflation. The price of snow crab has plummeted in 2022 between 60 and 65 per cent while lobster prices have fallen about 35 per cent. Demand that had built up during the pandemic for all types of frozen and fresh seafood powered the Nova Scotia industry to a record-breaking year in 2021 with revenues reaching $2.5 billion, led by the two shellfish. But high prices for frozen snow crab and frozen lobster, along with a modest increase in the price of live lobster last year, are melting in 2022. “And the reason is that consumers backed away from the high prices at the same time that they began to be buffeted by these other problems of high gasoline prices, inflation and concern about lack of economic support,” John Sackton said. >click to read< 09:48
After Fiona’s wrath, Atlantic fishing communities look to rebuild livelihoods
All week, fishermen across Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were left to reckon with the damage left in Fiona’s wake, and to the region’s industry, which exports more than $4.5-billion worth of seafood each year. But as officials plan for the future, they face two competing priorities: the need to rebuild fast to be ready for the coming fishing season and the need to rethink infrastructure entirely in the face of climate change – a costlier, and potentially slower, approach. “PEI’s a mess. Newfoundland’s a mess. Nova Scotia’s a mess. And it’s all the same people who are fixing them,” said Leonard LeBlanc, President of the Gulf Nova Scotia Fishermen’s Coalition >click to read< 10:03
Body found as Canada struggles to restore power after storm – ‘Everything is unusable’
Hundreds of thousands of people in Atlantic Canada remained without power Sunday and officials said they found the body of a woman swept into the sea after former Hurricane Fiona washed away houses, stripped off roofs and blocked roads across the country’s Atlantic provinces. After surging north from the Caribbean, Fiona came ashore before dawn Saturday as a post-tropical cyclone, battering Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Quebec with hurricane-strength winds, rains and waves. >click to read<
‘Everything is unusable’: Fishers, farmers assess damage as Fiona wreaks havoc on industry – Officials have said areas exposed to storm surges have seen the most severe damage from the storm. In Morell, the Red Head Harbour wharf was almost completely totalled. Ken Drake was one of the fishers who spent Friday night there keeping an eye on their boats. He said all the boats have at least some damage. >click to read< 08:05
Hundreds of thousands without power in Atlantic Canada as Fiona makes landfall
Hundreds of thousands of customers in eastern Canada are without power as post-tropical storm Fiona brings intense, hurricane-strength winds and torrential rains to swaths of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Quebec’s Magdalen Islands. Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia shortly after 4 a.m. AT between Canso and Guysborough. >click to read< – New Brunswick – While the eye of the storm is well east of the province, post-tropical storm Fiona is causing widespread power outages through much of New Brunswick. >click to read< – Prince Edward Island – Tens of thousands of Maritime Electric customers are without power in P.E.I. as Fiona passes through the region, with wind gusts hitting 150 km/h and almost 100 mm of rain down. >click to read< – Nova Scotia – Hundreds of thousands of customers in Eastern Canada are without power as post-tropical storm Fiona brings intense, hurricane-strength winds and torrential rains to swaths of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Quebec’s Magdalen Islands. >click to read< – Newfoundland – Homes lost, residents flee as Hurricane Fiona approaches Newfoundland. >click to read< 08:40
Canadian Hurricane Centre says Hurricane Fiona will be ‘historic, extreme event’
The Canadian Hurricane Centre says Hurricane Fiona will make landfall in eastern Nova Scotia as a powerful post-tropical storm early Saturday. In a Friday afternoon briefing, Bob Robichaud, a warning preparedness meteorologist with the centre, cautioned people not to focus on the hurricane’s track since its effects will be felt across a swath of eastern Canada. Environment Canada says this includes much of Nova Scotia, P.E.I., southeastern New Brunswick, western and southwestern Newfoundland, and some parts of Quebec bordering the Gulf of St. Lawrence. >click to read< – Current Hurricane Conditions – Environment Canada (weather.gc.ca) 13:54
Digby County lobster boat wedding adds extra love to bride’s N.S. dream trip
Ontario resident Gypsy Provost-Larocque always had a major dream in life. She wanted to visit Nova Scotia because she wanted to see the ocean. To be near it. To hear it. To feel it. A widow of 22 years, she also had another dream – to be remarried in Nova Scotia not just near the water, but on it. Tamara Frost and her husband Kyle Redden have a dream too. Theirs is to offer passengers on their Bay of Fundy Scenic Lobster Tours the best possible experience they can have. Their tours operate out of Tiverton, Long Island, in Digby County. And so when they heard that Provost-Larocque and her then-fiancé Dennis Larocque wanted to be married on a lobster boat during their visit to the province, they and others made this dream come through. Lots of photos of happy people, >click to < 10:25
East Coast lobster harvest sustainable, according to non-profit’s criteria — but a Seafood Watch report advises consumers to avoid it
A recent report by a California-based seafood assessment group has the East Coast lobster industry seeing red. While Seafood Watch has put lobster on its “red list” and recommend consumers avoid it, lobster fisheries in most areas of Atlantic Canada have been certified sustainable by another group that has significant credentials in the business of seafood accreditation. In existence for about 25 years, the Marine Stewardship Council is a global non-profit organization that works to end overfishing around the world. Catherine Pigeon-Dubeau, fisheries and commercial manager for MSC in Eastern Canada, said the last review of the East Coast lobster fishery was in July of this year, and the Blue Label certification remains in place. >click to read< 14:10
DFO promises enforcement on ‘out of season’ indigenous moderate livelihood fishery
DFO warned two Nova Scotia First Nations this summer that unauthorized lobster fishing would result in enforcement. When the bands went fishing, enforcement ensued. Fishery officers from DFO’s conservation and protection branch seized traps, released thousands of lobsters and made arrests in separate actions involving fishing by members of the Sipekne’katik and Pictou Landing bands. In the case of Sipekne’katik, DFO spokesperson Barre Campbell said officials wrote to the band on July 5 and Aug. 31 to invite Sipekne’katik fisheries managers to discuss the possibility of “working together towards a moderate livelihood fishing plan that implements their treaty rights while ensuring conservation and sustainability of stocks under transparent and predictable management.” >click to read< 09:23
Canadian funding to improve onboard handling of lobster
The Government of Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia (NS) has announced funding support to the Maritime Fishermen’s Union Inc.’s Nova Scotia members through the Atlantic Fisheries Fund. On behalf of the Honourable Joyce Murray, the Honourable Sean Fraser, and the Honourable Steve Craig, Nova Scotia Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, announced a total contribution of over $400,000 to help the Maritime Fishermen’s Union deliver a project to its members that will improve the quality, vitality and value of harvested lobster. >click to read< 09:14
Moderate livelihood treaty right at centre of fishery trial in Nova Scotia
A trial involving three Mi’kmaw fishermen who say they were exercising their treaty right to fish for a living when they were charged with fishery offences is currently underway in Digby, N.S. James Nevin, 38, Logan Pierro-Howe, 24, and Leon Knockwood, 27, from the Sipekne’katik First Nation are each charged with four counts of violating the Aboriginal Communal Fishing Licenses Regulations and the Atlantic Fishery Regulations under the Fisheries Act. They’re accused of fishing and catching lobster without authorization as well as possessing lobster traps that either had unauthorized tags or no tags on them. >click to read< 08:10
Mi’kmaw treaty lobster fishery launches, fisheries officers seize lobster and gear
Fisheries officers seized crates of lobster at Saulnierville wharf, harvested by Sipekne’katik First Nation fishermen. A few days earlier, Mi’kmaw fishermen dropped their lobster traps in St. Mary’s Bay under the band’s own lobster management plan. The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans confirmed that officers seized 82 crates containing approximately 6,000 lobster. Robert Sack of Sipekne’katik First Nation says his gear was also seized – but he will keep fishing, A day before the treaty fishery launched, James Nevin, of Sipekene’kaitk was in Digby provincial court, defending his treaty rights to harvest lobster to earn a moderate livelihood. >click to read< 11:34
“I once was lost, but now am found” – Burial site of long-dead fisherman found by kin
In 1915, Eben Devine was reported missing by fellow crewmen from the schooner Hattie A. Heckman. Ten days later his body was seen floating in Gloucester Harbor by George Bailey, keeper on Ten Pound Island, who rowed it ashore. Despite decomposition, Devine’s son Oscar identified the body, perhaps by his father’s coat and the spectacles in the pocket. The medical examiner ruled it a death by accidental drowning, but a darker story has always lingered in Devine family lore: Eben Devine, known to be a drinker, was followed from a bar on the October night of his disappearance by two men with whom he’d had an altercation. >click to read< 09:15
Innovative ropeless fishing gear helps prevent whale entanglements
When fishing zones get closed down due to whale sightings, fish harvesters now have a new place to turn. Can Fish is a program set up by the Canadian Wildlife Federation to allow fishers to test out and use groundbreaking ropeless technology for free. The North Atlantic right whale is one of many marine species being impacted by the changing ocean temperatures in a warming world. The whales have been swimming northward moving from the Bay of Fundy to the Gulf of St. Lawrence,,, The Canadian Wildlife federation is trying to lessen this risk by popularizing the use of ropeless fishing gear through its newly introduced Can Fish program. At a warehouse in Halifax, Nova Scotia, fish harvesters can show up and borrow innovative ropeless fishing gear for free. The catch? These fishers need to provide data collected as they use the innovative technology in order to help build future designs of the equipment. Video, photos, >click to read< 17:30
Canada and Nova Scotia help support adoption of new and improved on-board lobster handling/holding technologies
On behalf of the Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and Member of Parliament for Central Nova, and the Honourable Steve Craig, Nova Scotia Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, announced a total contribution of over $400,000 to help the Maritime Fishermen’s Union deliver a project to its members that will improve the quality, vitality and value of harvested lobster. This funding will help the lobster fishery in the Southeastern Northumberland Strait, Eastern Cape Breton and Southwest Nova Scotia improve the quality of lobster being marketed, the efficiency of fishing activities, and the onboard safety of crew. Live-well systems, which measure water quality, will be installed or upgraded on vessels. >click to read< 13:16
Funding announced to help support quality of harvested lobster – >click to read<
Atlantic Canada makes strides to decarbonize commercial marine vessels
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, with federal government support, are currently investigating opportunities to electrify certain classes of vessels in an effort to help decarbonize the marine transportation sector. Next spring, the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA) is planning to launch a pilot project to test different energy-efficient vessel propulsion systems, such as electric, hybrid or alternative fuels, for nine of the PEIFA’s inshore lobster fishing vessels. With combined funding of $3 million provided by both the federal and provincial governments, distributed through the Atlantic Fisheries Fund, the PEIFA is at the preliminary stages of developing the pilot. >click to read< 07:49
Idea for more sustainable fishers catches prize for Halifax company
Marc d’Entremont has millions of dollars in Ocean Supercluster funding to bring his idea to fruition, but another 50 grand is always welcome. His company, Katchi Technologies, headquartered in Halifax, is one of the winners of the sixth annual Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge. Katchi has designed a replacement fish net system that eliminates contact with the ocean floor and reduces greenhouse emissions, allowing for more sustainable harvesting. “We’re basically removing the bottom trawling from the seabed,,, “We’ve invented a new method to open the net up, and we’re reducing drag and saving fuel by 30 per cent. The other piece is we’re controlling the net to ensure it stays off the seabed, using an algorithm that takes input from a whole bunch of sensors on the vessel. >click to read< 15:54
We’re eating less lobster, just as fall fishing season begins
After reaching record high prices in the spring, the shore price for a pound of Atlantic lobster has dropped dramatically, from around $18 to $5. Low demand, both domestically and internationally, and inflation are contributing to this drop, say industry professionals, who are concerned about the rising costs to fish and distribute the product as the fall lobster fishing season commences. Stewart Lamont, managing director of Tangier Lobster Company, a live lobster exporter in Nova Scotia, said consumer purchasing habits have changed since the beginning of the pandemic. >click to read< 07:47
Chinese company First Catch builds advanced lobster storage at Halifax airport
If ever there was proof lobster is king of Nova Scotia seafood, it’s the new $36-million freight facility at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. The Air Cargo Logistics Park that opened earlier this month is a big bet that will continue. It’s doubling cold storage capacity and adding apron space to park five 747-sized cargo planes. “It increases the efficiency, the capacity and the ability to actually move and export more product from Nova Scotia,” said Marie Manning, Halifax International Airport Authority’s business development manager. “That benefits not only the airport, but certainly all of our stakeholders, the industry and the region itself. The economic impact is significant.” >click to read< 14:45
TAC goes from 12,000 to10,000 tonnes – Reduction to herring quota will impact Maritimes, Quebec
The quota for major parts of the herring fishery in the Maritimes and Quebec is being reduced in an effort to increase the stock. The total allowable catch for herring in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence fishing zone, which includes parts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and all of Prince Edward Island, is being cut from 12,000 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes. The fall herring stock in the area remains in the “cautious zone,” according to a statement released Friday by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “The number of spawning adults is declining, and recruitment is at the lowest level ever observed,” DFO said. >click to read< 10:17
Nova Scotia: Indigenous lobster fishermen not required to observe whale closure
A Department of Fisheries and Oceans fishery closure in Nova Scotia this week to protect endangered North Atlantic Right Whales will not apply to Indigenous lobster fishermen in the area. The department is allowing ceremonial lobster fishing in St. Marys Bay to continue, raising concerns about conservation and fairness. All commercial crab and herring fisheries with unattended gear in the water are being ordered out of St. Marys Bay effective 5 p.m. on Thursday, which is standard practice after sightings. Dan Fleck of the Brazil Rock 33/34 Lobster Association represents commercial fishermen in the area. He said he’s been getting calls from concerned fishermen this week. “I would expect that the rules would be applied fairly and equitably amongst all resource users,” Fleck said. >click to read< 08:01
Local organization set to help fish harvesters switch to whalesafe gear
A Halifax-based organization has received $4.4 million from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Whalesafe Gear Adoption Fund to establish a program aimed at fish harvesters transition to safer equipment. The not-for-profit Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) received the funding to establish the CanFish gear lending program to help recover the North Atlantic Right Whale while sustaining commercial fisheries. Among its trial gear is rope on-demand which, according to their website, can be “used to leave something on the ocean floor and retrieve it at another time without leaving a persistent line in the water column.” >click to read< 08:15
He had 48 hours left to live. So he married his girlfriend of 17 years
Earlier this summer, 35-year-old Billy Burgoyne got the worst news anyone could receive: doctors told him that his long fight with cancer was soon going to end because he only had a short time to live. When he went for another appointment on July 14, the timeline was much worse. “He was told he had about 48 hours left to live,” said Nikita Mahar, his longtime girlfriend. Burgoyne and Mahar had been a couple for almost 17 years. Immediately after the appointment, they decided they would officially tie the knot. He and Nikita both worked in the commercial lobster fishery. Billy also worked on herring fishing crews and recreational fishing was another of his great loves in life. >click to continue reading< 20:46
Islanders pitch in after P.E.I. ferry fire, offer up homes to stranded passengers
Ferry crossings between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island will be cancelled again Monday as officials grapple with the aftermath of a fire aboard the MV Holiday Island. The fourth day of cancellations during a period of peak demand comes as a blow to the region’s tourism industry as it continues to recover from pandemic shutdowns. Yet it also shines a light on the ability for Maritimers to come together in difficult times, with even the chief executive of the ferry company opening his door to stranded passengers. Prince Edward Islanders rallied together over the weekend to help passengers left stranded,,, >click to read< 09:23
P.E.I.-N.S. ferry cancelled for a 2nd day after fire aboard ship forced evacuation Friday
Ferry trips on the route connecting Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have been cancelled for a second day after a fire on Friday forced an emergency evacuation of a vessel’s passengers. More than 200 people were safely evacuated from MV Holiday Island after a fire broke out in the vessel’s engine room at around 11 a.m. Cormier said there were no injuries to passengers or crew. Myles MacDonald, an auxiliary Coast Guard member who also fishes crab and scallops out of Wood Islands, rushed to the scene in his boat when he heard the ferry had caught fire. He pulled up alongside the Holiday Island as passengers hopped down an evacuation chute into a rubber dinghy. From there, they climbed onto his fishing boat. photos, >click to read< 08:27
Mi’kmaw fisherman using 1752 treaty, ancestry in legal battle with DFO
Matthew Cope, 36, of the Millbrook First Nation near Truro, N.S. says he has proof Mi’kmaw Grand Chief Jean Baptiste Cope, who signed the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1752 on behalf of the Mi’kmaq, is his direct relative. “So I have a 50-page lineage that was done up by the Confederacy (of Mainland Mi’kmaq). And it took years to make where it shows that I’m a direct descendant of Jean Baptiste Cope. So I am, in fact, the tribe of Indians that 1752 treaty signed for,” Cope explained. The Mi’kmaw fisherman says he intends to use this evidence to fight federal fishery charges against him in Digby Provincial Court. He is currently representing himself against charges that he illegally fished for lobster in waters near Digby during a closed commercial fishery. >click to read< 14:40
Fisheries report brings hope to Indigenous communities, sparks anger in industry
“I was pleasantly surprised, to be honest,” said Rosalie Francis, a member of the Sipekne’katik First Nation in Nova Scotia. But elsewhere in the province, the surprise has been significantly less pleasant. There are concerns the report titled “Peace on the Water” is instead stoking anger in communities where lobster is a livelihood. Representatives of the commercial fishing industry say they’re frustrated they weren’t invited to speak to the Senate as it drafted the report on Indigenous rights. It’s “throwing fuel on a fire” in an area where tensions have remained high since 2020, said Colin Sproul, president of the Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance, which has about 1,900 members. >click to read< 12:09
New Report Shows Canadian Government Has Failed Indigenous Fishers
The Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans had harsh words for the Canadian federal government. At a meeting this week in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the committee presented its new report, which looked at the implementation of Indigenous rights-based fisheries. Its findings suggest that, despite more than two decades since key precedents were set, the fisheries have not been fully implemented. This has led, the committee stated, to confusion, tension and violence. In Canada’s Atlantic provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador), as well as parts of Quebec, 35 First Nations have a treaty right to fish for a moderate livelihood. >click to read< 14:50
Removing DFO from Indigenous fishery negotiations an ‘integral’ step forward
Chief Mike Sack of the Sipekne’katik First Nation said the report, titled Peace on the Water, validates what he and his band have been saying about their right to fish since they launched a moderate livelihood fishery two years ago. The report calls for negotiations involving the Indigenous fishery to be handled by Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, which Sack described as “the most integral” of the committee’s recommendations. “The treaty fishery model we presented over two years ago now is reinforced by each recommendation from the Senate,” Sack said in a statement. >click to read< 13:52
Meteghan NS fisherman reflects on time in Ukraine helping others
When he was on a humanitarian mission in Ukraine to help the people of his home country, Lex Brukovskiy, like countless others, had an app on his phone that alerted him to the air raids. It would go off constantly. It still does. Now back home in southwestern Nova Scotia, the alert went off at 3 a.m. one recent day. Being thousands of miles away doesn’t make the sound any less terrible. It may even make it worse. The Meteghan fisherman says leaving Ukraine was difficult, but he didn’t have a proper visa to stay. After 90 days, he had to come home. >click to read< 10:17
