Flat Markets,
Low Prices,
Delays at Border
Affected Lobster Season
By Alain Meuse
Adding another bridge between St. Stephens, New
Brunswick, and Calais, Maine was a no-brainer as the
lone crossing caused major delays at both ends of the span
at certain times of the year.
A week or so before the Christmas season is one of them
as the LFA 33-34 lobster season in south western and western
Nova Scotia is in full swing. Atlantic seafood producers use this artery to ship over
two-thirds of their annual catch either for American consumption
or for transhipment to other global customers.
The new bridge had been in use for over two months
when Prime Minister Stephen Harper 'officially' opened it
in early January. But as is the case with most 'openings,'
grit sometimes gets into the ointment. In this case it wasn't
the bridge but what happened on the Calais side of it involving
live lobster shipments just prior to Christmas.
While the new crossing speeds up entry into the United
States for truckers, what happened on the other side proved
almost disastrous for some shippers.
Marine Art: A Tradition Handed Down
By Sarah Sheppard
If you've been searching for a 'good news story' to
come out of the fishery, look no further. It isn't about
the price of raw material, tangled policies, protests or the
recession; perhaps surprisingly, it's about 'Marine Art'.
And hearing tidbits about both the tradition and business
of doing so for the Sharpe family out of Twillingate, may
just serve as a reminder of the kinds of people the Atlantic
Canadian fishing community is made-up of.
If you've strolled down harbors across Newfoundland
and Labrador or Nova Scotia and pointed out some of the
images painted on the hulls of docked fishing vessels, you
may have pointed out the work of Melvin and Jason
Sharpe. Melvin, the founder and patriarch of the family
business, and Jason's father, passed away in November
of 2009, but behind him he left a lifetime of marine art as
well as quite an impression on the industry. He has also
handed the torch to his son Jason who has much of the
same flare and skill for the business as his father.
Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Processing -
An Industry in Transition By Jim Wellman 'The fishery has been the backbone
of rural communities in
Newfoundland and Labrador for
500 years. Employing a work
force of about 20,000 people, it
is still a very significant industry.
Public attention has always focused
on the harvesting sector
but there is another sector that
employs just as many people as
there are in boats.
According to the Newfoundland and Labrador fact sheet contained in the 2008 "Year in Review", the processing sector of the industry employed 12,000 people. In fact, the
harvesting and processing sectors have employed near
equal numbers despite the many changes that have occurred
to the industry in the past 30 years, especially since
the cod moratorium when the fisheries changed from finfish
to shellfish.
