The word around South West Nova Scotia is that when lobstermen don’t spill buckets of tears over the state of their industry, things are rosy indeed.
This being the case, the past fall and spring lobster fishery have been exceptional — prices opened at $6/pound in November and closed at $6/pound at the end of the fishery May 31st.
In-between, prices fluctuated upwards, reaching $10/pound in mid-winter, a common occurrence as weather at that time permits very few fishing days.
Bernie Berry heads the Coldwater Lobster Association out of Yarmouth and speculated that total landings could top last year’s record of 55 million pounds.
“We didn’t see those prices for the past eight or nine years. The fall and early winter fishery was exceptional. We could go out almost any day we wanted. And the winter was relatively mild and the high prices were a boon for the spring fishery,” he said.
There were many factors contributing to the success of this fishery, chief of which was expanding markets in Asia, especially China and Europe while the traditional U. S. market for lobster products from Atlantic Canada remained strong.
“We did have some problems this fall with soft shells. The lobsters were good but didn’t ship very well. There was also some quality problems with fishermen holding on to sub-par lobsters for too long and expecting top dollar when they did decide to sell,” he explained.
Another important factor was the canner market which also paid $6/pound due to the end product fetching close to $30/pound.
The Canadian dollar also helped, but this is rising concurrently with a hike in the price of oil.
On the question of a lobster levy to pay for marketing initiatives for the entire region, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and P.E.I. are on stream. Most of Nova Scotia’s lobster fishing ports are also for it, with the exception of South West Nova, where the bulk of lobsters are landed.
Meanwhile, Maine is forging ahead with its plans and will be better suited to enter the European market at full steam if and when a trade deal is consummated, which would rid profit-eating levies in that marketplace.
There are other concerns on the horizon i.e. the threat of oil exploration off Georges and Browns Bank and a proposed offshore wind farm which would see 400 square miles of prime lobster fishing real estate lost at the mouth of Lobster Bay, just off Seal Island.
This proposal would employ a lot of people in the construction stage but very few after that and the power generated would all be sold to New England.
A few months ago a specialized pipe called a riser was dropped on the ocean floor in deep water in the Sable Island area. It wasn’t connected to anything but the company involved, Shell Canada, has yet to retrieve the equipment. The pipe was going to be used to connect a drill ship to a well head but it separated during rough weather.
The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board says Shell Canada cannot restart drilling operations until the board is satisfied the work can be done safely.
Opponents of the deep-water project have pointed to adverse weather conditions in those areas during the winter months which would make an oil exploration difficult and in the case of an oil spill, disastrous.
Lifting the riser pipe will require the use of a highly specialized ship.
