There’s been very little crustacean frustration in Newfoundland this year.
“For the most part, it’s been a pretty good year,” said Dwan Street, president of the FFAW.
“Lobster, there was a little bit of a struggle with prices, but the catches were good overall. Snow crab, it was a little bit slow getting going there for a while. For the most part the catch rate has been good. In 3Ps and the offshore catches picked up tremendously. 3K the same. 3R the catch rate was phenomenal,” said Street.
The union leader said the FFAW has a science program where technicians go out on lobster fishing boats to measure juvenile lobsters and egg bearing females. “We had a very good class year last year I must say,” she said.
The Newfoundland lobster season opened at $7.46 a pound, fell to under $7 from late April to mid-June, then climbed to a $9.48 minimum in early July.
The shore price for snow crab was $4.97 minimum throughout the season.
Weather-wise, at beginning of the lobster and crab seasons it was a little bit rough, said Street, but improved as the seasons went on.
“Right now, the capelin fishery is still going and it’s been a positive story. The price is up this year. The Northern cod fishery opened up on July 13. We’re not hearing of any significant landings just yet but we’re expecting that to pick up now once crab, capelin and turbot finish off,” said Street.
“Cod opened a little bit earlier and there has been a significant increase in the TAC. The price is up, we’re hoping cod is as good as everything else. It seems like everything is going pretty good. It’s nice when things are positive,” said Street.
“Recent scientific data and assessments confirm Northern cod has remained stable since 2017 and is at a higher level than previously understood from the 2024 assessment,” said DFO when announcing the TAC increase for Northern cod (2J3KL) 18,000 tonnes (t) to 38,000 t.
The Northern shrimp fishery will also soon become more active, said Street. “Not a lot of folks are fishing it yet. A lot of folks are saving it until after cod is done,” she said.
What shrimp has been landed is getting a good price, said Street. “Went it comes to shrimp processing, that it is a little bit of a struggle because we just don’t have the number of shrimp plants that we used to have because when the stock declined it closed a lot of those plants, but we’re hoping the capacity that we have will be able to process what comes in this year.”
According to preliminary DFO statistics, in 2024 10,132 mt of lobster were caught by N.L. fishers, with a landed value of $147,576,956. In 2023, lobster landings weighed in at 7,320 mt, with a landed value of $121,630,018. In 2022, 6,045 mt of lobster were landed, valued at $104,874,229.
In 2024, N.L. harvesters caught 56,123 mt of snow and queen crab with a landed value of $436,195,970. In 2023, 51,633 mt of crab were landed, valued at $253,043,028. In 2022, 49,972 mt of crab were landed valued at $756,740,936.
