LFA 25 Harvesters Pleased With 2016 Season
High Prices, Strong Demand and Great Weather Leave Little Room for Complaints
Lobster harvesters from Prince Edward Island are reporting a successful fall season in LFA 25.
Reports say prices are up as much as 20 per cent over last year — there was excellent weather with few days lost to high winds and though accurate catch data had yet to be tabulated as of the writing of this article, estimates put the overall tonnage on par with last season.
“There have definitely been some ...
Dealing with Death
P.E.I. Contending With Multiple Fish Die-Offs
Fish kill.
Two little words that Prince Edward Islanders have become intimately aware of.
Yes, that’s right, the same P.E.I. from all the postcards with the idyllic fishing villages and rolling green landscapes bordered by wildflowers and Anne of Green Gable-themed everything.
But there are days in this province when the green fields don’t seem quite so vibrant and the fishermen shake their heads at the state of world.
Those are the ...
Standing Out
Potentially Unique Strain of DNA Discovered in Eastern P.E.I. Atlantic Salmon
There’s something very old and potentially unique swimming around some of the rivers in eastern Prince Edward Island.
This is why Scott Roloson, a PhD candidate with the Canadian Rivers Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island, found himself hip-deep in North Lake Creek, collecting salmon smolts, earlier this spring.
Roloson and a number of colleagues, including a few from the local First Nation ...
Another Season in the Bag
Craig Avery has been fishing lobsters on Prince Edward Island for 40 years and he’s never seen prices as high as they were this season.
Avery, who is also president of the P.E.I Fishermen’s Association and other LFA 24 and LFA 26a license holders wrapped up their fishing season at the end of June.
Throughout the season, word on the docks was prices were going to be good because demand was exceptionally high. But even veterans like Avery were surprised at some of the numbers they ...
Diving for Supper
Above: A fish tub filled with scallops rests on the deck of a charter boat following a recreational dive in Nova Scotia. DFO recently gave a green light to allow a recreational scallop dive off P.E.I.
P.E.I. Launches First Recreational Scallop Fishery
Recreational divers on Prince Edward Island now have another reason to celebrate their hobby —and it’s delicious.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans recently approved the creation of a recreational scallop fishery, a first for ...
Bad News Month
P.E.I. Fishermen Slapped With Two Tough Decisions in May on the Lobster and Halibut Fronts
Just when things were starting to look a little rosy for fishermen in Prince Edward Island the other proverbial shoe dropped in May.
Within the span of a month, the Island’s fishing industry received a triple-barreled blast of bad news in the form of a clawback of halibut quota gained last year, the return of a quota allocation system for the same species that the Maritime provinces consider unfair ...
Ministerial Problem?
P.E.I. Fishermen Want Their Own Provincial Department With Dedicated Minister
On Prince Edward Island there is a holy trinity of industries that feed almost all others.
The big three are fishing, farming and tourism.
Together these industries represent a huge portion of the province’s economy and support thousands of jobs and tens of thousands of people.
Which is why when there’s a shakeup in leadership in two out of the three industries, it’s a big concern to a lot of people. ...
P.E.I. Fishermen Organize Recruitment Drive for Lobster Season Help
Are you crew?
If so, P.E.I. fishermen want to know.
Only they spell it like this: R U Crew.
Either way, if you’ve ever thought about working as a hand on a fishing boat then the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association might have a job waiting in the wings for you.
The association, which represents most of the province’s lobster harvesters, recently rolled out a recruitment drive looking for people willing to work in the fishery. They dubbed the pilot program R U Crew.
Such measures ...
Ten-Year-Old Tuna Master Beats Own Record
Koen Norton has another record breaker on his hands.
The 10-year-old, Montague, Prince Edward Island boy set out this past tuna season to set a world record in his age category and by all accounts he succeeded, landing a 486-pound bluefin tuna in early August off Naufrage Harbour in Eastern P.E.I.
Well, Koen wasn’t quite satisfied with his catch, so he and his father Greg set out for one more attempt at an even bigger record catch.
He ended up smashing his own record by reeling in an ...
Larval Science: Scientists Trying to Predict Climate Change Impact on Baby Lobsters
They say that no visit to Atlantic Canada is complete without a traditional feed of lobster.
Few grow up here without having at least some experience with handling the delicious, if prickly, crustaceans. The species and the harvesting thereof, is part of the fabric of life in the region.
But before they’re hauled up from the ocean floor for a date with a diner plate, Atlantic lobsters have to survive almost unfathomable odds in order to reach adulthood.
It is in the measuring of ...
