Snow Crab Stalemate – Price Dispute Shuts Down Valuable N.L. Fishery
A price of $2.20 per pound for snow crab is not sitting well with Newfoundland and Labrador fish harvesters, with the majority showing a willingness to sit this crab season out if prices don’t change.
Harvesters are saying that fishing at $2.20 is unaffordable. This attitude towards the current economic climate was made abundantly clear at a recent rally held at the Confederation Building, Newfoundland’s seat of government, by the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW).
The ...
The Twists and Turns of the 2022 Crab Season
The 2022 snow crab season in Atlantic Canada still might go down as the best ever, but it is certainly not playing out quite as predicted.
All winter, rumours of record crab prices of $10/pound plus were circulating far and wide. This, combined with anticipated quota increases, had many predicting the most lucrative crab season in Atlantic Canada — ever.
But like everything in the fishery, things are not exactly going as planned.
Firstly, on the quota front, fishermen did receive the ...
Anti-Russia Sanctions Could Hit Crab, Groundfish with Price Volatility
On February 24, Russia mounted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, dashing any lingering hopes of a smaller-scale, more contained event.
In the build-up to this conflict, the U.S. has managed to forge a stronger united front with Western Europe than most expected. Germany’s decision to suspend the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline, which will lead to sharply higher energy prices in Europe and elsewhere, is a measure of how seriously the Western governments are taking the invasion.
Sanctions are ...
Îles-de-la-Madeleine Lobster, Crab Fisheries Most Impacted by Spring Gulf Whale Closures
As of May 27, there were approximately 39 temporary grids (7,448 km2) and 43 season-long grids (9,670 km2) closed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to protect the North Atlantic right whales.
“These closures have had the most impact on the lobster and crab fisheries around the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. To help accommodate snow crab harvesters in crab fishing areas 12 E and 12 F, harvesters were able to finish their fishing season in area 12,” said Barre Campbell, media relations spokesperson for ...
Complexity Versus Simplicity
For as long as I can remember — which now goes back nearly four decades — market research has consistently found that consumers do not feel confident about their abilities to buy fish or prepare it at home.
That is a serious problem for our industry, because it means people consume less fish than they would otherwise. But it is also a problem that provides opportunities.
Compared to other protein foods — beef, pork, poultry, sheep — fish are complicated. Consumers typically ...
On the Waterfront — September 2019
CCGS Baie de Plaisance Commissioned in the Magdalen Islands
The Minister of National Revenue, Diane Lebouthillier, on behalf of the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Jonathan Wilkinson, was in Cap-aux-Meules recently to participate in the official commissioning of the new high endurance, self-righting search and rescue lifeboat, named CCGS Baie de Plaisance.
The vessel was built by the Forillon shipyard and delivered to the Coast Guard in November 2017. To ...
Happy New Year
This issue of The Navigator marks the beginning of another new year.
It’s a good time to reflect on the past, assess where are and think about the future.
Like most people involved in the fishery in Atlantic Canada, I am a member of the baby boom generation. That means I can reflect back over several decades of involvement in this industry and even a few earlier decades, when I was growing up and hearing about things going on around me. It has been quite a ride.
I can remember the ...
Sunwell Technologies and Marine Institute Partner on DeepChill
Sunwell Technologies Inc. of Woodbridge, Ont. and the Marine Institute (MI) are continuing their collaborative partnership in a series of tests on various groundfish and shellfish species to establish the benefits of the DeepChill™ process.
DeepChill® is an advanced slurry ice process developed and patented by Sunwell in 1978. The DeepChill® Ice Slurry System offers rapid cooling of fish by super chilling the product using a pumpable mixture of ice micro-crystals and water.
...
The Future, Fast and Slow
In 2011, an award-winning and best-selling book was Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman.
Dr. Kahneman had won a Nobel Prize in economics for work he discussed in the book. Although it is interesting and worth reading, this column is not really about Dr. Kahneman’s work.
Instead, it’s about the future of the fishery in Atlantic Canada. In some ways, the future is arriving faster than we can deal with it. In others, it is arriving very slowly, maybe slower than we would hope or ...
2017: Twists, Turns and a Little Turmoil
The year 2017 will soon be added to the annals of history.
For the fishery, wouldn’t it be good to look back at the developments of the last 12 months, rub your hands together in a satisfied fashion and state that it was a good year — an unqualified success, so to speak.
But as everyone already knows, the fishing industry in Atlantic Canada is unfortunately never that simple to summarize in a few words. It is an extremely challenging and complex business with as many highs and lows as ...
