Wild Oyster Harvesters Say Mussel Industry is Eyeing Their Market Share
It was a beautiful Prince Edward Island day at Hurds Point on June 2, 2014, but there were fighting words drifting on the wind.
The shore, opening up to historic Bedeque Bay, was dotted with small oyster dories as men and women unloaded countless boxes of valuable oysters. Out on the water, still more people leaned over the sides of their boats, using oyster tongs to labouriously gather heaping rakes full of red muck, lifting one after another onto gunwale and sifting through it to pick out the prized shellfish.
But just inland from all the hustle and bustle along the water, there was a table set up in front of waiting media, behind which sat several grim-faced leaders of the P.E.I. Shellfish Association.
The association represents most if the province’s 500-plus wild oyster harvesters. They were there, they said, to discuss a grave threat to their industry.
“I just hope to God we can turn this around, because it’s going to take a lot of people out of work,” said Stan Casey, a fisherman and industry spokesman.
“I don’t have anything against anybody getting ahead in life — but do they have to step on the back of the little fellas? And that’s what they’re doing to get what they want.”
That threat, according to the association, is something that’s become known around P.E.I. as the ‘add a species’ issue.
It refers to the decision by the P.E.I. Aquaculture Lease Management Board to start allowing mussel aquaculture leaseholders to ‘add a species’ to their lease, namely oysters, for a nominal fee.
This essentially gives approved leaseholders the option to switch their rented space in the province’s bays and estuaries between the two species.
According to the province, the proviso was originally added to the board’s framework in 2008 by DFO to help insure flexibility to one of their policies. Previously, the leaseholder owned all the shellfish on the plot, regardless of species. But DFO changed its policy to say that leaseholders could only own the rights to specific species on their lease; the ‘add a species’ language was added so that the owner could also apply to harvest another species if they happened to also be growing on their land.
Reports indicate that between February and July of 2014, roughly 900 acres of mussel aquaculture leases were approved to also support the growing of oysters. It was that sudden explosion in the amount of acres being approved that started setting off alarm bells for the wild oyster harvesters.
An estimated total of 600 acres had been approved in the four years previous.
There was also wide speculation in the industry around that time that more than 1,000 more acres could soon follow.
It’s easy to see why this would appeal to mussel harvesters as they look to diversify their product offerings and guard against price downturns in one species or the other. The worldwide appetite for seafood is also widely expected to skyrocket in the next several decades as the earth’s population continues to expand.
But Martin MacDonald, director of the P.E.I. Cultured Mussel Growers Association, presenting to the P.E.I. Standing Committee on Fisheries, Transportation and Rural Development in late 2014, stressed that his members were not trying to takeover the Island’s oyster industry.
“They are two very different businesses, the vast majority of mussel growers are core mussel growers who are experts in this particular area,” MacDonald told the committee.
But the wild harvesters in the shellfish association have cried foul, arguing that if an as yet unknown quantity of acres suddenly start producing oysters, flooding the market with top grade ‘choice’ specimens, they might as well tie up their dories and look for another job.
There are three grades of oysters with the ‘choice’ grade being the highest paying for fishermen and what you’d typically find for sale in a bar on the half shell.
P.E.I. is home to the venerable Malpeque oyster — a type of Atlantic oyster that’s become synonymous with the Island’s Malpeque Bay and legendary for its flavour.
Brenda Campbell, president of the P.E.I. Shellfish Association, has argued that P.E.I. should strive to keep its oyster brand a premium product and avoid flooding the market unless research shows there is sufficient demand to do so.
“Our Malpeque oysters, they should be kept as the jewel that they are. They shouldn’t be compared to the Nova Scotia fishery, they shouldn’t be compared to the New Brunswick fishery — we’re unique in ourselves. But if you glut the market you’ll be selling oysters at the Dollar Store,” said Campbell.
In fact, Campbell has a lot of lingering questions over the whole ‘add a species’ issue.
The P.E.I. Aquaculture Leasing Management Board is made up of a chairperson, and one representative each from the province, the federal government, a third government representative (not specified), the P.E.I. Cultured Mussel Growers Association, P.E.I. Oyster Growers Group Inc. and the P.E.I. Shellfish Association. While all the groups vote on issues and can offer advice, all final leasing decisions rest with DFO.
Only two of the organizations on that list have a vested interest in the oyster industry, argues Campbell, and despite them raising concerns about ‘add a species’ it was still allowed to be added to the management board’s mandate in 2008. They’re in the position of being potentially outnumbered when it comes to deciding on the future of their own industry.
But regardless of those concerns, Campbell and her association have actually won a temporary reprieve against ‘add a species.’
After the shellfish association’s June press conference, and a handful of other highly publicized events and meetings, the leasing management board agreed to put a temporary hold on approving any new requests to add oysters to mussel leases. It said it was going to work with DFO to study the issue and hoped to have a recommendation on how to proceed as soon as possible. No deadline or timeframe was given for when that could happen or when the temporary freeze could be lifted.
This whole issue has raised the ire of many in the Island’s aquaculture industry and in a small and densely populated province with 140,000 people — has threatened to make more bad blood between neighbours.
But there is at least one proverbial olive branch out there.
The P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance, which has the unenviable position of representing a number of groups with sometimes opposing interests, has spearheaded a campaign to develop a ‘vision’ for the Island’s oyster industry, one that takes into account both the wild and cultured sides of this argument.
Speaking at the same meeting as MacDonald, Ann Worth, executive director of the alliance encouraged all the parties to come together to ensure their respective futures.
“We would also like to see all parties embark upon a positive process for building opportunities together,” said Worth.
“Goodwill, co-operation and working side by side is the way forward.”
As of February 10, 2015 that visioning process was underway with both sides having tentatively agreed to participate.
With files from TC Media.
