Above photo: Extra lines hold fishing boats safe and sound at the Clark’s Harbour wharf in the wake of a nor’easter that brought hurricane force winds and full tide storm surges to southwestern Nova Scotia in early January. Kathy Johnson photo
Two winter storms packing hurricane force winds, combined with smaller gales, have been keeping lobster fishermen ashore more than on the water in southwestern Nova Scotia this winter.
But when they do get out, “the catches have been phenomenal,” said Lockeport lobster buyer Mike Cotter.
“There’s been some record hauls for this time of year. They are only getting out once or twice a week but when they do get out they are doing very well.”
Weather has been playing a factor in the LFA 33 and 34 lobster fishery from the get-go this season. After the one-day delay to the opening, “The first couple of weeks we got a fair amount of fishing days in. It wasn’t like they were not slickers or anything like that,” said Bernie Berry, president of the Cold Water Lobster Association. “But since Dec. 22, the weather has really shut in. We’ve only had a couple of fishing days since then.”
Berry said landings for LFA 34 fishermen have been good so far this year, noting there are good signs of juveniles and berried females in the catch.
“There’s a lot of small lobsters around and seeders. We’ve seen good signs like that over the last decade so it still points to a very strong and healthy fishery.”
Quality-wise, “it’s a little bit better than last year,” said Berry. “It reflects the warming water trends. A portion of the moult is happening a little bit later every year. Mother Nature tends to want to deal us these types of hands and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Leo Muise, executive director of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance, which represents small and medium-sized land-based seafood companies, said from talking with members, the quality of the landings “was consistent with recent Decembers in terms of shell quality, but the meat yield was down as reflected by lower blood protein averages. We are harvesting 40 per cent of our catch prior to the optimal time… that is something everyone should take a serious look at for the future.”
While temperatures for inside waters had cooled off to seasonal normal by early January, outside was a different story.
“The water temperatures are crazy,” Cotter said. “I was talking to a fisherman the other day (early January) who fishes off the LaHave River about an hour offshore and he seen eight tuna. It’s very, very rare to see tuna this time of year. And there are others who have seen porpoises, so the water still has to be warm.”
In fact, a white-sided dolphin was rescued by local fishermen on Cape Sable Island after it was beached during the weather bomb that hit Nova Scotia on January 4.
Price-wise, lobsters were fetching $7 to $7.25/pound in early January.
“The price hasn’t moved too much,” said Cotter, noting the shore price was higher than that last January. “The market seems to be pretty slow,” he said.
That’s not to say product hasn’t been moving. “Demand was good if your price was right,” Muise said. “Margins were thin relative to the cost and quality of what came in but ‘at a price’ there was pretty reasonable demand in Europe and Asia,” said Muise, adding the CETA trade agreement which removed the eight per cent tariff on shipments of live lobster into the European Union “clearly is helpful to Canadian exporters to Europe. Our American counterparts are — for lack of a better word — envious… and that’s not a bad thing.”
The Halifax Airport Authority estimated by the end of December, “$30-million in lobster will have been shipped from Halifax Stanfield in December alone,” said Bert van der Stege, Halifax International Airport Authority (HIAA) Chief Commercial Officer in a press release.
“We anticipate the same high level of activity during the first month of 2018, as demand for Nova Scotia lobster is strong during the Chinese New Year holiday celebrations.”
