It's a go, lobster season off southestern N.S. will open Monday

By Tina Comeau

NovaNewsNow.com

The lobster fishery off southwestern Nova Scotia will open on Monday, Nov. 24.

After meeting with lobster buyers on Wednesday afternoon it was decided there would be no monetary advantage for fishermen to delay the season by one week.

The only thing that could delay the opening of the season now would be the weather, and that will only be if the wind is blowing 25 knots from any direction.

Fishermen won’t be permitted to fish seven days a week this season, though.

Because there was a strong consensus among ports and fishermen, there will be no Sunday fishing for the duration of the season, which is basically the equivalency of one less month of fishing. While from a conservation standpoint it doesn’t do much, it’s felt it will help buyers better manage the flow of lobsters being landed.

Some fishermen would also like to see a split season that would see traps pulled out of the water for two months over the winter. Dates suggested are between Jan. 10 to March 9. Fishermen are concerned about landing lobsters that there won’t be a market for, although any lobsters they have in lobster cars or pounds could still be sold. A discussion on the issue of a split season will take place in mid-December after fishermen have a feel for how the season is shaping up and port reps have had a chance to survey fishermen.

Given the economic turmoil happening throughout the globe, the discussion of ‘Do we stay or do we go the last Monday of November?’ is one that’s been tossed about since last spring. Last weekend an emergency meeting was held among fishermen to discuss a possible delay of the season but there wasn’t a strong enough consensus to do so.

Still the issue wouldn’t go away.

Asked following their meeting with the buyers what changed the talk of delaying the season, Ashton Spinney, chair of the lobster fishing area 34 management board said, “There was a mixture of opinions from the dealers of what value it would be to delay the season.”

In other words, it wasn’t clear there would be any price advantage. “I will say this, we are overjoyed with the openness of the dealers about how difficult this is, and as far as I’m concerned, this is a historic meeting that was held,” Spinney added. “We also had people that were not thinking about themselves, they were thinking about the industry and I appreciated that.”

Like fishermen, the buyers laid out the challenges they are facing, including the economic challenges, the low prices in the U.S. and the credit banking crunch. Spinney said there is talk that the market may be strong in the European market until Christmas. After Christmas, the market situation gets murky. And no one seems willing to put all their eggs in the U.S. market basket. “Another aspect is the processors. They don’t know how much the processors are going to take in. They don’t know the quality of the product. That is another important issue, the quality of the product,” Spinney said. “Those are big problems, quality and quantity. If there’s too much product it causes a jam.”

Spinney said heading into the season in the next few days, there was no clear indication at the meeting of what price fishermen will get for their catch, but the expectation is it will be lower than what they’d like, and what they need. “But a delay was not going to guarantee us anymore income,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a meeting between just the port reps and DFO that followed the meeting with the buyers and dealers, a motion was approved to ask the Nova Scotia loan board, banks and financial institutions to agree to defer payments owed to them by fishermen.

So now, all everyone can do is keep an eye on the weather as they prepare for next week’s start to the season.

Two conference calls will be held this weekend to discuss the weather forecast for opening day. If it is blowing 25 knots or more and a decision is made on Sunday to scrub the 6 a.m. Monday opening, but the forecast is for diminishing winds, a conference call will be held at 6 a.m. the morning of the Nov. 24 to determine if the boats can still go out that day.

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