By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
With decreased herring catches, and smaller fish being caught, hundreds of fish plant workers in southwestern Nova Scotia have been without work for parts of the summer. And as they struggle to get by financially now, concerns are high that many will not have enough hours to qualify for employment benefits when the herring season ends in October.
“This is the very worst year,” plant worker Virginia Doucette says about the 18 years she’s worked cutting roe and filleting herring. She says the season got off to a good start but since the end of June to now, workers are getting very few hours. In the month of July, Doucette had only logged 10 and three-quarters hours of work.
There are around 500 to 600 people employed in plants during the herring season.
“I’ve got 130 hours in total. By this time last year I would have been in the high 200s, like 270 or more,” she says, adding some people are having to turn to social assistance to try and make ends meet. “(Recently) we had a day’s work and you see people there, they look awful. They don’t smile, they’ve got tears running down their face because they don’t know if they’re going to have their home next month.”
Doucette has been trying to draw attention to the problem on behalf of plant workers. She’s written letters to politicians and she’s made phone calls. But she says she’s not making much headway.
In a region that’s seen more than its share of hard knocks – lower lobster prices paid to fishermen, no ferry from Maine this summer – this is another blow to the economy and people’s livelihoods, Doucette says.
“It’s a real kettle of fish,” she says. Except that the kettle is empty.
Dick Stewart of the Atlantic Herring Co-op says the food/roe herring is in decline this year but the bait supply has been good. But that's come at the expense of the roe/food fishery. The herring being caught has been smaller so it's used for bait and that is less labour intensive for plant workers. The food herring started out good in Scotts Bay in the head of the Bay of Fundy, but that fishery is limited to 5,000 tonnes.
“So the rest has to come down below from the German Bank. So far the fish has been down and we haven’t seen all that much,” he says. “We’re hoping the next couple of weeks that it will improve.”
Asked if the situation is of concern to the industry, Stewart says it depends on how long things go on like they are.
As for what has led to decreased herring, Stewart says environmental conditions are different this year. The water temperature is warmer and there is less plankton in the water for the herring to feed on.
“So with all of these things together, we think this is holding the roe herring off outside further.”
Stewart says some in the industry are meeting Monday with MPs Greg Kerr and Gerald Keddy to discuss the situation.
“Usually when an industry sees a drop off in the amount of work they try to make some arrangement to help people out,” he says.
For her part, Doucette says help is desperately needed.
