MLAs want lobster fishermen to get their fair share

By Wayne Thibodeau

Transcontinental Media

Prince Edward Island MLAs want to get to the bottom of why lobster fishermen are receiving so little for what is considered a luxury food across the globe.

MLAs plan to call key players from the industry, including the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association, processors and people within the provincial bureaucracy responsible for marketing, before a legislative standing committee to try and better understand what is happening in the Prince Edward Island fishery.

Charlie McGeoghegan, a lobster fishermen and MLA for Belfast-Murray River, says the lobster fishery as a whole needs to be discussed. “Last year, we saw the lowest prices in 25 years,” said McGeoghegan. “Fishermen are just hanging on by their fingertips. Another year like that and it will be drastic for the industry.”

Lobster prices have been on a steady decline. In 2006, fishermen were receiving $5.50 for canners and $6.50 for markets. A year later that fell to $5.20 and $6.20.

By 2008, prices had dropped again to $4.20 for canners and $4.80 for markets. Last year, which was described by most lobster fishermen as devastating, prices for canners or small lobster fell to between $2.75 and $3 per pound while markets were selling for between $3 and $3.50.

McGeoghegan said the committee has not discussed calling federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, a P.E.I. MP before the committee, but he thinks that idea is worth discussing. “We’d always like to hear from the federal minister if she was willing to come before the committee.”

The federal and provincial governments are working with fishermen to reduce the lobster effort in some parts of the province. That includes retiring some licences and reducing traps and the sizes of lobsters that can be caught.

Both levels of government are also paying for increased marketing of Maritime lobster.

McGeoghegan said there is a serious disconnect between what the fishermen are getting and what the consumer is paying. “Even here in Charlottetown restaurants here last summer were charging $40 a plate for a one pound lobster while fishermen were getting $2.75 per pound,” he said. “So there is something seriously wrong in the system.”