Increase in lobster catches pleases southeast N.B. fishermen

By Joan LeBlanc

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

Fishermen in southeastern New Brunswick are cautiously optimistic that the lobster stocks may be increasing in the Northumberland Strait, following an improvement in landings during the 2007 fall lobster season.

The season, which ran between Aug. 9 and Oct. 10, started off on a bad note when fishermen were unable to launch their traps for the first two days due to extremely high winds in the area.

Jim Murray, who has fished out of the Cape Tormentine municipal wharf for many years, said recently he and most other area fishermen are crossing their fingers that the increased landings during this year’s fishing season will mark the start of a more positive trend in the years to come.

“I’m not getting my hopes up too much, but I’m hopeful that the lobster stocks will finally be increasing in the strait. We were getting (in the traps) quite a few shorts, so hopefully that’s a good sign. And there were still lobster out there when we landed (the lobster traps) in October,” he noted.

Murray said his lobster catches were up 10-15 per cent this year over that of 2006; and he added that by all accounts that seems to have been the trend throughout the local wharves in LFA 25.

“It’s nothing to jump up and down about, but better is better,” he said. “But then, we got a lower price, so there you go.”

Murray noted that fishermen received 75 cents to $1 less per pound for market lobsters and about 50 cents less for canners, compared to the 2006 prices. The weakening of the American dollar and thus increase in the Canadian dollar and has been blamed for the decrease.

Meat quality during the first couple weeks of the season was good, he said, however an early molting did result in soft shells with less contents later on.

The two-day delay proved to be an expensive one for fishermen said Murray.

“The first few days are always the best ones. I figure I lost between 800-1,000 pounds (of lobster catches) because of the delay. But after things settled down, we did have pretty mild winds and a warm fall, which allowed us to be out on the water more,” he explained, adding that he was able to fish all of his traps over each two-day period.

The increasing price of fuel and the overall high overhead costs proved the biggest challenge for lobster fishermen this year.

“Bait and fuel, those were the biggest expenses, of course there’s always boat and equipment maintenance, traps, licenses, insurance and other things. It’s definitely a challenge trying to use as little as you can of your bait and fuel. You might get a pretty good catch, but if you spend all of your profit on expenses, well then the bottom line doesn’t look as good at the end of the day,” he explained.

The call of the west has lured a few fishermen to seek their fortune in the western provinces, but there appear to still be a good number fishing in the local communities. However, hired hands are getting hard to come by Murray admitted.

“My son Blake fished with me during the summer, but when he went back to school I had to fish alone because I couldn’t find a hired man. Others in the area had the same problem. It’s not the safest thing to do, but what are you going to do?” he said.

Murray said most of the area fishermen have been working in the industry for many years, with only a handful of younger men and women owning their own gear these days.

“There’s not a whole lot of interest in it (lobster fishing) anymore. We’ve had so many poor years they just can’t afford to get into it. But we’re hopeful things may be finally starting to turn around for us,” he said.

(Joan LeBlanc resides in New Brunswick and is a new contributor to the Sou'Wester.)