Fishermen report good start during opening week of lobster season

By Aaron Beswick

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

Life returned to many Northern Peninsula, N.L. wharves in early May as lobster fishermen began pointing their speedboats for open water each morning before dawn.

The eight-week lobster fishery is the mainstay of the small boat fleet along much of the northwest coast – and much was riding on how low returning speedboats were in the water.

“Good sign of lobster out there b’y,” said Daniel’s Harbour fisherman Shawn Perry as he unloaded his boat with help from his wife, Amelia. “Seems for the past three years catches have been getting a bit better.”

Lobster prices are down to $4.50 a pound, from the high of $6, which ended last season. Combine that with higher gas prices and good catch rates are critical to this year’s fishery and the communities they support.

“It’s getting to the point that I’ll get the old feller to make me some paddles,” said Perry.

Beyond economics, fishermen were happy to be back on the water. Further south in Parsons Pond, Clyde Goosney refused to let his 78 years prevent him from helping his nephew, Felix Goosney, haul the traps. Once lobstering ends, the Goosneys will fish cod for nearly a month, then end the season with a few days catching halibut.

“There’s lots of cod and halibut on the go and some of the cod are a good size,” said Felix Goosney. “Biggest thing we’ve seen gone down here is capelin – they used to roll for weeks. You never see them now.”

The Fishery Resource Conservation Council’s (FRCC) 2007 report on Atlantic lobster singled out Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 14, Newfoundland’s west coast, for adopting responsible conservation measures. After the FRCC’s 1995 report, fishermen south of Point Riche dropped from 350 traps to 300 and fishermen from Point Riche to Big Brook went from 500 traps to 350.

Other management initiatives included lobster sanctuary areas, voluntary v-notching and raising the minimum carapace size from 81 mm to 82.5 mm. The goal of these measures has been to increase the number of spawn-bearing females reproducing in LFA 14.

It might be working. River of Ponds fisherman Brian House had 700 pounds of the crustacean and a smile when he tied up to the wharf early in the season.

“That’s a good day,” said House. “It’s a good way to start the season because lobster landings always start to drop off after the first week.”

According to the FRCC report, many lobster fishermen have benefited from decreased demands on the resource – since 1995 some 190 lobster licences have been removed from LFA 14. But the changes haven’t been even throughout the northwest coast.

Eugene Caines took 350 pounds of lobster on his first day of the season in Ingornachoix Bay.

“There’s not much to stay in it for,” said the Port Saunders fisherman.

Low crab prices have caused five fishermen to abandon their bigger crab boats and head out after lobster in Ingornachoix Bay.

“That causes more strain on the resource,” Caines said.

But it’s not all bad when you’ve got good help – Caines’ daughter, Riley Patey-Caines and her friends, Brook Walters and Robert Walters, were having a fine time catching sculpins from the wharf.

They ran from pile to pile with their fishing rod, screeched each time they hooked one of the ugly fish and ran over to Caines who’d smile, unhook the sculpin and drop it in his bait bucket.



(Aaron Beswick is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Northern Pen, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)