Contending with higher expenses

It’s getting more and more difficult for fishermen to make ends meet.

Gone are the days when the fishing industry was a lucrative business. The price of fuel keeps going up as does the price of food and other expenses. Those higher costs are taking a bigger piece of the revenue.

Those high costs are weighing heavily on Chad Strugnell’s shoulders. The St. Lewis, N.L. fisherman is wondering how anyone can make a living in an industry where the costs are slowly outpacing the revenues.

“The cost of everything is going up every year. The price of fish is staying the same. It’s getting a little worse,” said Strugnell, who fishes for crab and shrimp.

This year, he’ll burn between $6,000 and $7,000 in fuel per trip and bring in some $20,000 in revenue. By the time the crew is paid and the expenses are taken care of, there’s not much left.

“Looking at the fuel alone as of today, we’re paying 62 cents more than we did last year. It’s almost doubled. Insurance is up. The price of groceries for your boat to feed your crew is up. We’ll have to take cuts to make the business survive or try to make it survive.”

Strugnell fears he may be going out of business.

“It’s not only going to be me. It’s going to be more fishermen. If we’re put out of business, the plant workers don’t get work either.”

Another point of contention for Labrador fishermen is a fishery policy stating that all crab fished by Labrador fishermen must be landed in Labrador. The policy was put in place so crab harvested near Labrador would be processed in Labrador.

The policy isn’t sitting very well with many Labrador fishermen especially since a bonus is given to Newfoundland fishermen on the crab that’s landed. Last year the bonus was given to Labrador fishermen but he’s heard it won’t be given to them this year. Labrador fishermen, he contends, would like to see the elimination of the policy.

“We want to be able to ship anywhere in our province. The fishermen on the island are bawling they want to ship it out of the province. All we on the Labrador want to do is ship wherever in the province.”

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