Lobster fishermen protest against scallop fishery

By Amy Woolvett

FOR THE SOU'WESTER

NovaNewsNow.com

A small group of lobster fishermen gathered beside the Barrington causeway in southwestern Nova Scotia on Friday to protest the scallop draggers they feel are damaging lobsters.

This past season fishermen reported that among their catch, as many as eight per cent of their catch had deep gouges and damage to the tops of their shells, mostly in lobster fishing area (LFA) 33.

Dr. John Tremblay, head of the lobster group with the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, conducted a study on the problem. That study indicated that the damage that’s been reported this year could mostly be attributed to tropical storm Noel that passed through the region last year.

Part of this conclusion was based on the fact that the same type of damage was found in lobsters in areas where scallop dragging is not occurring, but that were affected by the storm.

“This was an above average storm,” Tremblay said at a lobster fishing area 34 advisory committee meeting on Thursday.

But fishermen around the table weren’t buying the study’s conclusion.

Shelburne County fisherman Kevin Ross, who was involved in Friday’s protest, was not convinced by the storm assessment at Thursday’s meeting.

“Don’t come to Cape Island and tell us that a storm did it,” said Ross, who added this isn’t the first year they’ve seen damaged lobsters, although this year “it was different.” He said most of the damage was on the backs of the lobsters.

The kind of damage, he claimed, you’d see if a scallop rake passed over the back of a lobster. Ross added a problem is people in Ottawa, referring to those working with DFO, don’t believe what the fishermen say and only believe the scientists or others.

But DFO says the evidence supports the storm theory.

“There is evidence of damaged lobsters, not just in that area but witnessed all the way up the entire coast,” said Dave Bishara, acting area chief for the conservation and protection of South West Nova Scotia.



The fishermen who protested on Friday are not satisfied with the study and want the scallop draggers out of their area.



“We want to see an impact study done on what the draggers are doing to the area,” said lobster fisherman Michael Newell. “Lobster is the only thing that drives this part of Nova Scotia and if they ruin us it is done we will become a ghost town.”



Ross, a lobster representative for the eastern side of Cape Sable Island, said that for the first week of this lobster season he was able to collect only 11 crates of lobster as opposed to 160 crates of lobster the year before.



“I’m not saying that there wasn’t any damage from the storm but don’t tell me that it is all storm damage,” he said once again.



He held up pictures of the damaged lobsters with cracks to the tops of their shells.



Marine biologist and part time resident of the Municipality of Barrington, Dr. Phillip McLaren also studied the photos of the damaged lobsters.



“I don’t believe it is from storm damage,” he said. “The cuts are characteristic of the damage that draggers will do…it is obvious that steel damage has caused it.”



He explained how lobsters mainly live in shallow depressions on the ocean floor and that when a dragger goes through the area the rakes would cut across the lobsters top and back.



“You cannot have them both in the same area,” said McLaren. “Here we have long liners, lobster fishermen and scallopers and if you have one fisher destroying the others then the powers that be have to re-look the situation to make all three fisheries healthy. “



“These lobster fishermen are at rock bottom of supporting the industry and if something doesn’t change, soon you are going to see for sale signs up all over the place.”



Cecil Newell began the impromptu protest a day earlier when he put signs up on his truck after being fed up with the lack of change. He again did the same thing Friday and it was then that the other fishermen joined him for his peaceful protest.



“We just want the DFO to listen to us,” he explained. “Eight per cent of 30,000 lobsters is a lot of damaged lobster…you can’t run over an egg with an excavator without breaking it and that is the same thing the draggers are doing to our lobsters.”



He said this past season was the worst of the damage since the draggers started working in their area in 2001 but damage was still evident every year.



Bishara said the DFO are aware of their protest and what it is that the fishermen are asking.



“We all want the same thing,” he said. “We want our fishers to do well and to be sustained…we are not on opposite sides.”



(WITH FILES FROM TINA COMEAU)