An uncertain future: Downturn in dogfish market impacts 100-plus local people

By Jeanne Whitehead

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

In the mid-eighties, fisherman Terry Farnsworth loaded his truck with his family and his furniture and drove to Lloydminster, Alberta.

“There was work there,” he says. He returned home to Digby, N.S. when his father was ill, and he stayed. By 1988, he was once again setting herring nets and handlining. He’s been fishing ever since.

Now 52 years old, Farnsworth has been pondering another move to Alberta. Dogfish is his main catch from mid-summer until the end of November, and he’s been told by Fred Trask that he no longer has a market for it.

Trask, the owner of Ocean Trawlers, says he used to sell dogfish to a PEI processor but that plant closed down.

Ocean Pride Fisheries of Lower Wedgeport, N.S. also processed dogfish. That company announced a layoff of 40 seasonal workers in early July, citing a downturn in the European market for dogfish.

Farnsworth, who for 12 years has served as the vice-president of the Bay of Fundy inshore fisherman’s association, says more than 100 local people will be affected by the downturn in this fishery.

Both men say misinformed environmentalists are partly responsible for the soft market.

“The Chinese were making use of just their fins and tails – and discarding the rest,” says Trask. He says that when environmentalists heard of the practice, they began lobbying against the harvesting of dogfish.

Trask adds that the dogfish, a member of the shark family, has been a popular seafood in England, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. In Britain, it’s sold in fish-and-chip shops. The taste is quite similar to haddock, says Trask.

Both Farnsworth and Trask say that something should be done to create a market on this side of the Atlantic.

Farnsworth says dogfish are plentiful and he is hopeful he can find a new buyer for his catch.

“I dread the thought of going west again,” he says. “This is where I live. This is where I’m from.”

(Jeanne Whitehead is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Digby Courier, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)