PE: Lobster industry thrown a lifeline

[TIGNISH, PE] – There was an air of optimism that federal funds announced Wednesday will point Eastern Canada’s lobster industry in the right direction. Federal Fisheries minister Gail Shea chose the lunchroom of West Prince’s largest employer, Royal Star Foods on the Tignish wharf, to announce a $65-million assistance package for the lobster industry in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

“Lobster has experienced a worldwide collapse in prices,” Shea acknowledged before laying out her department’s assistance package. “Global consumers have tightened their belts. Foreign demand for lobster has plummeted over the last few months.”

Jim Jones, left, former Regional Director General of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea and Neil LeClair, P.E.I. Minister of Fisheries Aquaculture and Rural Development, deliver news on help for the lobster industry Wednesday. Eric McCarthy photo, Journal Pioneer.

The $65 million, she said, is designed to help the industry weather the economic downturn. The $50 million for sustainability includes rationalization. Rationalization is what the industry refers to as measures to reduce the fishing effort. It’s the first time the federal government has stepped up to the plate with money for such measures.

“Rationalization,” Shea told reporters, “means fewer fishermen out there so that the ones left behind can be more viable.” That involves buying out lobster licences and retiring them, thereby leaving less gear in the water.

“It’s not a program where you go in and take people out,” Shea stressed. “People voluntarily retire. If you have somebody who is 65-years-old or is 67-years-old who would like to retire from the industry, if there’s no rationalization program in place, up until now, that licence is sold to somebody else and fished by somebody else. It never gets retired.”

While acknowledging her department is already discussing a buy-back program with one fisher association, Shea stressed rationalization might not be a sustainability measure chosen by all fishing areas.

Keith Paugh, representing Lobster Fishing Area 25, said the fall lobster fishing area in Western P.E.I., has already commenced discussions with the federal department. He is hoping funding can be in place prior to the opening of the fall season in August. He acknowledged the plan will likely include financial input from the fishing community and will have to be approved by membership. “The first and most important step right now,” P.E.I. Fishermen Association’s executive director Ed Frenette suggested, “is to move forward on a rationalization program for the Northumberland Strait. Initially, we’re looking at LFA 25 and 26A. Both of them will have to develop plans for rationalization.”

He suggested LFA 25 is already well advanced in discussions in that regard.
Meanwhile, financial help could soon be on the way for low-income lobster fishermen affected by the current economic downturn in the industry.
Shea said Wednesday her government is making $15 million available to assist struggling lobster fishermen. The low-income assistance, Shea said, is short-term and time limited. “Our long-term goal is clear: we want an ecologically and commercially sustainable fishery that does not require government support,” Shea stressed.

The plan is so new that the criteria on how fishermen might apply still hasn’t been finalized. “We couldn’t consider debtload,” she explained, “because we could have many people with debtloads. The criteria around it will be the landings.”

Shea told fishermen and fish plant workers that lobster has been hit harder than any other fish product during the current economic crisis. Lack of diversification and having 80 per cent of the region’s lobsters destined for the United States was also problematic, she said.

Provincial Fisheries Minister Neil LeClair, welcomed Shea’s $65-million announcement. “It certainly helps out our plan,” he said. “Our plan involved federal input and federal money and this goes a long way to doing that.”