PE: Lobster fishers between a rock and a hard place

[O’LEARY, PE] — If the Prince County Fishermen’s Association’s lobster rationalization committee wants money from Ottawa to help retire lobster fishing licences, it might have to agree to a carapace (shell) size increase says the group’s president, Shelton Barlow.


About 50 fishers, representing the three lobster fishing areas around P.E.I., heard for the first time Monday what the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is looking for in exchange for financial assistance with lobster rationalization plans.
 DFO officials presented their Evaluation Framework for Sustainability Plans for LFA Wide Conservation Measures for Atlantic Lobster Fisheries.

Ed Frenette, managing director of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association, summed up his assessment of fishers’ sentiments.

“Confusion was the main one and, second to that, people were wondering if it’s really worthwhile to get $3 million.”

That’s the amount Ottawa is prepared to provide to each of the LFAs around P.E.I. for rationalization. Programs for LFAs 25 and 26A, the Northumberland Strait fisheries, would be eligible for funding to cover 50 per cent of the cost of rationalization. Government is prepared to cover 30 per cent of the cost in LFA 24.

Barlow agrees there are measures other than a carapace increase that fishers in Area 25 could employ to qualify for rationalization funds, but if they didn’t produce the desired results, an increase would likely be imposed anyway, he suggested.

“I’m scared what will happen. We might as well take the size increase and get it over with,” Barlow relented.

Barlow said DFO seems intent on increasing the minimum carapace size for lobsters to 72 millimetres from the current 70 millimetres by 2014. According to DFO science, he said, that is the size at which 50 per cent of the female lobsters trapped would have already reproduced at least once. At the current legal size limit, scientists suggest only 35 per cent of the females being trapped had opportunity to reproduce.

The LFA 25 rationalization committee presented a proposal for fall fishers to mull over during a special meeting this morning at the O’Leary Legion. The committee decided not to call for a vote during the meeting, but to give fishers time to digest the information prior to a follow-up meeting.

What Prince County fall fishers decide, Barlow says, could be immaterial unless other groups that participate in the LFA 25 fall fishery also agree. They include First Nations fishers and fishers across the strait in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.