The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has announced delayed openings for several significant fisheries in Eastern Canada, including Newfoundland’s snow crab fishery and lobster fisheries in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s snow crab fishery will not open until at least 1 May, after initially being delayed until 20 April. That means the season will open two to three weeks later than in 2019, though the DFO announced a 10 percent increase in the overall quota for 2020. The DFO set the total allowable catch at 29,551 metric tons (MT), up from 26,894 MT in 2019 (in the same release, DFO detailed catch limits for specific areas of the region), but warned it could push back the opening date for the season even further.
“The snow crab fishery will not open before 1 May, 2020,” it said in a notice to harvesters. ”Once decisions are made on specific opening dates they will be communicated.”
In Quebec and Iles-de-la-Madeliene, the snow crab fishery opened on 22 April, and for the snow crab sector located off New Brunswick and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and, it opened Friday, 24 April, according to Acadia Nouvelle, after also facing an initial delay, and with a lower total allowable catch in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence (Areas 12, 12E, 12F, and 19) of 31,340 MT, and 27,203.70 MT for Areas 12, 18, 25, and 26.
New Brunswick Crab Processors Association President Gilles Thériault told the newspaper he expects the first deliveries of crab to arrive by Sunday, 26 April, or Monday, 27 April. The association, which represents a dozen crab processing businesses employing approximately 2,500 people, has taken significant steps to keep its workers safe as they return to factories amidst the global pandemic of the coronavirus, Thériault said.
"We have made all the changes requested and have even gone beyond the requirements of Public Health. The processors have put everything in place to protect their employees and the community. And even if we venture into new territory with many unknowns, we are satisfied with what has been done,” he said.
Thériault said his organization had pushed for a 1 May opening but had been rejected by DFO. He said there had been an accord reached with fishermen to bring smaller loads of crab back to the docks to avoid situations where workers would be forced to work longer shifts.
"The crabbers want to go fishing and they agree to come back with reduced quantities," he said. “They know our factories will operate at reduced capacity.”
Similarly, the openers of many of Canada’s lobster fisheries have been postponed. The lobster fishery areas (LFAs) 3 through 14C in Newfoundland and Labrador will not open before 1 May, according to the DFO, while LFAs 23, 24 and 26 in Prince Edward Island will open 15 May. The Quebec Region, represented by LFAs 19, 20, and 21, also faced a delay to 9 May to open its season, at the request of industry representatives. None of those seasons will get a remunerative period at the back end of their seasons, which for most, terminate in June.
“My officials and I have been working closely with member associations, processors, and harvesters, across the country to determine what our industry partners need in order to have a safe fishing season,” Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan said in a statement. “With these delays, we are maintaining a shared opening date for lobster fisheries across the Gulf region, helping ensure continued co-operation across the industry. The additional time will enable processing plants to prepare their facilities and workforce for the upcoming season, and allow everyone across the industry to put in place the necessary health and safety measures in response to COVID-19.”
Canada’s lobster industry is stuck in the difficult position of fishing to maintain its livelihood while facing a fragile market and working conditions that expose its members to the danger of a highly contagious disease, according to Lori Baker, executive director of the Eastern Shore Fishermen’s Protective Association. But ultimately, fishermen must fish, she told The Star.
“We have two months to make a year’s living,” she said. “We can’t afford less than that.”
Photo courtesy of Mary Anne Love/Shutterstock
