Let the Lobster Season Begin
Annual Inshore Lobster Harvest in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence
After a winter of trap mending and boat repair, a new lobster season is about to begin. Market demand, catch sizes, fuel and bait costs will determine success or failure
On much of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, on Canada's east coast, May 1st marks the beginning of the spring lobster season in six fishing sectors designated by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, weather and ice permitting. Lobster Fishery Another long winter of mending, repairing, upgrading and crew recruitment is over.
Unlike the off-shore deepwater lobster fishery of the North Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Fundy, the inshore fishery is confined to shorter seasons in more shallow waters. What makes the lobster of this season so popular is the two month relaxation in local prices and the quality of hard shell lobsters after a long winter in cold waters.
A Profitable Tradition
Before the rise of the Canadian dollar over the past two years, this was a rather lucrative way to make a living in a part of the country where making an adequate livelihood is no small feat. A lobster license holder with no aversion to 4 AM wake-up calls, hard work, occasional to frequent rough seas and numbing cold weather has been able to amass a six figure income, grinding his way through, roughly, 10 to 20 lines of 10 to 20 traps each, a day.
With a crew of two or three whose jobs include hauling, sizing and baiting, each trap that is pulled from the depths may contain as many as three or more lobsters and several other creatures of the sea that are separated from the harvest and thrown back. Other traps may deliver nothing more than the time-consuming work of hauling them aboard for baiting.
The sizing part of the job means separating the markets, between one and three pounds, from the canners of less than a pound. The difference is that canners fetch between 15 and twenty percent less per pound, according to Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture - PEI weekly price quotes. Jumbos of more than three pounds may also return appreciably less per pound than markets for falling outside of the just right range of weight.
A Risky Venture
As rising costs for bait and fuel can eat into profits, lower than adequate prices can add to the pain. When the Canadian dollar was wallowing at .63 USD, and consumers were taking it in the wallet, the lobstermen had their take for a catch favourably influenced by prices paid in Boston. Unfortunately, a Canadian dollar in the same weight class as that of an American greenback means that recent prices for lobsters are depressed and depressing for the people who catch them.
According to Parnell Watts, a veteran Lobstermen of Grand Tracadie, PEI, "It may take two or three weeks after the season begins to get a firm price in place for the catches, and sometimes you can't even count on that."
Fuel for lobster boats isn’t just more expensive in the way that it is for commuters and commercial travelers. It is an onerous burden when it is necessary to pay 1.10 to 1.15 a litre, on the fishing wharves of Prince Edward island, to operate a 40 to 50 foot vessel that has the fuel efficiency more comparable to that of a tank than a family van.
But, lobster fishers have learned to take the unpredictable as part of the cost of doing business. Years when ice makes it impossible to leave port by the first of May, and when lobster migration and changing water temperatures devastate the size of the harvest can also add to the woes of an unpredictable industry.
The Ultimate Reward
In spite of it all, the inshore lobster fishery of May and June in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence is an annual tradition that is eagerly anticipated by those who fish them and the loyal following of devotees who gather around kitchen tables across the Atlantic Provinces for their scoff of bright red lobster, freshly cooked in sea water.
