Counter-productive to pressure P.E.I.’s spring lobster fishermen

From a catch perspective, it doesn’t seem like Prince Edward Island’s fall lobster fishermen have suffered from the carapace size increases that have been imposed on them the last two years.

Despite a one-millimetre increase in 2016, the fall catch increased by more than one million pounds over 2015 landings, and preliminary numbers are suggesting landings increased by another nine per cent in the fall of 2017, after a further two-millimetre increase was imposed. Another two-mm increase is scheduled for this year.

So, fish a larger-sized lobster, get increased catches, right?

It’s not that simple. Catches in Lobster Fishing Area 25, the Northumberland Strait, fall fishery involving fishermen from parts of New Brunswick and western P.E.I., have been going up in recent years, anyway. Catches might’ve gone up even without the size increase. Going forward, though, lobsters at 77 mm will perform better at the buying station scale than they would’ve at 72 mm. But, what about those lobsters that were just below the new minimum length? Well, by next year, they will have grown bigger, and will probably have produced a new batch of eggs to further sustain the fishery.

Unless those undersized canners travel out of the district, they should be available for fall catches next year, bigger and heavier than before.

It’s that potential travel that is causing some concern within LFA 25. Spring fishermen could benefit from the fall fishermen’s sacrifice. That’s not really fair, but, in the overall scheme of things, it’s not likely to amount to a lot of lobsters. They’re also out more than a dollar a pound on price compared to their spring counterparts, but that has nothing to do with the size difference.

Still, it is not unreasonable for fall fishermen to be upset about the size difference. What is unreasonable, though, is for fall fishermen to insist on size uniformity.

They call it size uniformity, but really, they want the spring districts to catch up.

Keep in mind, the majority of Prince Edward Island’s fall fishermen opposed the size increase their counterparts in New Brunswick were seeking, and they were not happy when the Federal Fisheries Minister sided with the majority in New Brunswick and imposed the LFA 25 increase.

So, to flip it around and have the Island’s fall fishermen demand the spring districts go up, especially considering the vast majority of Prince Edward Island’s lobster fleet fishes the spring season, is contradictory and counter-productive. Consider that fishermen in the Island’s spring districts have voluntarily voted in favour of a one mm increase in 2018. It might stop there, or fishermen might vote to keep the increases moving. It’s up to them. Deciding to continue moving the measure will surely have much more to do with evidence of benefit from the sacrifice than with pressure from their fall counterparts. Number’s just weren’t on the LFA 25 P.E.I. side in resisting the N.B. push for an increase and, when it comes to influencing increases in the P.E.I. spring lobster season, numbers still are not on the side of the Island’s fall fishermen.

The numbers that count the most, though, are the ones that show landings still going up.