Lobster landings down in St. Marys Bay

Commercial lobster landings in St. Marys Bay continued their steep decline in the 2019-2020 season.

The newly available Fisheries and Oceans Canada data for the bay at the heart of this fall's moderate livelihood fishery unrest was released into a polarized debate over how the resource is shared between commercial and aboriginal fishermen.

The data show commercial landings have declined 63 per cent from a historic high of 1,645 tonnes in 201617 to 613 tonnes in the season that wrapped up this past May.

The 2019-20 landings are 50 per cent lower than the cumulative average landings since 2002-03 (the earliest available season).

St. Marys Bay is a part of the much larger fisheries management area known as LFA 34, which saw landings of 19,999 tonnes in the 2019-20 season. That's 31 per cent below a historic high season in 2015-16 and three per cent below the annual average since 2002-03.

DFO released the figures on the landings in response to accusations by fishermen and former fisheries officers that there is a large unregulated commercial fishery going on in the bay during the months when the commercial season is closed – the commercial season normally runs from the last Monday in November until the end of May – under the guise of a rights-based aboriginal fishery.

Sheng Ren Zen, the Chinese owner of the now defunct Gung da International, was convicted in Digby provincial court in August of selling lobster caught by Sipekne'aktik fishermen in 2017 under a food social and ceremonial licence.

“Across LFA 34, landings were up in some grids and down in others,” reads a statement from Fisheries and Oceans Canada that accompanied the numbers.

“When compared with landings reported in any other similar sized area in LFA 34, the data does not demonstrate any specific anomaly in St. Marys Bay compared to other parts of the LFA. With respect to fishing effort, since 2016-17, the days fished by unique vessels have decreased in St. Marys Bay with variation between years.”

Commercial fishermen contend that fishing has declined in St. Marys Bay because so much lobster is being caught outside of their season, forcing them to go farther out of the bay on multi-day trips during the winter.

When Sipekne'katik launched its self regulated commercial fishery in September, ultimately issuing 11 licences for 50 traps each to its members, the debate over the extent of the fishery going on in the bay reached a fever pitch.

Sipekne'katik Chief Mike Sack argued his community's fishery is negligible in size compared to the commercial fishery that goes on in the area.

Sipekne'katik's fishery wrapped up earlier this month and Sack promised his fishermen would be back on the bay in the spring.

Despite the declines in commercial landings, Fisheries and Oceans Canada considers stocks to be stable in St. Marys Bay.

“Every year, DFO Science uses four fishery-independent surveys as primary indicators of lobster biomass in LFA 34,” reads a statement from Fisheries and Oceans.

“The surveys that took place in 2019 and 2020 indicate healthy stocks across the LFA, and in fact point to a slowing down of the rate of decline observed in recent years. There are a large number of size classes represented in LFA 34, and specifically St Marys Bay, and there are a high number of berried (egg-carrying) females, indicating the stock is in a healthy state.”