Night fishing curfew debated for Prince County

Mail-in vote coming for LFA 25 lobster fishermen

“It’s not what we wanted. We agreed before, we would work with it as long as (the fishing curfew) was from 9 p.m. to four in the morning, but there was no time for when we had to leave the harbour.” Lee Knox

The Prince County Fishermen’s Association (PCFA) will be polling its members on whether or not they want a fishing curfew put in place.

The question is, do fishermen in Lobster Fishing Area 25 want to be allowed to fish for lobster at any time while their season is open, or do they prefer daily fishing trips restricted to between the hours of 4 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Members were prepared to vote on the question during a meeting Wednesday at the O’Leary Legion. However, association president Lee Knox agreed with a fisherman’s suggestion that the meeting was not sufficiently advertised to allow for a vote to take place.

Instead, the question will be put on a ballot and mailed to members next week.

The result won’t be known in time for a meeting the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is holding with the PCFA and the Maritime Fishermen’s Union Dec. 5 in Moncton.

But Knox suggested that meeting can be rescheduled. He noted, though, it is important that the PCFA presents a position, reminding members that just standing firm on no carapace increase did not work out when the MFU was demanding increases.

Wednesday’s special meeting was borne out of a position taken by the MFU to request DFO to ban night fishing.

Knox said the MFU proposal would mean lobster trips could not start before 4 a.m. and boats would have to be back in port by 9 p.m. He told members he was hoping they’d agree to restrict fishing to those hours but tallow additional sailing time.

However, he said MFU president Carl Allen informed him they were not budging on their proposal.

“It’s not what we wanted,” Knox said. “We agreed before, we would work with it as long as (the fishing curfew) was from 9 p.m. to four in the morning, but there was no time for when we had to leave the harbour.”

Reached Friday, Allen pointed out it was the PCFA that first proposed a fishing curfew two years ago and that the MFU favoured boats being in their home ports between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Stephen Ramsay asked what happened to the 9 p.m. cutoff that used to be in place.

“They felt, as DFO, it was something they couldn’t enforce and they dropped it,” Knox answered.

Knox noted a curfew is now enforced in LFA 23.

He suggested the 4 a.m. start is more problematic than the 9 p.m. shutoff.

“For guys who have to travel two hours, it’s going to be 6 o’clock before they fish their gear.”

Fishermen from both sides of Northumberland Strait share the LFA 25 lobster grounds.

“(The MFU) is bringing it up because they said there’s too much night fishing going on. They’re losing buoys and they’re getting rope cut and they figure it is because night fishing is going on,” Knox said in describing the MFU position.