Lobster fishermen thankful for safe, productive year
Ronnie Heighton treated himself to a feed of lobster on Saturday, as the 2018 lobster fishery came to a close.
“It was a good year, a safe year in our area, unlike other areas, so congratulations to all the guys,” said the longtime president of the Northumberland Fisheries Association (NFA), and himself a fisherman who credits “Mother Nature” for the good harvest.
“The price is down a bit from last year, but all in all it was a good season.”
The price fluctuated this spring, from $8 per pound for the tasty crustaceans, then down to $7, and to $6.
“The average price will be about six bucks,” Heighton predicted.
Allan Francis and his crew was busy cleaning out his fishing boat on Saturday morning, his crew throwing the heavy traps onto the backs of a flatbed pickup, getting set to store them until the 2019 lobster fishery.
“It was good, I was surprised,” Francis said of this spring’s lobster haul. “We’re up five, six thousand pounds from last year.”
Francis operates his boat Kaw-Liga out of the wharf in Pictou Landing. A fisherman of three decades (“this is my 30th year,” he said), Francis and his crew members worked six days per week and added that a lot of fishermen have enjoyed a good harvest, which began on May 1.
“Overall, I think everybody’s doing good, from what I hear.”
Francis will head to Cheticamp sometime in the near future, to try to catch some snow crabs over a two or three-week period.
About 150 fishermen work under the NFA banner, and it is expected they will be out in full force for a planned rally Friday prior to the start of the Pictou Lobster Carnival. Fishermen in the Northumberland Strait are adamantly opposed to Northern Pulp’s plan to pump waste water into the Strait without proper environmental studies.
“We’re gonna put on a little show for them — make sure your there with a camera,” he said.