Fishermen learn about lobster biology
Veterinarian with graduate degree in lobster health gives two-hour presentation
NORTH SYDNEY — One of the few veterinarians in North America with a graduate degree in lobster health made a two-hour presentation to fishermen in North Sydney, Thursday.
Dr. Jean Lavallée focused in on the biology of a lobster, assessing quality and handling practices, which ultimately play a part in the value of the product.
Canada fished 72,000 metric tonnes of lobster in 2012, making it the largest seller of the crustacean in the world.
However, anywhere between five to 15 per cent of lobster caught annually don’t make it to market because the lobster die during the transfer to market, Lavallée said.
This year across the Maritimes, including Cape Breton, lobster fishermen were struggling to get $3 per pound for their catches.
Compare that to Australia’s 12,000 metric tonne haul last year — the third largest in the world — that saw the price per pound reach above CAD $30.
“Australia, from one year to another, typically hauls in about 15 to 20 per cent of what we land (in lobster). They fish based on quality. We fish ( based) on volume,” he said.
“We go out to try to catch as many lobsters as fast as we can. That’s how we work and that’s why we have so many of them.”
Lavallée, who’s the clinical scientist at the Atlantic Veterinary College Lobster Science Centre in Charlottetown, P.E.I., said the race to catch and get the product to market has been causing injuries and many fatal wounds to the lobster.
In 2011, in lobster fishing areas 33 and 34 along the South Shore to the Bay of Fundy, 4.5 million pounds of lobster went to the dump within the first two weeks of fishing, he said.
“We kill more lobsters than what most countries around the world are fishing every year. To me that should be an eye-opener in terms of quality.”
Lobster experience stress from the time of catch. Rapid trap hauling , removal of the trap from the water to experiencing low oxygen levels in crates are some major factors in stress.
Even the environment — from exposure to the sun, rain and wind — can cause injury and hasten death.
Big Bras d’Or fisherman Stuart Squires was one of 50 fishermen in the room at the North Star Inn watching Lavallée’s presentation.
Squires said in the past several years he and other fishermen have changed their handling practices due to an increased mortality rate among lobster.
The presentation gave many in the room a better idea of what happens to the physiology of a lobster from the time of catch through to processing, he said.
“Everybody is going to take this a little bit more seriously than what they used to. Even guys who were more careful with their lobsters than they used to be in the days of no holding tanks and throwing lobsters around unmercifully.”
Another fisherman, Tom Boutilier, said he admitted to mishandling lobster in the past but times have changed.
“I have a pump that’s run off my ( boat’s) motor and it’s run constantly. So (the lobster) are in a tank that’s cycled all the time,” he said.
“If it’s a better quality and you’re going to get more money out for it, by all means do it.”