Right product, right time
P.E.I. alternative bait manufacturers see increased interest amid fishery closure
NINE MILE CREEK, P.E.I. – It all started in a backyard barn.
In 2017, Mark Prevost and Wally MacPhee had an idea to create an alternative, sustainable bait to fish lobster with.
With experience in lobster fishing and buying, the pair saw a need for an alternative bait after noticing fluctuations in cost of bait, decreasing fish availability and increasing waste from the use of traditional baits like mackerel and herring.
With a few barrels welded together and a hand-cranked meat grinder, the pair experimented with ingredients and field-tested their new product in the waters of P.E.I. and Nova Scotia.
The result was a new bait that lasted longer and used less mackerel and herring than traditional bait – using only 20 to 25 per cent whole mackerel and herring in each sausage.
However, they faced a new challenge – turning their creation into a profitable business.
“Five years ago, when we sort of thought this thing up, we were the crazy guys. Trying to find investors or anyone who could support this was next to impossible,” said Prevost, coowner of Bait Masters Inc., chuckling at the thought of their early days.
Eventually, the duo found support through local fishers, investors and the province, allowing them to leave the barn behind in favour of a $2-million facility overlooking the Northumberland Strait in Nine Mile Creek. Now, their company sells its alternative bait throughout the Maritimes and the U.S. with plans to expand further.
“It's not like any other business. We are now one of the largest manufacturers of alternative bait in the world,” said Prevost.
Prevost said they never thought the business would be as profitable as it has become and had only set their sights on addressing sustainability issues in the fishing industry. Now, though, he said the company is in talks to potentially set up facilities in other Canadian and in U.S. markets.
“I could see us within this year possibly in Maine with a licensing agreement and another facility like this,” he said.
“We can employ six people here fulltime and serve a lot of boats from here. This little spot could do over two million pounds (a year) on a single shift (per day). If we ran two shifts (per day), we would be able to do more.”
What makes Prevost and MacPhee's bait special is how it's made. The bait sausage, as the pair call it, is made up of 25 per cent whole mackerel and herring and 75 per cent of a blend of ground haddock racks, fish byproducts and oils, wrapped up in a biodegradable casing.
Macphee said this process allows them to turn 10 pounds of mackerel and herring into 40 pounds of bait, making it more sustainable for fish stocks and easier to make a bulk amount of bait in little time.
“Our aim is 10,000 (pounds per shift),” he said.
“We've done 8,000 in around seven and a half hours. It's just a small crew, just Mark and I and a few of our friends doing it now. The cleanup is kind of big at the end of the day, but we figure we will be staffed up with six to eight people, with Mark and I here to help operate it. Then, we will do
10,000 pounds in an eight-hour shift.”
Prevost and MacPhee's bait caught attention after a UPEI researcher conducted a study on their bait in 2020, which showed it caught as much lobster as traditional bait, while lasting longer and using less mackerel and herring.
Lately though, Bait Masters Inc. has seen an increase in interest due to the recent shutdown of the mackerel and herring fisheries in Atlantic Canada.
Bait Masters Inc. was well-stocked before the shutdown, so it didn't affect their supply of bait fish needed to make their product. However, Prevost said there has been a steep increase in people reaching out about placing orders.
“I have a list of about 100 people who want bait from us sitting on my desk,” said Prevost.
“There are some challenges that come up when you have 100 names of people who want bait. There is the logistics behind getting it out, finding distributors. In the States we're lucky, we just send it all to one guy who has a bunch of sub-distributors under him, but up here, it's a little trickier.”
Prevost said their current facility can make between 1.6 and 1.7 million pounds of bait in a year, and they are ready to expand and open another facility if need be.
MacPhee said while it's good to see some effort being made to repair the mackerel and herring stocks, the shutdown is too late and doesn't stop other countries from continuing to fish them.
“It's a global issue, if no one else stops fishing, it's the same school of fish, nothing will change,” he said.
“I understand the frustration because if you don't go catch them, another country is just going to get them and sell them back to you at a higher price. There needs to be a global initiative to get everyone to reduce their fishing.”
MacPhee said typically, Island fishers use around 300 pounds of bait a day, which traditionally consists of whole mackerel or herring, most of which can be wasted by erosion and eaten by sand fleas.
In preparation for the lack of availability of mackerel and herring,
MacPhee and Prevost set up their product line to be adaptable to change, allowing them to make custom bait sausages and even use different fish ingredients.
“The ingredients might change. It depends on the availability of the fish,” said MacPhee.
“If there is no mackerel or herring available to use, there will be red fish. Or whatever fish they use as traditional bait, we can always cut it and use it.
“It would be more sustainable no matter what it is, because if you have 10 pounds, we can make 40 pounds.”