Fishing succession
What chance does a deckhand have to be a captain in Atlantic Canada?
Al Mccarthy is a fourthgeneration lobster fisherman from Prince Edward Island.
He's already logged hundreds of hours of sea time, if you count the fact he tagged along with his father on the fishing boat more than once when he was just a youngster.
He's already conquered two full fishing seasons and completed some courses he'll need to qualify to operate his own fishing enterprise.
And he's just 18.
“It's all I've ever really wanted to do,” he told Saltwire Network.
As soon as the chance comes along to buy his own enterprise, he's going for it, following a tradition that started with his great-grandfather, who was the first to run a fishing boat.
Both his grandmother and his grandfather owned a lobster fleet, added Mccarthy, and his father and mother each have their own enterprises.
It's not just the family tradition, and the mentorship he's gotten from his parents, that's pushing him toward his goal of being a fishing captain.
It's also in his heart and soul.
“I just love fishing,” he said. Jacob Hiscock shares a similar dream.
The 15-year-old from the small Trinity Bay community of Winterton has been tagging along with his father on his 35-foot boat since he was nine years old.
For the past few years he's been earning summer's wages on deck, helping out with the crab, caplin and cod.
After high school, he said, he plans to attend the Marine Institute to learn more about navigation and safety to become a professional fish harvester.
“Someday I hope to own my own enterprise,” he told Saltwire.
“People don't realize that if they don't encourage the young ones … there's not going to be a future fishery if (we) can't get out there and learn the skills involved,” he said.
Mccarthy and Hiscock already have a good start in pursuit of a fishing career.
But what are some of the hurdles facing young people who dream of being the captain of a fishing enterprise?
Well, it depends on which province you live in.
If Hiscock wants to be a fishing captain in Newfoundland and Labrador, he will need to have more sea time and progress from apprentice to Level I and, finally, to Level II fish harvester, through the Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board (PFHCB).
PFHCB executive director Mark Dolimont said it's a five-year process that can begin when anyone turns 16.
Under PFHCB rules, a person first has to register as an apprentice and log two full seasons at sea before they can advance to Level 1 certification.
“At that point you can be a designated operator under DFO licensing policy to operate any core enterprise in this province,” said Dolimont.
Another two full fishing seasons, as well as training credits, allows a Level 1 harvester to get Level 2 certification, qualifying them to own and operate an enterprise.
There's another rule in Newfoundland and Labrador.
To be able to renew with the PFHCB each year as a full-time fisherman, a person must be able to provide proof that 75 per cent of their income during the fishing season came from the fishery.
In P.E.I. and N.S. there are no regulations dictating a certain level of income during fishing season to qualify as a fish harvester.
In those provinces a person just has to participate in the fishery during the fishing season.
Dolimont said he’s heard a lot of criticism over the years that the PFHCB criteria make it impossible to get into the fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador.
He said the reality is, “A 20-year-old who started fishing full-time at age 16 and acquired the necessary courses could operate their own fishing enterprise.”
MOVING TO FRONT OF BOAT
In Prince Edward Island, the process of moving from deckhand to captain takes a little less time.
After just two fishing seasons, a fish harvester can qualify as a new entrant and gain DFO approval to acquire a fishing enterprise.
In that province, DFO regulations are the only rules involved.
It’s how Bethany Mccarthy, Al’s mom, advanced from crew member to owner of a 275-pot lobster fishing business.
She started fishing with her former husband in the 1990s before signing on as a deckhand on another enterprise in 2002. When she learned the captain was selling out, she decided it was her chance to buy in.
Mccarthy has owned that enterprise since 2015.
One of the things that helped her make the transition from deckhand to captain, she said, was the Future Fishers program.
That program, established in 2009 by the P.E.I. government, provides mentoring, training and loans to help captains.
Training focuses on the practical aspects of fishing — radio operations, small vessel operator’s proficiency, marine safety and first aid, and so on.
The program offers three courses per year, over three years, through Holland College.
Those who complete the three courses per year are also eligible for a $3,000 grant on completion of the courses, Mccarthy added.
The program operates under Skills PEI, a government-run skilled trades and apprenticeship program, similar to apprenticeship programs offered in other provinces.
“To qualify for the program, applicants must be a licensed captain and owe a certain amount of money to a lending agency,” Mccarthy explained.
“It was a great program and I learned a lot,” she said. “There are things that you don’t pay attention to when you’re at the back of the boat. This is a great program for new licence holders.”
One of the newer components of the course, she added, deals with finances, helping captains learn about the business end of running a fishing enterprise.
She says that’s just as important as practical skills on the boat.
Ian Macpherson, executive director of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association, said the Future Fishers program has been helpful to allow participants to see the other side of fishing.
“You can be very proficient in a boat, but it’s important that people understand the business part of the operation,” he said.
According to a spokesperson for P.E.I.’S Department of Fisheries and Communities, 236 people have been accepted to the program since it was launched in 2009.
GOING PRO
In Nova Scotia work is underway to establish a registration and certification board for fish harvesters.
The board is expected to be operational by 2022.
However, this board doesn’t follow the same raison d’etre as the PFHCB set up in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Lisa Fitzgerald, executive director, of the Nova Scotia Fisheries Council, said the main goal of the Nova Scotia certification board is to “recognize skills, improve the image (and) make sure people have the right training they need (and) help them get the training they need, which has been outlined by Transport Canada.”
Unlike their fishing peers in Newfoundland and Labrador, however, Nova Scotia fishermen won’t have to depend on the blessing of their certification board to acquire a licence to own an enterprise.
“Licensing will continue to be contingent on DFO requirements,” said Fitzgerald.
In fact, even after the certification board is in place, Nova Scotia’s 13,000 fishermen won’t have to register with both DFO and the board. They can choose either.
“If they are registered with the board, they won’t have to register with DFO. But if they choose not to register with the board, they will have to register with DFO,” she said.
“When we were going through the process, we wanted people to have an option. If they didn’t want to join the board, they didn’t have to. They could just keep paying DFO fees (to be registered as a harvester).”
Other rules and regulations, like Transport Canada training requirements for enterprise owners, will also continue to be handled by DFO.
“We’re kind of hands off on that side of things. We’re not getting involved in the whole fisheries management piece, in terms of licensing. We’ll leave that to the experts.”
Ultimately, she said, the board is there to help people acquire the training they need to be better in their business and make the transition from crew member to enterprise owner a little easier.
Fitzgerald told Saltwire the move toward a professional certification system for Nova Scotia has been 30 years in the making.
Nova Scotia adopted an Act to Establish the Fish Harvesters Registration and Certification Board (FHRCB) in 2012.
However, it wasn’t until 2020 that the final regulatory framework for the board was completed by DFO.
The goal is to have the board operational by 2022, said Fitzgerald.
The focus this year is to get the word out to the fishing community about how the benefits of a certification board and how it works.
BIG INVESTMENT
While rules and regulations to become an enterprise owner vary from province to province, one significant challenge is common in all.
Raising the cash to buy a fishing enterprise can be a daunting prospect, with price tags ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to beyond $1 million, depending on the size of the enterprise and the quotas allocated on the licences.
When Mccarthy bought her lobster enterprise in 2015, she said, the price tag was $750,000.
These days, she said, the price for a lobster enterprise running 250 to 300 traps starts around $900,000 and can run to about $1.3 million.
That’s if you’re lucky enough to find someone willing to sell.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, crab fishing enterprises have sold for as high as $2 million, depending on the quota.
Mark Dolimont added that with just 3,000 core fishing enterprises in Newfoundland and Labrador, and about 6,000 Level II fish harvesters, not everyone who wants to buy a licence will be able to find one.
DFO decided a long time ago it would not create any additional core enterprises, he said.
The thought of owing $1 million might be a scary prospect, but Al Mccarthy is not daunted.
He says there’s a decent future in lobster fishing and, because of what he’s learned from his parents, he’s certain it can be a life-long career for him.
So he’s eager to buy in, even if it means a huge financial responsibility.
“He’ll be looking at $50,000 to $60,000 a year on payments on the loan,” his mother noted, adding that’s not counting the usual operational costs of insurance, gas, maintenance and repairs.
Word around the wharves is that some older fishermen may be looking to retire from the industry in the next couple of years. Al hopes that with the right timing and the right price he’ll soon be able to move from deckhand to captain.
However, he knows that until he’s able to pay off a $1-million loan, he’ll probably have to take on a second job outside the fishery.
That’s why he’s heading to Holland College after high school to learn carpentry.
He figures with those skills he might be able to find a job in construction after the fishing season to cover his living expenses until he’s able to pay down the debt on an enterprise.
Besides, he said, carpentry is a good skill set to complement a fishing business.
MUST LOVE FISHING
Bethany Mccarthy doesn’t regret the decision she made in 2015 to become a captain.
She’s pleased her son intends to follow the family tradition.
She doesn’t know if her daughter, Bridgit, will. She also fishes with her dad, but is mulling over a career in another industry.
“We’re not pushing them to go into the fishery,” said Mccarthy. “We’ll support them in whatever they choose to do.”
Ultimately, she said, like anything, it’s something you need to want to do.
For others who might be thinking about fishing, Mccarthy has some advice.
Don’t choose the fishery just because you think you’ll make a lot of money, she said.
Not every year is a good year, not every season is trouble-free and there’s lots of paperwork involved in running the business.
Looking back on 2020, she said, the drop in the price of lobsters due to the COVID-19 pandemic shaved significant income from P.E.I. fleet owners.
Be prepared for the reality of working at sea, she added, which means physical labour in weather that doesn’t always guarantee smooth sailing.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” she said. “It’s a lot of heavy-lifting, a lot of pushing and pulling.” It’s also risky.
“I was hauling a dump one time, years ago, when the bow snapped and the hook came back, smashed me in the face and split my eye open,” she said.
For the first several years of fishing, she added, seasickness was her major challenge.
“When I first started fishing, I got sick, deadly, deadly sick. I don’t even know why I kept fishing. It was brutal,” she said.
Mccarthy admits she sometimes had her doubts about whether she wanted to keep on being a fish harvester, and she occasionally thought about quitting.
But when the chance came to own her own enterprise, she didn’t hesitate.
“I just love fishing.”