Lobster industry comes together on bycatch system

Three-year bycatch monitoring pilot program to kick in this fall

Cameras on board lobster fishing vessels was not an option that fishermen were looking to entertain.

And neither was a hail-out system where a crew – with a limited weather window opportunity – might have to wait hours for an observer before they could leave the wharf.

And so five fisheries organizations in southwestern Nova Scotia have come together to form the Southwest Lobster Science Society (SLSS) and have put together a three-year bycatch monitoring pilot project that will be implemented in this fall’s lobster fisheries in southwestern Nova Scotia and along the province’s south shore.

Bycatches are fish or other marine species that are caught unintentionally during specific fisheries.

The associations came up with a plan to offer fishermen an alternative to the bycatch monitoring program the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is offering, those who attended the South West Nova Scotia Lobster Forum in Yarmouth were told.

“To have this many groups come together on a common front is unheard of,” Heather Mulock said as she gave a presentation about the formation of the SLSS and details about the pilot program. “This is one area that we all share the same feelings on and are moving forward with.”

She stressed saying no altogether to any form of bycatch monitoring was not an option fishermen had.

The five groups that have formed the society and will be implementing the pilot program are the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association, Brazil Rock 33/34 Lobster Association, Coldwater Lobster Association, the Maritime Fishermen’s Union Local 9 and the Scotia Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association. The society has 10 board members, which includes two representatives from each association.

With funding from the Atlantic Fisheries Fund, the society has been approved for a three-year pilot project. Fisheries technicians are being hired. A project manager and a lead project assistant to serve as scheduler have also been hired.

Fishermen in the pilot pay $499 annually. Of that, the forum was told, $488 will cover the salaries of fisheries technicians, insurance, safety equipment, administration costs and other expenses, leaving just roughly $11 paid by each member to be set aside for any liability or unexpected issues that may come up. The associations, Mulock said, are not making any money off this effort.

During the season each licence holder in the pilot project will be required to bring a fisheries technician with them on one fishing trip. That technician will record bycatch data.

After DFO failed an audit in 2016 relating to bycatch monitoring, the department decided a system had to be implemented in the lobster fishery.

“DFO does not have a lot of bycatch monitoring data in the lobster industry,” Mulock said. In the case of the pilot, the society will retain ownership of the data that is collected.

“The Southwest Lobster Science Society wanted to not only capture data, but we wanted to own it so that if something came back from DFO that said something otherwise from what we were seeing in the fishery, we would have something to go back and say, ‘This is not what we are seeing,’” she explained.

Not all lobster licence holders have joined the pilot. The pilot represents about 52 per cent of the licence holders in LFAs 33, 34 and 35. Those not with the pilot will use DFO’s monitoring program.

There was a deadline months ago to join the pilot due to funding applications that needed to go in. Next season anyone not in the pilot who wants to join it will have that option. Likewise, anyone who wants to leave the pilot can do so. If they do, the DFO monitoring program will kick in for them.

The fisheries organizations feel the pilot they have come up with is a good one as it is industry-led.

“It is a big program. It’s going to be bumpy. It’s new for everybody,” said Mulock. “We really went into this thinking this was the best option for fishermen.”