Lobster Licence Newfoundland

[Mellissa Sprock]

Over the last three years, we've seen a heavy decline in shrimp, almost 66 per cent, and we've seen a heavy decline on quota on crab, almost 40 per cent, so it was necessary for us to look at other species," says managing director Simon Jarding.

"The lobster was right here at our at our doorstep in Newfoundland, and lobster was basically flipped out of this province and not processed in any of the plants. So we felt it was an obligation to investigate and see if we could do more lobster," he said.

Specifically, lobsters were crammed into nearby holding pens, and it's believed they died due to a lack of oxygen, essentially suffocating the equivalent of thousands of pounds of lobster. Those that didn't die became weak and their quality was reduced.

While an impressive increase, those volumes are still small in comparison with the rest of the Atlantic provinces. In 2017, the total volume of lobster harvested in Newfoundland represented just three per cent of what was harvested in the Atlantic provinces.

It isn't just Quin-Sea Fisheries that has high hopes for the crustacean. Other harvesters and seafood processors are optimistic, too, according to David Decker, secretary-treasurer of the Fish Food and Allied Workers Union.

''We will be able to see trends'' he said, which will be an important tool for harvesters who are thinking of buying a lobster harvesting licence or for seafood processors thinking about investing more in this lucrative fishery.

A speed bump of sorts to live lobster exports that is being watched very closely by people in the industry is the coronavirus, the flu-like illness that can cause pneumonia and other severe respiratory symptoms.

To date, the number of confirmed cases in China has moved beyond 14,000, while the death toll is more than 300. Infections have been reported in 23 other countries, with nearly 150 confirmed cases and at least one death outside China.

A similar impact is not being felt by lobster exporters in Newfoundland, like Quin-Sea Fisheries, because direct flights to China with live lobsters onboard won't resume until later this year and the harvesting seasons for lobster are different in this province than Nova Scotia.

But since 2008, the maps show a red-hot spot growing along the coasts of Maine and southwestern Nova Scotia and enveloping the coastal area north of Boston, representing more and more lobster caught. Meanwhile, most of the areas below New York remain cold blue to indicate very few if any lobster are being brought to shore.

Most of the inshore lobster industry happens on the Scotian Shelf, a 700-kilometre section of the Continental Shelf off Nova Scotia bounded by the Laurentian Channel on the northeast near Newfoundland and the Gulf of Maine on the southwest.

According to the State of the Atlantic Ocean report released in April, sea surface temperatures here have steadily climbed while also periodically spiking. On the Scotian Shelf, the temperature peaked in 2012, reaching its warmest temperature since records began in 1985.

Once water temperatures rise to around 19 or 20 degrees lobster will likely move, says Cook. If the water warms faster than lobsters can scurry away, they can suffer physiological stress sufficient to kill them or suppress their immune systems to the point where they succumb to shell disease.

Acidification is also increasing as more man-made carbon dioxide emissions enter the ocean. The carbon dioxide dissolves in surface water to form carbonic acid, which is corrosive to calcium carbonate - the compound lobsters and other crustaceans need to produce their protective shells.

At the same time, the waters are becoming less oxygenated as deeper waters mix less with surface waters. When oxygen levels are too low, called hypoxia, species may flee an area before they suffocate.

In Long Island Sound (between New York and Connecticut) lobster declined by more than 70 per cent after a lethal shell disease broke out during the unusually warm summer of 1998, and the population has never recovered. Since then, catches south of Cape Cod have plummeted, falling from a peak of about 22 million pounds in 1997 to about 3.3 million in 2013.

There have been spikes in temperatures, in part thanks to climate-change driven marine heat waves (MHWs), which occur when surface temperatures exceed the seasonal average temperature for at least five days. One hit the Gulf of Maine in 2012 and created a glut of lobster, causing prices to tumble 70 per cent below normal in the U.S. and also lowering Canadian prices.

The fishery is divided into more than a dozen inshore lobster fishing areas (LFAs) around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, down the Scotian Shelf and into the Bay of Fundy, which have different seasons and limits ranging from 250 to 400 traps per licence.

Fisheries are a huge economic driver in communities across the province, with 17,669 jobs in fishing, processing, and fish farming in 2017. Most are found across rural Nova Scotia where populations are declining and ages increasing.

LeBlanc estimates he has cleared more than $300,000 in each recent six-month season, after paying the crew and for bait and fuel. He has put much of it back into his company for boat and licence payments, among other costs.

The John Harold is the second of its name and a major upgrade compared to the original. It has wet storage that can carry up to 30,000 pounds of live lobster in crates submerged in circulated seawater below decks, plus comforts like multiple bunks and two screens streaming satellite TV.

Many Atlantic Canadians wince when they think about cod, a once-abundant fish stock that dwindled to near extinction. A government moratorium in 1992 put about 30,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador out of work and ended a way of life that had endured for generations.

Newfoundland fishermen were at least able to eventually rebound by turning to crab and shrimp, Berry said, although warming waters have recently led to declines in northern shrimp and snow crab, according to the State of the Ocean report.

Sana Kavanagh, a commercial fisheries science liaison officer in MCG, is building that scientific ability in Indigenous fishing communities. First Nations groups come with concerns (like what handling or processing factors lead to injuries, and deaths in soft-shelled lobster, resulting in waste) and Kavanagh looks to turn those concerns into funded science projects that provide local employment.

DFO scientists like Nancy Shackell are looking at climate change impacts on fisheries, and the department is trying to introduce elements of ecosystem-based management, which studies how all species, water conditions, grasses, plankton and humans interact.

In the following weeks, Star reporters will tell stories from across the country; stories of resilience and adaptation. Members of Indigenous communities are living where the world is warming at an astonishing rate and their way of life is threatened. Prince Edward Islanders are defending their shores against rising seas and fierce storm surges.

This Conservation Harvesting Plan (CHP) for Atlantic halibut applies to groundfish licence holders from the following fleets when conducting Atlantic halibut fishing activities in NAFO's 4RST Zone Divisions during the management year from May 15, 2024 to May 14, 2025.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Quebec Region announces the opening and Management Measures for the Atlantic halibut fishery in NAFO Divisions 4RST for the Upper and Middle North Shore (UMNS) fixed gear fleet of less than 19.81 m under the Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQ) regime in 2024-2025.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is implementing a plan for the knowledge acquisition and development of the lobster fishery in fishing area 18. This plan includes the issuance of exploratory lobster licences for the 2024 season. DFO invites interested licence holders to submit an application for an exploratory licence for lobster in fishing subareas 18A to 18H by April 21, 2024.

The specific periods of the 2024 lobster fishing season for each of the Lobster Fishing Areas will be confirmed by Notice to Fish Harvesters or Variation Orders. The duration of the fishing season is 11 weeks for Areas 17AB and 18BCDGH and 12 weeks for Areas 15, 16 and Subarea 18I.

When interlacing coloured twine within existing rope, at a minimum, gear marking will be required at the top, middle and bottom of the vertical line (aligned with minimum requirements in the US) or, in a few fisheries, within every 27.4 metres throughout the length of the rope (aligned with existing practice in Gulf and Quebec Regions).

The top, middle and bottom gear marking requirement will be included in all conditions of licence of non-tended fixed gear fisheries, as well as crab trap and lobster trap fisheries, in Eastern Canada. The option of marking gear within every 27.4 metres will only be included in conditions of licence for fisheries that were subject to mandatory gear marking prior to 2020 only.

The coloured twine markings together represent a sequence. When inserting coloured twine markings at the top, middle and bottom, the rope used to attach a buoy to the fishing gear must have a minimum of three sequences dispersed on the rope in the following manner:

When inserting coloured twine markings within every 27.4 meters of existing rope, the rope used to attach a buoy to the fishing gear must have a minimum of three sequences of markings dispersed on the rope.

If your fishery does not currently have fishing area specific markings, please be mindful that fishing area specific markings may be introduced to fisheries other than snow crab and lobster in the future. This will affect the integrated coloured yarns configuration required in the rope for fisheries that do not currently have fishing area specific markings only.

It will not be supported as a gear marking requirement until it can be visible without having to cut into or open the rope to verify compliance with marking requirements. It will therefore not be part of the conditions of licence in 2020. Consideration will be given in the future to allow for the use of tracers should the need for external visibility be addressed.

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