Cold, storms, whales and seals 'playing havoc' with gulf lobster season, fisherman says

A New Brunswick fisherman is calling this year's lobster season in the Gulf of St. Lawrence one of the worst he's ever seen.

Ernest Robichaud of Tabusintac said a reduction in the number of fishing days because of storms, North Atlantic right whale sightingsand colder than normal weathermeans he's out at least $100,000 this season.

"Somebody's going to have to wait for some money," said Robichaud.

"I can survive, but I'm thinking of the younger lads and [they're] gonna have it pretty rough."

There are a numberof reasons for the poor season.

An early-season storm caused damage to some traps, and the weather claimed several fishing days.

Cooler weather meant lobsterswere staying in deeper water further offshore, but whale sightings meant fishermen couldn't fish in those waters.

Extension denied

Robichaud said he was hopeful the Department of Fisheries and Oceans would approve a request from the Maritime Fishermen's Union to extend the season by four days, but it was turned down.

Martin Mallet, the executive director of the union, said talks with DFO have not been fruitful, and other jurisdictions have also had their requests for an extended seasonrejected.

"The explanation we got from DFO was concerns for protecting the stock of lobster and also because they wanted to be consistent with the other decisions for other zones," said Mallet.

Robichaud said the extra four days wouldn't have made the season a success, but would havehelped. He doesn't think the union pushedhard enough forthe extension.

"I don't think they put enough pressure or they didn't emphasize enough what we wanted and what we needed," said Robichaud.

Mallet said he understands the frustration Robichaud and other lobster fishermen are feeling, but said the union did all it could.

"Our members don't necessarily always see all of the background work that's done. All the efforts that their organization has to do to try to move the dial on some of these decisions," said Mallet.

14 days lost

Mallet said Fisheries and Oceanscould do more to help fishermen by being more understanding when closing certain zones because of whale traffic.

"If the planes are up there every day looking for these whales they could, instead of closing the area for two weeks, just monitor the situation and see if the whale comes out of the zone," said Mallett.

Robichaud said he missed out on 14 days of fishing during the season, which is considerable asthe season only lasts for 60 days.

But it's not just whales having a negative impact on the season, he said.

"The seals are playing havoc with us too," said Robichaud.

"They're stealing all our bait. Most days I have close to 100 traps with no bait left on them."