At the break of day on November 10, Grand Manan lobster fisherman Laurence Cook joined fishermen throughout the Fundy Isles to leave port and set his 375 traps. After returning to take on bait, he went back to haul at 6 p.m. The first trap, which had been on the bottom for only nine hours, had 33 lobsters that were keepers. "That kind of catch in that short of time is incredible," he points out.
     While last year was the best season that New Brunswick lobster fishermen had ever seen, this season they are seeing "the second highest landings with an even better price," says Cook. "I'm shocked. Every year they say it won't be like last year."
     Some Grand Manan boats were catching 10,000 pounds in a single day, with 4,000 pounds being the lowest amount caught. With some boats bringing in 25,000 to 30,000 pounds in the first week, and the price averaging $6 a pound on Grand Manan, Cook observes that "a tremendous amount of money is coming in very quickly" that then gets pumped into the local economy.
     Stuart McKay, manager of Paturel International's operations on Deer Island, estimates that catches may be down 10% to 15% from the high of last year, adding, "Last fall was an extraordinary fall -- the highest we've seen." He notes that after the first five days this year catches fell off pretty quickly. Cook guesses that within a week fishermen were bringing in about half of what they caught on the first day of hauling.
     Along with excellent catches, fishermen are reaping the benefits of a $2 jump in the boat price. At the start of last year's season, the price paid to the fishermen was $4.25 a pound, while this year the average was $6.25. It has now increased to $6.50. "That's pretty good money," points out McKay. The main reason for the increase is the high value of the U.S. dollar compared to the Canadian dollar. "We trade in U.S. dollars," McKay notes, with the U.S. dollar now worth $1.325 Canadian. "When the U.S. dollar is high it's very good for Canadian lobster fishermen," says Cook.
     While there is speculation for why catches have continually been increasing, Cook, who is chair of the Lobster Sector of the Grand Manan Fishermen's Association, says, "I haven't got a clue." Some researchers point to the decline in the groundfish stocks such as cod, which are a predator of lobsters, and it's also believed that, with the warming of waters to the south, lobsters have been migrating up the coast to colder water. Cook doesn't believe that's true. He notes that in the grey zone, the waters around Machias Seal Island that are disputed by the U.S. and Canada, most of the female lobsters over a pound and a half have been v-notched by Maine fishermen, which they do as part of the state's lobster management strategy. Where Cook fishes, though, none of the lobsters are v-notched, so he believes there is no evidence that lobsters are moving north.
     Cook says the amount of bait being put on the bottom by fishermen may be having an impact on the stocks. His grandfather fished from World War II to 1971 and would put up 12 hogsheads, or seven tonnes, of salt herring for an eight-month season. Cook now uses a tonne of fresh herring and a quarter tonne each of mackerel and rockfish a day. "In eight days, we exceed what he used in eight months," Cook points out.
     But with fisheries research underfunded in Canada, Cook says "we're in the dark" about the reasons for the increasing size of the lobster population. "You can't study the western side of the Bay of Fundy for $10,000," he says, adding, "Their guesses aren't all that good."
     While lobster fishermen are currently benefiting from record catches, they also fear for the future. With the warming of the waters, which is stressful to lobsters, fishermen worry about an outbreak of shell disease, which caused the lobster population in Long Island Sound to collapse. Cook says fishermen also are concerned about the spread of diseases because some of the lobster pound operators bring in product from Maine, where the waters are warmer.
      The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has been working with fishermen to set triggers, so that if a sharp decline in catches is seen there would be a cutback in fishing effort. "DFO and the industry take it very seriously and are trying to be proactive and be prepared for a failure," says Cook, pointing to what happened when the cod fishery collapsed.
     Concerning the grey zone fishery this year, which extends for Canadian fishermen from the first of July to just before the Lobster Fishing Area 38 season opens on the second Tuesday of November, Cook says that there were some areas where there was a fair amount of controversy between U.S. and Canadian fishermen, although there was no violence. "There are some U.S. fishermen you can work with, and there are some Canadian fishermen you can work with," says Cook. "There are also U.S. and Canadian fishermen you can't work with. I've found that if you treat people with respect, they generally reciprocate."

New government may help with getting foreign workers
     Along with the income to fishermen, the opening of the lobster season brings increased employment for processors. Paturel currently is employing about 130 people at its Deer Island lobster processing plant, and that number could increase to over 140 during the holiday season.
     Last spring Paturel and other employers in Canada who hire foreign workers had raised concerns about the federal government's changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program that capped the number of workers at one work site at 20% in July and 10% next year. Also, foreign workers who have been working in Canada for four years would not be allowed to come back for four years. Paturel, which hires many people from the Philippines, ended up being short about 150 workers last spring and had to process in Massachusetts about 1.5 million pounds of live lobster that would have been processed on Deer Island. According to McKay, Paturel currently is employing about 65 Filipinos, with 40 through the Temporary Foreign Workers Program and the rest having established residency in Canada.
     McKay, though, notes that the new Liberal government is interested in helping the businesses that have been struggling with these problems. "I'm very hopeful to get some resolution to the labor issues in the next year, not only here but in Atlantic Canada." The company then will be able to get the number of workers it needs so that all of the lobsters can be processed locally.