Lobster fishermen in area 35 headed out onto the waters earlier today for the fall season.
LFA 35 stretches from Alma to Goose River on the New Brunswick side, and from Digby County to Cobequid Bay on the Nova Scotia side.
Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association President Colin Sproul says there are 97 licenses lobster licenses in the area, of which 15 belong to First Nations.
Sproul says low catches and volatility surrounding COVID-19 all but torpedoed the spring lobster season, but market demand is back up in a big way.
“There’s not too much live-held lobster right now in Atlantic Canada, and it should demand a really high price for the lobsters that are about to come ashore in LFA 35 given that there’s a huge percentage of selects.”
Sproul says when the lockdown was initiated in the spring, there were about 15 million pounds of live-held lobster reported in Southwest Nova.
That number was reduced to a million pounds or less by summer – indicating that the demand for lobster exports remains strong.
Sproul notes that landings in LFA 35 are often a bellwether for the season in LFA 34, which opens at the end of November.
