Do you think it's realistic to make V-notching mandatory?
Evidence of meeting #17 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was lobster.
Evidence of meeting #17 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was lobster.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
There would have to be somewhere along the chain where if a V-notched lobster got caught, then someone would have to get punished.
11:40 a.m.
As an Individual
Yes, and it's that way now. But why would you? Wouldn't it be easier to say you cannot land any female lobster with over a five-inch carapace size, as Maine has done, right? Do you know what I mean?
11:40 a.m.
As an Individual
It's more sensible. It's very easy to enforce. And it's mandatory.
I don't see why you would V-notch anything over five inches, in a way. Well, I see it here now, because you've landed them. But if you put a female.... Lately we've thought in our district of saying any female over five inches and any male over six inches have to be returned to the water.
I don't have the statistics with me, but we did the catch rates on those lobsters last fall, district-wide. Fundy North, our association, did that. And definitely you would be returning...not a huge percentage, but quite a few large lobsters to the water to be a spawning population to keep this fishery healthy. We're catching more lobsters now on the first day than I caught in a season 25 years ago.
11:40 a.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, gentlemen. You have probably noticed the very attractive seal skin hat that I placed on the table. As we say back home: there's a good seal.
11:40 a.m.
Some voices
Oh, oh!
11:40 a.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
That is a very good place.
I wanted to see if it was a factor here. Are there more grey seals in the area?
11:40 a.m.
As an Individual
In the area I fish we are more plagued with the harbour seal than with the grey. There are a few greys. But the problem with the harbour seal is the stealing of the bait out of the traps. It pokes its head in through the hoop and rips the bait off. And of course, a lobster trap with no bait doesn't catch any lobsters.
In my overview of the fishery over the years, I would say the seals have increased greatly in our area.
11:40 a.m.
As an Individual
There's a huge increase in the number of seals in our area. We're seeing a lot more now. We have a few down home. It's just a different area. We're about 40 miles apart. The harbour seals don't bother our bait; it's just the grey seals. They take the heads and all when they go.
But as weir fishermen we fish huge sardine traps, the stationary traps in the water. I own shares in three of those. That's another love of mine. But also, in the nighttime there are so many seals that they lie across the mouth of the weir and won't let the fish down the weir. They go around, they bang, and the fish just won't go down. The sardines are scared away and won't go near the weir.
So the seals are a big problem. When I was young, my father used to hunt seal for a bounty, for the jaws. God forbid you should ever do that today. But the seals are one of the biggest problems, a huge problem, especially the grey seals. I see them coming more and more every year in our area.
11:40 a.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
Earlier, following some questions by one of my colleagues, you talked about tidal pounds. I would like you to elaborate a little bit on that. Have other organizations or the province of New Brunswick done research on that? Has the issue been studied? Have you had to intervene in the past? Have you ever asked a department to conduct a more comprehensive investigation? In some conditions, can the tidal pound cause damage?
11:40 a.m.
As an Individual
Are you talking about the tidal pounds or the tank house? There's a big difference there, to me.
11:45 a.m.
As an Individual
The tidal pounds have been around since the 1920s or 1930s. It's almost a hundred-year-old technology now, I guess. But the tank houses have come in the last 15 years. Basically, you can build a tank house anywhere in the world. There's one in Kentucky because it's close to a FedEx. I don't know of any studies done, but everybody in the business seems to accept that it's a poorer quality of lobster in the tank house.
At one time at home--and it isn't done anymore--they used to bring soft-shell lobsters from Maine in September and hold them, let them harden up and feed them, and actually some years they'd get more weight out of that pound. That's when lobsters were scarcer and there was a better market in the fall. They could get more weight out of the pound than they actually put in. They'd usually feed them codfish bones and salt herring, stuff like that.
But the tidal pound only works in areas.... We have a 28-foot rise and fall of the tide at home. It's a dam about six feet below water up, and it has slats in it so the water goes through the slats and adds air to the water. When there's high water, it changes all the water in the pound, and when the tide goes back out you have six feet of water there for the next four or five hours to keep the lobsters alive until the tide comes in again. There's a diver who goes down every few days and checks them. They add extra air into the water by aeration, to keep them good.
Definitely, the buyers at home feel it's a better way of keeping lobsters as far as the quality is concerned, but they don't seem to have as good an outcome. They have less shrinkage, as they call it, with the pounds than with the tank houses.
Also, in southwest Nova Scotia there's not enough tidal range and too much fresh water for the pounds to work. If a lobster comes in contact with fresh water, it dies very quickly, so the tidal pounds work in places where there is no fresh water at all. If you have a level of fresh water on top, it lies there and kills the lobsters.
11:45 a.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
You said that many lobsters were ready to be sold. There is an economic recession in the United States, which is one of your main markets. There will be others, eventually.
Do you think there is a risk of dumping in 2009?
11:45 a.m.
As an Individual
I'm not qualified to answer that. I really don't know enough about how the dealers work. It's too sick a business for me to really know how it works, and who does what with what. I'm not going to hazard a guess if I don't know anything about it.
Maybe Steve does, but I don't.
11:50 a.m.
As an Individual
There will be some lobsters, I think, going quite cheaply this spring, to get rid of them, because the new crop is starting on the market now, and the price is dropping on the new crop.
11:50 a.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
Dumping does indeed involve selling surplus stock at a very good price. It's logical. Are you afraid that might happen in 2009?
