Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to speak to our history of sharing the waters of the Bay of Fundy with North Atlantic right whales.
First, I'll give a little bit about our organization. The Grand Manan Fishermen's Association represents fishermen on Grand Manan and White Head islands. These islands are at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy in southwestern New Brunswick. Our connection to the mainland is a one and a half hour ferry ride, so we are quite isolated.
Our economy is dependent on the traditional fishing industry. Our 200 members participate in lobster, scallop, groundfish and herring fisheries. They are mainly multi-licensed owner-operators, which creates less dependence on any one species, though lobster has been the backbone of our industry for the past decade.
Landed value for our community averages over $70 million in the past five years. We have a healthy and vibrant fishery. What makes our fishery so successful is the ecosystem of the Bay of Fundy. This ecosystem is also attractive to not only commercial fishing species but to marine mammals as well.
Notably, the Grand Manan basin in the Bay of Fundy has been identified as critical whale habitat for North Atlantic right whales. For decades, our fishery and right whales have coexisted in the Bay of Fundy. We have watched as their population dipped to below 300 in the 1990s and surged to over 500 a few years ago. Throughout that time our fishery continued to flourish.
Our lobster season runs from the second Tuesday in November until June 29. North Atlantic right whales traditionally frequented the Bay of Fundy from July to early October. Except for the occasional outlier, there is very limited overlap between our lobster fishery and right whales.
A notable exception was 2006. During that November, about 30 right whales were lingering in the Bay of Fundy. The Department of Fisheries gave notice that they were considering delaying the opening of our season until the whales left, unless we could develop a plan that would protect them.
The most lucrative time of the fishing season is the first few weeks. We open about two weeks before the large districts in Southwest Nova. Our price tends to drop as soon as they open, so there was a huge financial incentive for our fishermen to find a solution. With less than 24 hours' notice, we held a meeting that over 90% of license holders in our district participated in. From that meeting we developed what would become our right whale mitigation strategy, which is still in place today.
The concepts were simple but effective. Notify fishermen where the whales were and fishermen would not set in those areas. We set up a call-in telephone line with a recording that would give the latest sightings, as well as provide an opportunity for fishermen to report if they sighted a whale. Throughout the years, we expanded and modified the plan. We talked to right whale researchers who suggested that if we see a right whale, the best plan is to leave the gear in the water until the whale leaves, thereby reducing the risk of entanglement.
While we maintain the call-in line, we now text the locations to fishermen so they receive them as soon as possible. We've worked with the department to have the locations broadcast on notices to mariners. It is truly an evergreen plan into which industry has invested a great deal of time, effort and money.
Our season did open in 2006 after a one-day delay due to weather. That storm broke up the feed and the right whales left within a few days. Two important lessons were learned. First, fishermen fished with right whales, and none were harmed or entangled. Second, the same scenario in 2018 would likely result in fishermen missing the first two weeks of the season and not be able to fish long after the whales were gone from the area, causing undue economic hardship to the industry.
Since 2010 there has been a significant reduction in right whale sightings in the Bay of Fundy, even during times when they are traditionally there. There are a lot of theories about why that is, but no one knows for sure. Regarding the area that was identified as critical right whale habitat and therefore subject to more stringent management measures, an ongoing question for our fishermen is, if critical whale habitat is no longer being used by right whales, does it still apply?
What happened in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2017 appears to have been a perfect storm. We're certainly not experts on what went wrong, but we did recognize that there would be impacts throughout the entire fishing industry. We had many discussions last winter with our colleagues about moving forward, and we all recognize that the answer is going to be different from area to area and fishery to fishery. One size will not fit all.