FREDERICTON - Canada's high-flying loonie is bad news for Maritime lobster fishermen, but consumers of the tasty crustaceans could be in for a treat.
Fishermen in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are bracing for a difficult year as the fall fishing season opens on the Bay of Fundy amid reports of low prices and weak markets.
Most of the lobsters caught in the Maritimes are exported to the United States - roughly 70 per cent of the total catch.
Melanie Sonnenberg of the Grand Manan Fishermen's Association in New Brunswick said Wednesday fishermen are caught in a crunch between rising operating costs, especially for fuel, and lobster prices that are plummeting because of the strong Canadian dollar.
"People are concerned about what this season could bring given the value of our dollar," Sonnenberg said in an interview.
"The value of the loonie has a direct impact on the price of our lobster. At the same time, our costs have never been higher for diesel fuel, and operating expenses in general are up. Everybody is going out on the water with a lot to think about and a lot to contend with."
Sonnenberg said fishermen won't know until later this week exactly what price their catches will fetch from buyers at the wharf, but she said indications are that it will be lower than usual.
"Rumours abound," said lobster boat captain Hubert Saulnier in Meteghan, N.S.
"We know we got $4.50 a pound last year on opening day but the buyers now are telling us we are going to be very, very lucky if we get $4.50 again this year."
It's too early to say whether the lower prices will be reflected in lower costs for consumers, but Saulnier said it's reasonable to expect that lobsters sold commercially this fall and winter should be cheaper than usual.
"It comes from us to the buyer, to the broker, to the middle man, to the supplier, to the restaurant or seafood market, so if any of those participants need extra cash, that would prevent consumers from getting the full benefit," Saulnier said.
"Still, prices for consumers should be lower."
Consumer prices for lobster vary widely, depending on location and time of the year. During the spring and summer seasons, it was not uncommon to see cooked lobster in Fredericton selling for between $11 and $12 per pound.
The fall lobster season opened this week in the Bay of Fundy off southern New Brunswick, and it's scheduled to open later this month in southwestern Nova Scotia.
In addition to concerns about low prices, fishermen were shaken by a tragic death on the opening day of the fall fishery in New Brunswick.
Clifford Nodding, 54, of Beaver Harbour, N.B., died after his lobster boat sank in the frigid Bay of Fundy - a harsh reminder of the dangers faced by Atlantic fishermen.
Saulnier, who represents the Maritime Fishermen's Union in southwestern Nova Scotia, said uncertainty in the industry is causing labour problems as young fishermen leave home in favour of more reliable and larger paycheques in the Western oilfields.
"In the last few years, incomes have dropped drastically," he said of the Maritime fishing industry. "Some of the fishermen who went West in the summer have come back to try again this fall, but now they're saying that when they go back out West, they're going to stay there."
Colin MacDonald, CEO of the Nova Scotia seafood company Clearwater Fine Foods, said change is needed in the lobster industry in Atlantic Canada.
MacDonald said the exchange rate on the Canadian dollar is what kept lobster prices high over the past decade or so, but that is changing now that the U.S. greenback is worth less than the loonie.
"Four or five years ago, when you sold a lobster to the States for $5 a pound, you were getting $8 Cdn," MacDonald said.
"Today, when you're selling lobster for $5 a pound, you're getting $4.50 Cdn."
MacDonald said uncertainties about supply and costs have discouraged people from investing in the lobster industry.
"We just simply, as a country, have failed to let the industry organize in a rational fashion that will encourage investment and allow a return on any investment made in the marketplace to create a brand," said MacDonald whose Halifax-based company buys 3.6 million kilograms of lobster a year.
MacDonald said another problem is unbridled competition in the lobster industry.
He said Clearwater's main competitors are people who rent trucks, then head to the wharves to outbid companies like his for lobster, often for just a few cents more per pound.
He said those people then drive to Boston and sell the lobster for as much as 50 cents more per pound than they paid - with no overhead or significant costs.
"That's the structure of the industry," MacDonald said.
"As long as that's the way the industry is, you're going to have these continuous problems; you're going to have good times and bad times, you're going to go through cycles of high shore prices, low shore prices and uncertainty of markets. The industry should be rationalized."
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