Speculate. That’s about all fishers, or anyone else, can do about the season-opening price for lobster in any given year, and Ken Blanchard shrugs off any suggestion it will go much above $8 a pound starting out.
Bluster among landlubbers has it nearly twice that, $15.
With bigger wind to deal with, Blanchard, who makes a living on live-catch lobster and crab as a licensed fisher plying waters of the outer Bay of Islands, sees active storms and bigger local backwater icefields on Penguin Arm and Goose Arm as more pressing concerns as the harvest looms.
Some two miles of ocean ice seen jammed into the bottom of the greater Middle Arm inlet as the wind began poses a real threat to crab fishers and lobstermen alike, Blanchard predicts. Damaged and destroyed gear stands a real probability, even this weekend, he said.
Forecast southeast winds and stormy seas forecast Wednesday and Thursday led the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, managers of the resource, to delay the permitted two-day presetting of traps until Saturday. The set was originally intended for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The season will now officially open at daylight on Monday morning.
While the starting dockside price for lobster has yet to be determined, the negotiated opening price for snowshoe crab this year is $4.55 a pound, up about a quarter dollar from last year.
Lobster prices in 2017 averaged around $10 a pound with highs of $13.50 at the beginning of the season and down to as low as $7 in June.
Some fishers sold them for as little as $6 apiece during mid-season last year. An average lobster weighs about a half kilogram (1.1 pounds).
Many factors affect the market for crustaceans.
Above all, sustainability, including impacts wrought by changes in ocean temperatures and marine ecosystems, and lessons derived elsewhere.
Can lessons learned from areas such as New England make the Newfoundland and Labrador lobster fishery more sustainable? That is one of the questions.
Humber Arm Coastal Matters, a special guest speaker’s series presented by the Humber Atlantic Coastal Action Plan, continues in free public forum today in Corner Brook at the Forest Centre, Grenfell Campus, beginning 12:30 in room 2014.
Today’s session plays host to Dr. Arnault Le Bris, research scientist with the Centre for Fisheries Ecosystems Research, Marine Institute of Memorial University, for a presentation on climate vulnerability and resilience in the American lobster fishery.
All Coastal Matters presentations are free of charge and open to the public, no RSVP required.
Social notes worth noting:
The Gillams Volunteer Fire Dept. took to social media reporting its first online auction fundraiser as “a huge success.”
Fire Chief Cecil Kerr commended everyone who donated items, bid and outbid their friends in supporting the March event, which was managed online by local volunteer Pam M. Park.
Some $1,500 raised through the auction will help the volunteer fire brigade acquire a Jaws of Life extraction device for use in emergency rescue.
Monday cards back
Meanwhile, in hometown McIvers, the 50-plus Golden Seabreeze Seniors Club has resumed its weekly Monday card games at the clubhouse on Wharf Road.
Club president Pat Gambin also noted that Thursday evening card games will continue in the usual weekly 8 p.m. time slot as well.
Dave White welcomes your Bay of Islands news and events information at 660-5712, or email at: [email protected].
