FORTUNE, N.L. — The Fortune Bay lobster fishery is in full swing and most harvesters are reporting catch rates just as good or “a bit better” than last year.
However, the opening price announced this past week was $8.11 per pound, 20 per cent below the price paid the first week in 2017.
Fortune fisher Rachael Durnford is enthusiastic about this year’s fishery so far.
“It’s going great,” she said. “The weather has been pretty good and our daily catch is a bit better or for sure on a par with last year.”
Grand Beach fisher Joan Follett, who has been fishing with her husband, Leonard, for at least 20 years, agrees with Durnford’s estimates regarding catch rates being up a little.
Last year was another good season for lobster returns in area 11, which takes in the whole of Fortune Bay from Point Crewe on the tip of the Burin Peninsula westwards as far as Francois.
The total recorded catch in the Newfoundland region was in excess of 6.5 million pounds with a total value over $45.5 million.
Fortune Bay, with only 11 per cent of lobster fishers in the province, accounts for approximately 40 per cent of the total provincial landings, valued at over $17 million.
Over the past seven years, no other single lobster fishing area has had that same level of recorded landings as Fortune Bay, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).
At last year’s prices for the nine-week lobster season, local fishers averaged approximately $7 per pound for the tasty crustaceans.
