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SUMMERSIDE, N.L. - Reg MacDonald has been fishing for lobsters since the season opened on Saturday, but the Summerside man has no idea yet what he’ll get for payment on his hauls.
“We haven’t got a clue what we’re getting,” he said on Monday of the process that sees fishermen bring their lobsters to local plants and then waiting until the next week to see what they will be paid.
He said the plant is selling lobsters to the public for $12 a pound, but what it will pay the fishermen is anybody’s guess.
“It’s almost like going to work for a big job and not knowing what you’re going to get for it,” he said.
MacDonald said the opening weekend was a typical one for the area, with a cancellation because of the weather, which turned out to be nice days, only to open on some of the windiest days of the spring.
MacDonald set 220 pots on Saturday around Green Island in the Cox’s Cove area.
When he hauled them on Monday the catch was about 350 pounds.
That’s a little below the normal 400 and 500 pounds for the season opening, but he attributes the decrease to the weather.
Still, he said it was not bad for two days fishing.
“Usually, that’s your best day,” he said of the opening. “The rest it drops from that.”
With a dismal go at the crab this season, MacDonald is hoping his lobster catch will be good.
“I hauled 100 pots, 20 something pound of crab,” he said.
“That was dead loss this year.”
While some may say the decline is due to the weather, MacDonald has another idea.
“They can’t grow as quick as we can take them.”
And he expects things will get worse for other species as well.
A closing date for the lobster fishery has yet to be set.
