Lobster fishers around Atlantic Canada are speaking out about this year’s prices, with some saying it’s unfairly low this season.
Prices haven’t officially been announced yet, but some fishers are saying they’ve heard it could be “dollars” lower than 2024’s figures.
“I would say the prices have never been lower than this, when you recognize the extreme upswing in costs to harvest lobster,” said Colin Sproul with the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association.
“I hear reports of our membership in southwest Nova Scotia giving up on the season and landing their traps, because they can’t fish at the prices that are being offered to them.”
The Maritime Fishers Union’s president says that rumoured buyers’ prices hover around $6 to $6.50 a pound, which he says is unreasonable and an insult to fishers.
The union’s executive treasurer, Bruce Wilson, says it feels like fishers are being taken advantage of.
“They wait until the last minute and drop the price and keep it as low as possible,” he said.
Sproul alleges the problem is price-setting, which is being undertaken by a few big industry groups.
“But that is illegal in Canada, and there’s a simple name to describe that: it’s a cartel,” he said.
However, the executive director of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance, Kris Vascotto, disagrees with that assertion, and says buyers have to consider a volatile market — while lobster is a premium product.
“I’ve watched a dramatic softening of the live market over the last month or so. It has been incredible with the increased turbulence that we’re seeing in the global economy … We’re watching the price drop in every single market that we access,” he said.
Meanwhile, Wilson says hundreds of local fishers are planning to stay docked on Friday.
Others are going so far as considering buying their own fish plants.
“Our lobster season’s only two months. We’ve got to do a full year of living out of two months,” said Wilson.
— with a file from Global News’ Rebecca Lau