Problems Within The Lobster Fishery

My apologies but for most of you this article probably won’t mean anything. It’s quite specific to the primary industry in the area where I currently live. This area happens to be the south west tip of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

As we all know, the recent downturn in the stock market and housing market has taken a toll on just about everyone, in every business. In particular, this area has suffered a great loss of income due to the local fishery being adversely affected by these events.

The local fishery I am referring to is the lobster fishery. For some people, lobsters are their one and only income and if they don’t make money during the half year long season they are in for some big trouble. The price for a pound of lobster this year has been in the range of $3 to $3.50 compared to a usual $5 + at this time of the year. Not only is the price bad but the big companies that buy these lobsters aren’t buying in quantity as they once did. For the past two or three years the buyers have been stuck with a stock of lobster that they can’t sell and end up losing money because of it.

It sounds bad right? Well, in my opinion, it could easily be a lot better. It’s well known that lobster fisherman in this area can be cocky, arrogant, and full of themselves. I’m guessing this comes from a period that ended about 3 years ago but had started 6 or 7 years prior where deck hands could make up to $100,000 a year (if you were on the right boat) and the captains were rolling in the dough. It got to a point where, if one wanted to buy a lobster license, boat, and gear it could cost a million to a million and a half dollars. This was all well and good at the time because it seemed like they had to world by the balls and that it would never end. Unfortunately for them, markets can crash just as fast as they can boom. This is what happened to the markets for lobsters.

This downturn in the market can most likely be attributed to the same cause as any market is having right now, the housing crisis. The lobster caught locally is, most often, shipped to the USA where it is sold on the various fish and super markets there. Unfortunately, when people don’t have money, they don’t go out to the high end seafood restaurants or buy the expensive stuff for home. They become much more conservative with their spending. This is bad for folks here at home.

This fisheries here in South West Nova are different than most. There is more money to be made here that most places that support a fishery. It’s one of the few places in the world that a lobster fisherman can fish for a season (end of November to end of May) and do nothing for the rest of the year. Most places would require a fisherman to gear his boat up for another type of  fishing in the off-season to make ends meet. This, at least to me, is one of the big problems here. It creates laziness.

You can say what you want but I was once a fisherman, when the going was really good too, until I realized it wasn’t for me and that there wasn’t going to be that kind of money in it forever. The first year I fished a full season at regular rates I made $35,000. Of course, I wasn’t fishing with one of the big shots but for six months of work it’s a damn good living. Then for the rest of the year I could draw Employment Insurance from the government and gallivant around like I was King Shit of Turd Hill.

It’s not all the fisherman that are afraid to lose their shirt. It’s mostly the ones that are in their mid twenties to early forties that bought their set up during the peak period and thought that life would remain AS-IS forever. These are the people that think “I’m doing fine as long as I can make the payments.”. That’s such a bad way of thinking. I know of some people who think they are going broke but have a cottage, two brand new vehicles (most often a 4×4 extended cab half ton truck and a huge SUV), new all-terrain vehicle (often more than one) and go on lavish vacations that cost in the vicinity of $10,000 to $20,000.

It’s really hard to feel bad for such people. They could easily sell off some of their belongings, say the cottage, to make up for some of the shortfall (although the housing market sucks so this might not work now) . It’s the monthly bills that cause the problem. If they actually owned some of this stuff they wouldn’t be so worried.

I’ve always compared fisherman to farmers. Their professions are similar and they face similar problems with marketing their products. The difference is that farmers have been able to adapt and use local resources, such as farmer’s markets, to sell their goods. It’s time that fisherman do the same, and some have been. The wife and I went for our usual grocery run this week and noticed there was a gentleman who was parked in a parking lot off the main drag in the town selling his lobsters out the back of his truck. This isn’t the most glorious way to make a living but it’s helping create a local demand for his product and he’s cutting out the middle men.

In addition to the above there has also been a movement by some fisherman to try and force the buyers to pay more. They have tried striking and even had a rally this weekend to try and raise support. Unfortunately, they are missing the point. You can’t just demand higher prices without the market being there for the product. The buyers who market the fish can’t simply pay more if they are going to lose money on it. If they don’t make any money no one does.

I guess what I am getting at is that we can’t always rely on the “usual” source of income to make a living. Sometimes we have to take things into our own hands and do what we can to survive. It’s a tough lesson for some around here but I hope, in the end, that they do. I also hope they are a bit more careful, if we ever see another spike in income from this fishery, in the way they spend their money. Maybe putting some away in a savings account for a “rainy day” might not be such a bad idea. That is what we landlubbers must do.