About 1,450 lobster boats to head out on Day 1 of Canada's largest lobster fishery

Lobster boats, loaded with pots and buoys, head from West Dover, N.S. on November 29, 2022 for the opening of the season in Lobster Fishing Area 33. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan)

HALIFAX -

Fishers aboard roughly 1,450 boats in Canada's largest lobster fishery are expected to set their traps in the early hours of Tuesday off southern Nova Scotia.

The annual "dumping day" for lobster fishing areas 33 and 34 is set for the final Monday of November, but there was a one-day delay this year due to rough weather.

Dwayne Surette, a federal Fisheries Department manager, said in an interview that waves are expected to subside to one metre and winds will be light on Tuesday morning -- good conditions for the vessels' departure.

He says the first day of the season is always the most dangerous as each boat can be loaded with between 300 and 400 traps, a number that reduces the stability of the fishing vessels.

"It gives the boats a bit more of top-heavy roll, and this ... creates the risk of (crew members) falling overboard," he said.

The boats in area 33 -- which stretches from Cow Bay in the Halifax area down to Shelburne County -- will be leaving about 7 a.m., while the vessels in area 34 -- which extends from southern portions of Shelburne County around to Digby County -- will depart at 5 a.m.

Surette says the departure time permitted for area 34 is a bit earlier because rougher weather is forecast in the evening in that part of the ocean.

The fisheries manager said last year the season for area 34 was delayed about seven days due to rough weather.

In 2023-24, the two fishing areas had combined landings of 24,000 tonnes, creating a landed value of approximately $558 million.

Last year, inshore lobster represented 62 per cent of the total landed value from all species caught in the Bay of Fundy and off Nova Scotia's eastern shores. Over half of that catch came from lobster fishing areas 33 and 34.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2024.

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