Dumping Day: The fall lobster season is underway in Nova Scotia

HALIFAX -

After a two day delay, the fall lobster season is underway along Nova Scotia’s south-west coast.

Friends and family gathered on the wharf in Eastern Passage as boats filled with gear waited for the 7:00 a.m. start time to head out to the lucrative fishing grounds off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Dumping Day is one of the busiest and most dangerous times for crews, which is why fisher Bradley Roma says safety is the number one priority.

“Get the gear off as safe as you can, look out for one another, and come home to your family, that’s the biggest thing,” says Roma.

Hundreds of boats set sail for the lobster fishing areas known as LFA 33 and LFA 34, which extends from Halifax on the Atlantic coast to Digby, N.S., along the Bay of Fundy.

Together, the two fishing areas account for more than one third of Canada’s lobster harvest.

Nova Scotia generated more than half of the $1.5-billion landed value of Canada's lobster harvest in 2019.

As well, more than half of the 3,000 commercial lobster fishing licences in the Maritimes are held by fishing enterprises in southwestern Nova Scotia.

Lobster fishing has been the backbone of the Maritimes' inshore fishing industry for the past 20 years, supporting about 7,500 direct jobs.

With files from The Canadian Press.