Oyster spat collectors colliding with wild oyster fishery in West Prince, says fisherman

Gary Milligan has 40 years of experience raking wild oysters in western P.E.I., and he says this year gear set up for aquaculture is threatening to get in the way of his ability to make a living.

Milligan rakes oysters in the Coleman area in the fall, and he said the area around the public fishing bed ground is cluttered with collectors designed to catch young oysters. The captured baby oysters are laid out on private aquaculture farms to grow to market size.

Milligan said he has trouble navigating around the collectors to get to the public fishing beds.

"I understand that they put them out to collect little oysters — spat, they're called — but every year there seems to be more and more, and not only that but in the fall of the year we have to fish around them," he said.

"There's just too many on the water, and some are even on the fishing ground. I don't think that's right. You just can't manoeuvre around them enough to get where you want to go, to fish where you want to fish."

Aquaculture growing

According to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, there was a 12 per cent increase in the number of licenses to collect oyster spat from 2017 to 2018.

Milligan would like to see the oyster collectors out of the water by the time the fall fishery starts Sept. 15.

The P.E.I. Shellfish Association says the increase in collectors is to supply growth in oyster aquaculture in the province.

DFO says before a licence is granted other activity in the water, including navigation, is taken into account.

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With files from Laura Chapin