P.E.I.'s snow crab season wrapping up as right whale protection begins
Nancy Russell | CBC News | Posted: April 19, 2024 9:00 AM | Last Updated: April 19
Island fishers with larger quotas prepare to use ropeless gear in case of closure
An early start to the season is paying off for many P.E.I. snow crab fishers, with good catches and better prices than last year.
An added bonus: for the second straight year, most will have caught their quota before endangered North Atlantic right whales move in to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, prompting protective measures to prevent entanglement in fishing gear.
The fishery opened April 1, thanks to the lack of ice cover this winter.
Last year, the season started on April 13, and on April 3 the year before. Unlike the lobster fishery, there is no set opening day.
"The objective is to get on the water early because the right whales are going to show up, and so that's why we got on the water April 1," said Carter Hutt, who fishes out of Northport, P.E.I.
"It's great because we do lobsters too. So we don't have to do both jobs at the same time."
The bulk of the snow crab fleet is based in the Tignish area, including some fishers with larger quotas who will be fishing longer than the inshore boats.
"It's a blessing to get out early. We got hit with the whales two years ago ... [so] at least you know you're ahead of the game. We never shut down, but we moved a lot of gear," said Alden Gaudet.
"We were literally coming to the harbour and being told the whales are in our area, pick our gear up, move 30 miles, go home, hit the bed and somebody phones you: 'OK, the whales hit your area,' then we're going out again, moving 30 miles."
WATCH | Good catches and better prices mark P.E.I. snow crab season:
Gaudet said the situation improved when they connected with the Canadian Wildlife Federation, which loaned them ropeless, or on-demand gear that allowed them to go back into the closed areas.
"But it took pretty much a month for all that to happen. So there was a lot of headaches for that whole month," Gaudet said.
Better prepared
Gaudet said he has some more quota to fish from other sources, so he expects to be fishing into the middle of May, which could be the time the right whales will arrive.
"I keep an eye on the whale interaction map, and there hasn't been really any seen yet in Canada," he said.
"[The whales are] still off Boston. We hope they stay there longer, but with the ice being gone so early this year, it's hard to say."
Gaudet said fishers are much better prepared this year than they were two years ago in case of closures due to right whales.
"This year, we've lobbied to be able to immediately remove our buoys from these traps and use this ropeless, on-demand [system], without having to wait 48 hours to reset back in these areas. So it will make things a lot easier," he said.
"We're all prepared for this now. A couple of years ago we were not prepared for this. We'd never experienced it. It was all something new to us back then."
A couple of years ago, we were not prepared for this. We'd never experienced it. It was all something new to us back then.
—Alden Gaudet, snow crab fisherman
Transport Canada put speed restrictions in place in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as of April 17, and vessels larger than 13 metres can't travel more than 10 knots in much of the gulf.
The restrictions in the area continue until Nov. 15.
Gaudet said he's OK with the protective measures.
"It's all about surviving, and having [the whales] survive. So we all have to co-operate and work together," he said.
"It's just these zones are closed for way too long whenever the whales are passing through, versus ... total closures when they're foraging in these areas."
Prices and quality good
As his season in Northport wraps up, Hutt said catches have not been as good as last year's, but overall still "pretty good."
The quota fishers can catch, he said, is down 27 per cent in 2024, because the number of snow crab counted in a survey last summer was down.
"They do trawl surveys in the summertime, in July, August, on the crab bottom by towing a net and they estimate the biomass," said Hutt, who has been fishing snow crab since 1985. "They started in 1988 with the trawl surveys, and we feel it's pretty accurate. They seem to do a pretty good job."
Hutt said the price the fishers are getting in 2024 is better than last year, but still down from the record prices of about $8 per pound a few years ago.
"Last year we only got $2.25 [a pound], and $3.75 is what I'm hearing [this year]. We didn't get any paychecks yet, but that's what everybody seems to be saying," he said.
"I think a $5 range ... everybody would be quite happy [with]. But our price of fuel and our price of bait has gone crazy because we can't catch our own bait anymore here."