NORTH SYDNEY, N.S. — Some relief for lobster fishers will come Tuesday when the Ballast Ground Fisheries plans to purchase a small amount of product from local harvesters.
“I haven’t got the product sold yet, I can’t keep my fishermen in any longer,” said Marlene Brogan, co-owner of the fisheries. “I have to try to do something.”
The Ballast Grounds purchases product from seven ports around the island, including the one in North Sydney.
However, they’ve been unable to sell all of the lobster they have in stock, and therefore have been unable to buy more.
Leaving live lobsters in storage comes with a risk of death for those in tanks, so they must be moved as quickly as possible and current market conditions have meant thousands of pounds of lobster lost by Brogan’s business alone.
In spite of that, the plan for Tuesday was to purchase a 600-pound quota from boats.
Lobster fishers who call North Sydney their home port had been docked for several days due to those market conditions but they were back on the water on Monday.
Brogan said many were moving gear in anticipation of some heavy winds that could cause some damage. She couldn’t say if they were harvesting lobster or not.
Last time Brogan saw a market as bad as this one was in 2013 and she hopes to see some political input into the industry soon.
“All the buyers are floating lobster. It’s really bizarre they have us doing this. Ruining the reputation of Cape Breton lobster is all we are doing.”
