According to DFO officials in southwestern Nova Scotia and around the Bay of Fundy at some point in the future measures will be put in place to protect larger lobsters. DFO want to keep more lobsters in the water so they can continue to reproduce. As there is a minimum size limit in the region, there is nothing to prevent fishermen from landing large lobsters.
At the spring meeting of the Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 34 Advisory Committee, Jim Jamieson from DFO’s Dartmouth office, told that the idea is not to talk for another two or three years, a decision has been made, it is a priority that mature lobsters, male and female, need some better protection.
DFO biologist Doug Pezzack explained that the rationale behind the protection of large lobsters is large female lobsters produce more eggs and better quality eggs, therefore protecting them will create more stability in the lobster population. In the meeting two measures were thrown out for consideration. First one entails implementing a maximize size measure, meaning no lobsters beyond a certain size can be landed. It’s like this in Maine where fishermen can’t catch lobsters with a five-inch (127 mm) or larger measure. Second one involves initiating a window slot measure, meaning you’d protect lobsters of a certain size for a period of time long enough to allow them to reproduce.
Ashton Spinney, co-chair of the LFA 34 committee, said this meeting won’t be with DFO science or management, it will be industry and industry alone to discuss all of the options. According to Jamieson the plan had been to initiate some kind of protection measure this fall. He said that DFO will allow industry time to discuss the issue, but the idea is not to stir the pot for two or three years.
