The lobster has been told that they should ensure that undersized lobsters and egg-bearing females are not part of the catch. It is obviously illegal to land either of these types of lobsters and if they are found in a shipment of lobsters bound for market the industry runs the risk of seeing entire shipments turned away at the border. Allan MacLean, DFO director of conservation and protection for the Maritimes region, told that the industry needs to be more cautious and take steps to ensure that the lobsters they land are legal.
Allan MacLean, DFO director of conservation and protection for the Maritimes region expressed that their officers will be certainly on the wharves and on the water and at facilities checking for compliance and we expect that our U.S. counterparts will be doing the same at the Canada-U.S. border.
MacLean also said that their concern is that if they find substantial quantity of illegal lobster in a particular shipment, that they will actually refuse entry into the U.S. of that shipment. That’s an onus that everyone in the industry shares, and it starts right on the fishing boats. He added that these were significant violations with substantial quantities of undersized lobster, so that’s a real concern to them.
It is informed that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans put additional officers in southwestern Nova Scotia to coincide with the opening of the lobster fishing area 34 and 33 commercial fisheries.
