A day after a protest that blocked lobster trucks from leaving Cape Sable Island, lobster fishermen head out on the water again. The fishermen, upset over the low prices they are receiving for their catches, voted 548-25 at a meeting in Yarmouth on Tuesday afternoon to return to the lobster grounds and pull traps again.
Still they are not satisfied and have called for all-party committee of provincial politicians to join with representatives from the fishermen’s group to visit Ottawa in the days ahead to seek federal assistance so they won’t go under. It is said that they need to get between $4 and $5 a pound to cover their costs. They’re currently getting only about $3 a pound.
On Tuesday about 30 protesters prevented trucks loaded with low-priced lobster from leaving Cape Sable Island in the southwest part of the province. The fishermen and lobster boat captains searched trucks as they arrived at the causeway in an attempt to keep the lobster from heading to market. Fred Sears said he and his fellow protesters hoped to drive up the prices by slowing down the supply.
Sears told that some people in the industry questioned whether a blockade would work in a market demanding fewer luxury items like lobster. Denny Morrow, who is with the province’s fish packers association, said some of that lobster is not shippable. We couldn’t put it on a plane and send it to Brussels or Amsterdam to be distributed around Europe. It’s gotta go to a processing plant, be cooked and put up into a frozen product very quickly or we’re going to lose it, opined Morrow.
