There are just a few weeks left in the spring lobster season on Prince Edward Island, and while catches in many areas have been good, Island fishers are again frustrated by the prices they are being paid on the wharf.
At North Lake, P.E.I., Jamie Bruce said fishers are getting $6.50 a pound up to $7, and market prices are the same.
Bruce said that’s the same price lobsters were fetching 18 years ago.
“I went back in my records, and I keep a record every year. Actually I had a guy called me today. He said he he thinks in 1997 we even saw these prices,” Bruce said.
“So I went back as far as 2006 and we were very similar to what we are then, with the major difference. Everything else is either doubled or tripled in price. Bait. Fuel.”
Bruce said Island fishers seem to find themselves in this situation every spring season.
“We have a battle when there’s so many different districts across Atlantic Canada open and there’s lobster coming in, the buyers know … the product is going to come in and they can basically do what they want,” Bruce said.
“They can lower the price, and they can buy low and sell high when the market asks for the product later on in the high season in July and August.”
