P.E.I.'s snow crab season wrapping up as right whale protection begins
CBC
An early start to the season is paying off for many P.E.I. snow crab fishers, with good catches and better prices than last year.
An added bonus: for the second straight year, most will have caught their quota before endangered North Atlantic right whales move in to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, prompting protective measures to prevent entanglement in fishing gear.
The fishery opened April 1, thanks to the lack of ice cover this winter.
Last year, the season started on April 13, and on April 3 the year before. Unlike the lobster fishery, there is no set opening day.
"The objective is to get on the water early because the right whales are going to show up, and so that's why we got on the water April 1," said Carter Hutt, who fishes out of Northport, P.E.I.
"It's great because we do lobsters too. So we don't have to do both jobs at the same time."
The bulk of the snow crab fleet is based in the Tignish area, including some fishers with larger quotas who will be fishing longer than the inshore boats.
"It's a blessing to get out early. We got hit with the whales two years ago ... [so] at least you know you're ahead of the game. We never shut down, but we moved a lot of gear," said Alden Gaudet.
"We were literally coming to the harbour and being told the whales are in our area, pick our gear up, move 30 miles, go home, hit the bed and somebody phones you: 'OK, the whales hit your area,' then we're going out again, moving 30 miles."
WATCH | Good catches and better prices mark P.E.I. snow crab season:
Gaudet said the situation improved when they connected with the Canadian Wildlife Federation, which loaned them ropeless, or on-demand gear that allowed them to go back into the closed areas.
"But it took pretty much a month for all that to happen. So there was a lot of headaches for that whole month," Gaudet said.
Gaudet said he has some more quota to fish from other sources, so he expects to be fishing into the middle of May, which could be the time the right whales will arrive.
"I keep an eye on the whale interaction map, and there hasn't been really any seen yet in Canada," he said.
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