Catches are down, the shore price is creeping up and expenses are high one month into the six-month commercial lobster fishery in Lobster Fishing Areas (LFAs) 33 and 34 in southwestern Nova Scotia.
“I hate to sound like a broken record, but it’s really, really similar to last year,” said Tommy Amirault, president of the Coldwater Lobster Association.
“The catches are down overall. It’s really hard to say how much they are down. Some people are holding lobsters hoping that the price will go up where there’s not many around, so it really hard to say without seeing the logbooks, but by the sounds it’s definitely down.”
The 2024/25 LFA 33/34 lobster fishing season opened on Nov. 26, 2024 after a one-day delay due to weather, with a shore price of $11.25. By the end of December, the price was $12.25.
“It’s the same old story as the last few years. That price sounds great and it is, but the price of everything else. Nothing’s cheap. What you’re bringing in is only part of the story. What’s going out. It’s one of those stories on paper it should look good. A few less lobsters and a better price, but when the price goes up, everything around it goes up,” said Amirault.
Weather-wise, the opening month of the season has been good.
“The weather has been very good. The fishermen only had a few lay days,” said Lockeport lobster buyer Mike Cotter, owner of Cotter’s Ocean Products.
In LFA 33, Cotter said the inside boats had really strong catches at the start of the season but landings had slowed down a little bit by the end of December.
As for quality, “it doesn’t seem to be there like last year. We’re finding a higher percentage of culls and soft lobster,” said Cotter.
Processors have been taking product, but there have been “horror stories” of live lobster shipments to China with a 30 per cent mortality rate, said Cotter.
Cotter said the live lobster market wasn’t that strong in December. “The U.S. are supplying themselves. Lobster boats are still fishing there. Christmas orders that we normally get for crate run into the U.S. didn’t seem to happen this year. Our market hasn’t been that strong. Not a lot to the U.S. No big shipments into China. Chinese New Year is coming up in the next few weeks. Things will pick up.”
Looking at the bigger picture, Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada said the live lobster market “has been brisk with holiday demand from throughout the world, keeping shore prices strong since the middle of October when LFA 35 opened.”
As for frozen lobster, “the meat and tail market has been steady through the fall period and will likely stay the same with limited supplies in inventory due to lower than usual fall landings and strong demand since August, especially in the United States,” said Irvine.
The possible 25 per cent import tariff by the United States has been top of mind as buyers and dealers contemplate putting lobster away for the winter, said Irvine. “Processors are also concerned about possible U.S. tariffs and have been moving inventory into the U.S. to try to avoid tariffs in the first quarter of 2025.”
