A new lobster industry association in Nova Scotia is working to try and find answers on how best to tackle issues that have been negatively impacting the live lobster trade.
The Live Lobster Association of Nova Scotia (LLANS) was formed earlier this year and has some of the province’s heavy hitters at the helm.
“The association was started by a group of companies and individuals from these companies who feel like what we’re seeing happening in the live lobster industry recently in the last couple of years is an industry that is in crisis. We think that we need to put our heads together and see if we can come up with some solutions to fix the problems that we’re facing,” said Brock Zinck, president of the new association.
“We’ve got over 30 companies joined as members now, $700 million in annual sales. New members are signing up on a daily basis. It’s a province-wide organization, so one of the missions of the organization when we started was we wanted province-wide representation and coverage. We didn’t want to be limited to one area, so it’s a provincial initiative. In terms of the scope, it’s only for licenced lobster buyers,” said Zinck.
Lobster quality, notably in lobster fishing areas (LFAs) 33 and 34, declining catches and over-competition on the wharf for the catch are some of the issues the association wants to tackle.
“Quality in the past couple years been drastically lower than what we would typically expect in LFA 33/34. Along with that is a significant amount of mortality in the catch. We estimate 30 per cent of the lobsters being caught are dying in the supply chain, either onboard a vessel, or in the plants or in a customer’s tank. It’s staggering how much we’ve experienced in the last couple of years. Frankly it’s not good for our reputation. We’ve built a brand and reputation here in Nova Scotia for having high-quality lobster. When we are not able to give that to our customer it causes negative reputational harm for sure,” said Zinck.
The number of people licenced in Nova Scotia to buy live lobster in general is “staggering,” said Zinck. “We’re all competing for the catch that’s being landed at the wharf and because of that you have to pay more than your competitor to secure a supply. That erodes into the bottom line, the profit margin to the point we’re not making any money. The goal of the association is to create long-term sustainability and return profitability to the shore side of the industry. We want to see our communities be healthy and the lobster buyers are part of that equation. We want to try and do what we can to help the profitability side of industry as well.”
Lobster landings have been “dropping off significantly compared to 10 years ago. We need to make sure for the long-term sustainability and viability of our communities that this industry stays strong and that we are doing everything we can to prevent the collapse of our coastal communities. It’s important to us. It’s our livelihood. It’s what keeps coastal communities going. Throughout the province, it’s important that our fisheries are successful, especially the live lobster industry,” said Zinck.
The approach the LLANS is taking is to work with all levels of the industry, said Zinck. “We want to be open and transparent and cooperative with the fishermen, fishermen’s groups, different levels of government. We see collaboration as one of the great strengths we can bring to the table. We think through that is how we can move forward and try to fix some of these issues.”
The LLANS held its first AGM at the end of June. Rounding out the board of directors are Stewart Lamont, Tangier Lobster (secretary); Stefan LeBrun, LeBrun Seafoods (vice-president); Jonathan Sears, RI Smith (treasurer), Terry Zinck, Xsealant Seafoods; Erica Devine, Fishermen’s Premium Atlantic Lobster, Osborne Burke, Victoria Cooperative Fisheries; Nathan Blades, Sable Fish Packers; Rob Baker, R. Baker Fisheries and Thomas Grover, Tor Bay Fisheries.
“We’re well on our way to getting the organization up and running,” said Zinck. “Basically, we are in the programming stage right now. We’ve all kinds of meetings planned with different people. We’re going to try and get some strategies built to move forward with as soon as possible.”
For more information about the LLANS, visit their website at llans.ca.
