Low catches, improved quality and increased market demand drove the shore price for lobster fishing area (LFA) 33 and 34 fishermen up from $12.50 to the $15 range by mid-February.
“The catches are low, the weather’s been bad, the water is very cold, it’s a typical real old winter,” said Mike Cotter, owner of Cotter’s Ocean Products in Lockeport.
“The price is up to $15 a pound, so the guys are happy over that. The Chinese market is strong because of Chinese New Year on Feb. 17 and will be until the first part of March. They are getting the pounds and tank houses cleaned out for spring. Then we’ll see what happens after that,” said Cotter.
Usually, a few boats in the Lockeport area land their gear for the winter months, but not this season, said Cotter. “Not one boat. When they do get out, they are only picking up a crate or two.”
Dan Fleck, executive director of the Brazil Rock 33/34 Lobster Association, said the number of fishermen in his association that have landed gear for the winter months is miniscule.
“The usual people who fish close to shore and in the bays and harbours, those guys landed but other than that, it’s miniscule the people who have landed lobster gear. It’s February in the North Atlantic. The catches aren’t fabulous but our quality seems to be improving. Every day the quality is getting better and better,” said Fleck.
Tommy Amirault, president of the Coldwater Lobster Association, said the increased shore price has really helped harvesters with their bottom line.
“The people that held lobsters, it helped them out quite a bit. The lobsters are trickling out of the cars. They’re getting emptied out now,” said Amirault.
With the water temperature in the 39 to 40-degree range and an abundance of snow and ice, “I think its going to be a late spring,” said Amirault. “The water temperature is so low it will be a while before things pick up. It will take a while for the water to warm up.”
Meanwhile on shore, the Lobster Council of Canada (LCC) has been busy promoting Canadian lobster at the annual Atlantic Canada Export Café European trade mission from Feb. 2 to 6 in the United Kingdom (U.K.), Germany and the Netherlands, with plans to attend Seafood Expo North America in Boston on March 15 to 17 and Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, Spain on April 21 to 23.
LCC executive director Geoff Irvine said 12 Atlantic Canadian seafood exporters took part in the Export Café trade mission. “The majority of the companies were involved with live and frozen lobster, but it was a multi-species mission,” said Irvine.
“The lobster sector is facing many market access changes and challenges in Europe from new animal welfare legislation in England banning boiling, listing Canadian lobster as an invasive species in Sweden to the challenges around the new E.U. IUU traceability requirements. These market access challenges and changes to consumer demand is resulting in higher demand for value added processed lobster products and less for live lobster,” said Irvine.
“In general, the live sector seems to be managing the new requirements, but the processing sector is just the opposite, indicating a highly onerous level of record keeping that has caused the loss of some sales already. There is massive pushback in parts of Europe as well, so all are worried as we head toward the very busy spring production period,” Irvine said.
With respect to China, Irvine said the LCC is very happy about the tariff relief.
“The main driver now is the status of farmed Vietnamese lobster that has become the dominant lobster imported by China in 2025. Massive storms in Vietnam killed off 20 million lobsters, so they will need the next eight to 12 months to rebuild their stocks which combined with the tariff relief should allow Canada to rebuild our market position,” said Irvine.
“Sales have been strong for Chinese New Year which is clear from the jump in shore prices in southwestern Nova Scotia and New Brunswick since Jan. 1. Most in the sector are thinking ahead to the spring harvesting and production period with wild cards being season opening and closing changes in eastern Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador and the status of ice throughout the region given our hard winter this year.”
Irvine said the LCC has submitted a proposal to ACOA to fund their long-term value strategy marketing and market access activities for 2026 to 2028.
