{"id":7405,"date":"2024-05-31T19:58:56","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T22:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7405"},"modified":"2024-05-31T19:58:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T22:58:56","slug":"queens-county-lobster-fishermen-look-back-on-good-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/05\/31\/queens-county-lobster-fishermen-look-back-on-good-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens County lobster fishermen look back on good season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Ronnie Conrad on the West Berlin Wharf on Friday, on the last day of lobster fishing season. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

Friday was the last day of lobster fishing season on Nova Scotia\u2019s South Shore.<\/span><\/p>\n

And fishermen at wharves in Queens County say it was a good one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ronnie Conrad of West Berlin has been fishing for 44 years. He said conditions on the water were rougher than last year, with more wind, but catches were up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“(It’s) been a real good season. It started off good, but it didn\u2019t sound like it was going to be a real good season all over, but I call it a real good season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were up probably stock-wise another 25, 30 per cent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost 1,700 licensed vessels fish along Nova Scotia\u2019s southwestern shore, from Cow Bay near Halifax, around the southwestern end of the province to the Bay of Fundy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The season opened in lobster fishing area 33 on Nov. 26. That\u2019s the area from Cow Bay to Shelburne. And it began a couple of days later in LFA 34, which takes in the rest of southwestern Nova Scotia to Digby County.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conrad said he thinks most fishermen in both districts did well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I think everybody came out pretty good. Southwest, District 34, was down all fall and all winter, but they had a real good spring. So that was a plus for them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He said he usually fishes about 25 kilometres off shore in the winter time, leaving at 3 in the morning and getting back about 12 hours later. And for the first few days of the season, if catches are good, he and his crew will be out for up to 20 hours, hauling as many as 500 traps total, double what they would do on a normal day.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, though, he decided to stick closer to the coast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, I go out there probably about 16, 17 miles in the wintertime. But this year, I didn\u2019t venture out that far because there weren\u2019t any lobsters offshore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt got cold quick. It started off colder than last year too. It keeps the catch down. Lobster won\u2019t crawl in cold water. This spring it warmed up quick and we had an excellent spring. Everywhere along the coast we had a real good spring.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Lobster fisherman Mike Mattatall unloaded his last catch of the season at the wharf in Port Medway on Friday. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

38-year-old Mike Mattatall from Sable River has been fishing most of his life. For the past three years, he\u2019s had his own boat out of Port Medway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery season is so different. Last year was probably a little more in catch, but the average price through the winter helped sell some more lobsters through (last) winter because the water was warmer. Colder water made the winter pretty slow this year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mattatall said prices started out around $9 a pound this season, went up as high as $20 in the winter when the catch was scarce and settled around $7 a pound this spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just because the season\u2019s over, though, it doesn\u2019t mean the work stops. Fishermen will spend the summer and fall fixing up their boats, building new traps and spending some time with their families.<\/span><\/p>\n

But you won\u2019t hear people like Mattatall and Conrad complain.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a lifestyle, though. I don\u2019t really know what it is, comparable to other kind of work. You\u2019d probably have to come do it and tell me how much different it is than your job. It depends on who you are. We don\u2019t find it hard. We like it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Conrad says he\u2019s not going to retire yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife wants me to be done now, but the money\u2019s just too good yet, so I\u2019m gonna hang in for another year or two anyway.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/lobsterseasonendsmay3124.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday was the last day of lobster fishing season on Nova Scotia\u2019s South Shore. And fishermen at wharves in Queens County say it was a good one. Ronnie Conrad of West Berlin has been fishing for 44 years. He said conditions on the water were rougher than last year, with more wind, but catches were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2274,69,2271,2272,68,2266,2273,2267,2275,2269,238,49,2268,2270,772,830,2195,236],"class_list":["post-7405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-cow-bay","tag-fishery","tag-lfa-33","tag-lfa-34","tag-lobster","tag-lobster-fishing","tag-lobster-fishing-area","tag-lobster-season","tag-lobster-traps","tag-mike-mattatall","tag-port-medway","tag-queens-county","tag-ronnie-conrad","tag-sable-river","tag-shelburne","tag-south-shore","tag-southwestern-nova-scotia","tag-west-berlin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7409,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7405\/revisions\/7409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}