{"id":7874,"date":"2024-11-21T17:28:09","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T21:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7874"},"modified":"2024-11-21T17:28:09","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T21:28:09","slug":"dumping-day-right-around-the-corner-for-south-shore-lobster-fishermen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/11\/21\/dumping-day-right-around-the-corner-for-south-shore-lobster-fishermen\/","title":{"rendered":"Dumping Day right around the corner for South Shore lobster fishermen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fishermen in West Berlin get their traps ready for Dumping Day. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

Fishermen around the South Shore are getting ready for the start of lobster season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Depending on the weather, Dumping Day will start for Queens County fishermen at 7 a.m. Monday, when vessels race to get to some of the most lucrative fishing grounds in North America to set their traps.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans makes the call on Friday morning based on the forecast.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dumping Day can be moved up or delayed by a day if the forecast predicts anything over 26 knots of wind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fishing boat captains can also vote to go a day early or a day later, if they feel conditions are too dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bruce Perry fishes out of Port Medway. He was getting his boat ready this week and waiting for the official call to get out on the water. He said he\u2019s looking forward to a good start to the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJust hope there’s a few lobsters everywhere and a good price and some good weather,” he said this week.<\/span><\/p>\n

The season in lobster fishing areas 33 and 34 goes from the last Monday in November to May 31. LFA 33 includes Queens County and covers the area from Cow Bay to Shelburne. Some 680 vessels fish out of the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dan Fleck, the executive director of Brazil Rock 33\/34 Lobster Association, said DFO changed the procedure for the Dumping Day start.<\/span><\/p>\n

In previous years, boats were allowed to untie and wait in the harbour until the opening bell. This year, though, in an effort to make it fairer for all fishermen, DFO has ordered all vessels to stay tied up at the dock.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that could be very dangerous in some harbours,” Fleck said in an interview. “We have some ports with five, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 80 boats. It could be tricky, in hours of darkness and vessels loaded and you can\u2019t see.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an anxious time, everybody wants to get to sea, they want to get to their prime fishing grounds. To have everybody try to untie at the same time, jockeying for position and get out of these wharves, it could be dangerous.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The first day is a long one. LFA 33 crews can set their traps beginning at 7 a.m., but they can\u2019t start hauling them in until midnight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have some vessels that will stay out until midnight to start hauling, and some vessels will stay for three or four days,\u201d Fleck says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall catches were down last year, according to DFO. In LFA 33, crews landed 6,881 metric tonnes during the 2023-24 season for a value of $163 million. The year before, 7,692 metric tonnes were landed, valued at $154.8 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fleck says it\u2019s difficult to predict what this season will bring. Fishermen in other areas like LFA 35 in the Bay of Fundy are reporting good catches and getting about $11 a pound, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSafety\u2019s the most important, make sure everybody gets out there safe and sound, and gets back home the same way.\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\/11\/dumpingdaynov2124.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fishermen around the South Shore are getting ready for the start of lobster season. Depending on the weather, Dumping Day will start for Queens County fishermen at 7 a.m. Monday, when vessels race to get to some of the most lucrative fishing grounds in North America to set their traps. The Department of Fisheries and […]<\/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":[2644,2642,2643,2640,2641,2638,2639,1958,2271,2272,68,2645,2273,2267,49],"class_list":["post-7874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-brazil-rock-33-34-lobster-association","tag-bruce-perry","tag-dan-fleck","tag-department-of-fisheries-and-oceans","tag-dfo","tag-dumping-day","tag-fishermen","tag-fishing","tag-lfa-33","tag-lfa-34","tag-lobster","tag-lobster-fishery","tag-lobster-fishing-area","tag-lobster-season","tag-queens-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7874","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=7874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7877,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7874\/revisions\/7877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}