Lobster hauls in the Northumberland Strait in the Maritimes are bad and getting worse, and a fisherman out of Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick, is blaming the Confederation Bridge between his province and Prince Edward Island.
“This was a bad season,” said Gary O’Hanley who’s been fishing for more than 40 years. “But the truth of it is that catches have been declining since ’95 when the new bridge came into being.” He added that he and other area fishermen warned government officials that the bridge would destroy the lobster fishery.
The government scientists told the fishermen that the problem, especially in 1995, was storms, according to O’Hanley. “We had a bit of a breeze then,” he admitted, “but we’ve fished through hurricanes, and we’ve never had a drop-off like this. Putting in that bridge has just torn up the bottom, and with the bottom went the lobsters.”
“Scientists tell us that lobsters run in cycles,” O’Hanley added. “We know that; we’re not stupid. But one day the lobsters were there, and the next day they weren’t. That’s the only 24-hour cycle I’ve ever seen. This disruption was simply too much for nature to handle. The government says the lobsters go up; they go down. We understand that, but this cycle happened on a Friday night.”
Maurice Theriault, project officer for the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, agrees with O’Hanley, but adds that the bridge may not be the only negative factor.
“I can’t contradict Gary,” he said. “There was certainly an obligation from the promoters of the bridge to monitor these potential effects, at least this is how it was presented to the fishermen at the time. This promise was never fulfilled.”
Theriault added, “What is going on in the Confederation Bridge area is a catch drop of very big amplitude. Because we don’t know exactly what makes the lobster population go up or down we should not attribute it to a sole factor. But obviously environment is one of the factors that can affect lobster populations.”
He continued, “Lobsters of commercial size in the Northumberland Strait are seven years old, at least. Fishermen like Gary have witnessed a lot of disturbance during the bridge construction period. It is just common sense to think that the silt and all the material in suspension that was apparent during that period would have had an effect on larvae or juveniles.”
However, Theriault cautioned, “We must take care not to put all our eggs in the same basket. There are potential environmental hazards in the area other than the bridge. Every second month or so we hear that all the fish in a river of Prince Edward Island have turned upside down due to an overflow of pesticide. Who is there to tell us that those pesticides are not affecting the lobster at the larval stage or at any stage of its growth?” Increased effort and better boats and gear could be factors as well, he said.