P.E.I. Fisheries and Environment Minister Kevin J. MacAdam today released the preliminary landing figures for the spring lobster season in P.E.I. Areas 24 and 26A.
The figures indicate that total landings in Area 24 along P.E.I.'s North Shore totalled 10.5 million lbs., an increase of 5.5% over 1996. Meanwhile Areas 26A in the Southeastern Northumberland Strait experienced a reduction of 4.2% over last year with total landings of 3.8 million lbs.
"The overall production for the spring season at 14.3 million lbs. shows an increase over last year by 377,000 lbs. and that has to be positive news for our fishing industry," said Mr. MacAdam. "The North side continued to have strong landings and with the prices paid to fishermen this year, it will certainly benefit our economy," said the Minister.
Mr. MacAdam did point out that he is concerned that landings are continuing to show a decline in Area 26A.
Another source of concern to the Minister are figures which show that 37.8% of the spring canner catch was exported from P.E.I. in an unprocessed form. "Our goal is to realize more economic and employment benefits from the lobster fishery and when we see that 4.5 million lbs. of our 11.9 million lbs. spring canner catch was shipped unprocessed, we are definitely missing out on that opportunity," said Mr. MacAdam. The Minister pointed out that 4.5 million lbs. of lobster creates upwards of 6,000 person weeks of employment; therefore, a large number of potential jobs have been lost.
"I am looking forward to ongoing discussions with processors and fishermen's organizations to attempt to realize more economic benefit from our lobster resource," said Mr. MacAdam.