Lobster landings in the Prince Edward Island LFA25 fall fishery show an increase of 15.6 percent over 2006. The preliminary numbers released today by Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Allan Campbell indicated landings were 3.0 million pounds. This is up 400,000 pounds from the 2006 landings of 2.6 million pounds.
“This is the third straight year that landings have increased in the western Northumberland Strait fall fishery and marks the first year since 2001 that landings have reached 3.0 million pounds,” said Mr. Campbell . “Fishermen have indicated that most Island ports in the fall season experienced an increase in landings with ports in the Egmont Bay area showing the most improvement. This is good news as this area had dropped significantly over the past number of years.”
Mr. Campbell said that his department’s lobster resource monitoring program data is still being analyzed by the department’s lobster biologist and the information will be made available to the industry in the coming weeks. He said we are continuing to work with industry and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to better understand the resource and the factors that influence the stages of the lobster life cycle.
The overall lobster landings for Prince Edward Island in 2007 were 20.1 million pounds, down 1.4 million pounds or 6.3 percent from the 2006. Landings in 2007 included 13.2 million pounds in LFA24 and 3.9 million pounds in LFA26A. This is the second straight year that overall lobster landings were over 20 million pounds, a positive sign for the resource and good news for the Prince Edward Island economy.
Mr. Campbell said the landed value will be in the $108 million range compared to $113 million in 2006. Prices paid to fall fishers were down from 2006. The lobster fishery represents 65 percent of the landed value of the Island fishery and employs in the range of 6,500 people in the harvesting and processing sectors. The fishery contributes approximately $250 million to the Island economy.