Feeling forgotten, aging fishermen in northern Newfoundland are looking to lobster for economic salvation

CBC

06-10-2024

A group of fishermen on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula say without changes to what they can catch and when, the fishery in their region will be gone with their generation. Caroline Hillier/CBC
By Caroline Hillier Atlantic Voice Oct. 6, 2024
Fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador may have acquired a reputation of getting riled up and rowdy when things aren't going their way: crashing news conferences, for instance, or blocking the doors to Confederation Building in St. John's.
Carl Hedderson and the handful of harvesters left on the northern tip of Newfoundland say they are not those kind of fishermen.
'Nobody hears us because I guess we're not complaining enough,' says Hedderson.
When the idea of driving 12 hours to stage a protest in St. John's crosses his mind, Hedderson, 63, shakes his head — 'nobody would even know we were there.'
'And besides that, most people don't have enough money to go on their own. So if somebody didn't foot the bill for you to go and stay in hotels and stuff, you can't go anyway.'
Since 2022, Carl Hedderson has been quietly but diligently advocating to the federal government to issue new lobster permits so he and the other fishermen in the area can both assess and access the lobster stock, and save a way of life that Hedderson says will die with his generation.
'That's the only thing that's going to save us,' said Hedderson.
'Barely scraping together' a living
Carl Hedderson, one of about 25 fish harvesters on the tip of the Northern Peninsula — between Noddy Bay and Big Brook — said most fishermen there are 'barely scraping together' a paycheque and enough hours to claim employment insurance benefits in the off season.
Congregating on Hedderson's wharf — the same one his father and grandfather fished from decades ago — fishermen gesture out to the water, and explain how the licences they have to pull fish from the sea are not enough to sustain a livelihood.
They fish small quantities of halibut, cod and lump roe. Other licences, like for the sea snail whelk, are rendered useless: they can't find a buyer for their catch.
Cod's comeback can't save them
In June, the federal Liberals declared an end to the cod moratorium that was instituted in 1992, triggering one of the largest industrial layoffs in Canadian history. The announcement that Northern Peninsula fishermen waited for for 32 years came with less fanfare than expected, and didn't change much, either.
Small boat inshore fishermen have been fishing for small quantities of cod for years, as the stewardship fishery started in 2006.
'I think it's all politics, of course, that's what it's all about,' said Hubert Hedderson.
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'It's going to be one of the worst summers I ever made and I never made many good ones,' Hubert said in an interview in July. (In a followup interview in the fall, he confirmed it was one of the family's worst-ever seasons.)
With a way of life in jeopardy, fishermen are looking to lobster. The crustaceans are not just an economic boost, but as a last ditch effort to save a fishery they say will die with their generation.
'Lobsters only become abundant now all around Newfoundland in the last few years. They were having a big scrape before that,' said Carl Hedderson.
Carl Hedderson's lobster fishing area of 14C has five lobster licences. It's the lowest allotted lobster licence in any designated lobster fishing area off of Newfoundland and Labrador. The lobster fishing area just south of it has 164 licences, and the area just east of it has 57.
'The people that's fishing [lobster] are doing quite well and the fellows that don't have that stuff just got to sit idly by and watch them,' said Hedderson.
Lobster landings for inshore small boat fish harvesters have been increasing steadily in recent years, and have nearly doubled in five years.
'Fellows have never ever thought the catch rates would be like they are now in this little area,' said Carl Hedderson.
Lobster landings in what's called NAFO Division 4R totalled 4,351 tonnes in 2023. Fisheries and Oceans Canada, better known as DFO, cannot provide details of landings in the lobster fishing area known as LFA 14C alone, due to privacy considerations, but said of the 4,351 tonnes, 1,077 tonnes were caught in LFAs 14B and 14C.
For years, research has suggested that lobsters are moving north due to warming waters caused by climate change, and improvements in recruitment appear to be associated with increasing sea surface temperature which maybe has led to favorable conditions for lobster.
According to DFO, the most recent stock assessment in the fall of 2022 showed positive short-term prospects for lobster in the Newfoundland and Labrador region.
Hedderson has been taking politicians out on the water — including Member of Parliament Gudie Hutchings — to pitch his plan, and he thought they were close to getting action on the issue, but when an announcement about new lobster permits came, it wasn't for them.
WATCH | Carl Hedderson says lobster could prevent a local fishery from dying:
In May, federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier announced 25 new exploratory permits for lobster in Quebec's North Shore.
"In the context of climate change and the resulting warming of the oceans, it is more important than ever for the Government of Canada to be agile, and explore every new economic opportunity for the benefit of coastal communities,' a DFO news release said.
The release said harvesters were noticing a significant increase in lobsters in the area — an 'encouraging sign' — but the department needs more data to better understand lobster stocks, and determine if an increase in commercial fishing effort is sustainable in the long term.
'The water is full of it'
Down a gravel road, past roadside vegetable gardens and wood piles, the community of North Boat Harbour sits on the edge of the ocean.
Randy Woodward stands on his fishing wharf he's rebuilt after storms washed it out, recalling all the species he could fish that were taken away because of nature and overfishing: salmon, cod, scallop, mackerel.
Now, he says the changing ecosystems underwater may again change his circumstances: this time, though, with economic opportunity.
'The water is full of it,' said Woodward, referring to lobster.
But unanswered calls from union and government representatives and staff have him feeling forgotten and neglected.
He surmises why their calls for lobster are not being answered: maybe it's because they're about as far away from St. John's as you can get, or maybe it's that they haven't crashed a news conference.
Whatever the reason, he says it's now or never.
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His two crew members — the young fellows, as he describes them, even though they are now in their 50s — struggle to get enough money and hours for employment insurance and next year, say they may have to give up fishing. But if they had a lucrative fishery, like lobster, they would stay. And so would others, Woodward says.
'The way the stocks is now in this area. Why not [stay here]? You know, why go away if you can make so much home?'
'It's time for somebody to come in and take it serious, come in have a sensible meeting and say we're going to do whatever we can to do something for you guys,' said Carl Hedderson.
Carl's fight isn't for him and his fellow fishermen, but is also for the next generation.
'My son would love to be fishing, but from what I got here, he sees the misery I goes through and all the rest of small boat fishermen there, and he just can't do it.'
'He don't want to be doing what I'm doing. But if there was something in it where you could make some money, you know, you gotta be, you need money to survive.'
Hedderson says without some action, the fishing stages and wharves that have been passed down for generations will no longer be used.
'It needs to be something done for the lobster licence. I can see it's the only way to go now.'
Lobster licences are not off the table: MP
Nova Scotia Conservative MP Rick Perkin, who sits on the fisheries and oceans committee, sees potential in Newfoundland and Labrador's "burgeoning" lobster industry, and says it's crucial to get more data on the stocks.
"So to be able to increase lobster licences, you need to do that based on science. DFO needs to start doing science on the Newfoundland lobster stocks so that they can pick the right level of licences and traps to be issued," said Perkin.
In his office just off Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Nova Scotia Liberal MP Mike Kelloway, who is parliamentary secretary to the minister for fisheries and oceans, reiterates that Quebec's exploratory permits are a way to evaluate if there's a viable fishery there, and not yet a commercial fishery.
'So yes, Quebec has a scientific fishery that is designed to determine, is there … a possibility of a commercial fishery? It's not a commercial fishery,' said Kelloway.
'Can it happen in Newfoundland? Why not? Let's see if we can have those discussions at the next round to go down that road,' said Kelloway.
In a statement Friday, DFO said it holds regular lobster fishery advisory meetings with representatives from the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union, and hasn't yet received 'any formal requests from lobster harvester representatives for expanded access to lobster in LFAs 3 – 14C.' It said requests would be reviewed on a case by case basis.
Dwan Street, the incoming president of the union, supports the bid for new licences.
'We're not looking at big boats here. We're looking at small enterprises mostly, you know, family enterprises in small rural communities. And if we want to keep those communities alive, it's important that we try to find opportunity for them,' said Street.
'We've seen the trajectory of the lobster stock, especially on the west coast and on the south and southwest coast, just explode over the past few years.'
For the tiny communities that dot Newfoundland's northernmost coast, they must now wait to see if their voices will be heard.
With files from Catherine Cullen. Layout by Heidi Atter.
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