Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, committee members. I wish to thank you for permitting me to appear before you to share my experiences regarding the North Atlantic right whale and how it relates to lobster fishing in southwestern Nova Scotia.
Members are licensed to fish from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, along the south shore to Digby, Nova Scotia, in lobster fishing areas 33 and 34. Lobster fishing areas are commonly referred to as LFAs.
The lobster fishery in LFAs 33 and 34 is conducted from near shore in shallow waters to a distance of 50 miles offshore, at depths of greater than 100 fathoms or 600 feet in waters that experience the world's highest and strongest tides.
Brazil Rock Lobster Association, in collaboration with staff from Acadia University, has been involved with and is still conducting at-sea testing of whalesafe gear, which is intended to reduce potential harm to whales. Four vessels with staff from Acadia University have been experimenting with various apparatus during the closed season and are scheduled to continue these trials within the open season. To date, none of the whalesafe gear has offered any measurable successes. In fact, the gear has demonstrated a risk to crew on board the fishing vessel when it fails.
Captains configure their lobster traps in various manners that typically range from individual traps on a buoy to trawls that are groups of traps on a ground-line that may contain up to 20 lobster traps with anchors at each end, and each individual has their preferences.
There are 1,662 commercial lobster boats in areas 33 and 34. The commercial season in both areas is the same. It runs from the last Monday in November to the following May 31. This is a winter fishery conducted when whales are not present in these areas.
The use of ropeless gear would not be practical in LFAs 33 and 34 because the fishery is conducted during Atlantic standard time, when the sun sets at 4:30 in the afternoon and rises at 7:30 a.m. With long winter nights, the fishery is largely conducted during hours of darkness. With such limited visibility and with no ropes or buoys to indicate the locations of gear previously set by other captains, the trawls would be set over one another. This situation would make it difficult if not impossible to retrieve the tangled trawls, leading to the establishment of ghost gear, which are traps that are lost, remain unattended at the bottom and ultimately kill lobsters of all ages and sizes, including egg-bearing females. The suggested use of vertical lines with breaking strength of 1,700 pounds or less is also impractical and inadvisable in such situations, as the rope would break under the strain of trying to retrieve the combined weights of entangled gear.
In short, since whale safety is not a concern at this time of year because the whales are not here during the season when fisheries are conducted, to legislate a preventative measure for a situation that does not exist in an area only serves to place a tremendous financial burden upon small, independent, self-operating fishing enterprises. It is not required in this situation.
I will defer the remaining time to Mr. Muise.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.