Fisherman's Road

The answer should boil the blood of every NL lobster harvester: the answer isn’t known, because fish processors/buyers won’t say.   That’s right, the province’s Fish Price Setting Panel said this past week that “overall prices to harvesters in other jurisdictions were somewhat higher than in Newfoundland,” but in the absence of information from processors, who the hell knows. Some of the price differential has to do with transportations costs. Newfoundland processors are also the only buyers in Atlantic Canada to pay workers comp, and EI benefits on top of wharf prices.   But all those costs don’t come close to the as much as $3-$5 a pound price difference between what's paid to NL harvesters, and mainland harvesters.  At the same time, Newfoundland lobster are the best on the market — two-clawed, with hard shells and high meat content. Another example of NL fishermen being under the thumb of the merchant (like snow crab), and another example (like snow crab) of how the Fish Price

The fishing boats of Bay de Verde, Conception Bay.   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Thursday, April 15th, 2021 A new group — the Seafood Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) — is being formed to serve as the independent voice of the province’s more than 3,000 licensed commercial inshore fish harvesters.   “Owner-operators are a distinct group within the province’s fishing industry, and it’s high time they were recognized as such,” says Ryan Cleary, an inshore fisheries advocate, and one of the organizers.   “The fish harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador must realize how much power they would have if they came together,” said Cleary. “No government, no union, no companies could stop them. Owner-operators should be leading their own industry, and a strong organization with a collective voice like SEA-NL could achieve that goal.” Cleary, a former federal Member of Parliament, led the FISH-NL union (2016-2019) in an attempt to break all inshore harvesters away from the