A Canadian tribe, a fishermen’s union and a research institute have undertaken a massive effort to restore the lobster fishery in northern New Brunswick. Cooperating in the project are the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, the Coastal Zones Research Institute and the Eel River Bar First Nation.
“Between 60,000 and 80,000 larvae have been released into experimental sites on the Bay of Chaleur,” said Martin Mallet from the Institute, which is affiliated with the University of Moncton at Shippagan. “Now, we’re preparing to do follow-up research on survival.”
Mallet added, “There’s a lot more to this than simply producing lobsters. We’re also trying to develop a hatchery system that simple, cheap and easy to operate. And next year we want to turn the technology over to the fishermen.”
The fishermen are more than ready, according to Euclide Chiasson, director of special projects for the MFU.
“Our idea is to have the fishermen themselves run this project,” he said. “Maybe, for example, we can have retired fishermen manage the operation at wharf level.”
He added that seeding the bottom is just part of the whole project. “We’re also dealing with effort, what the migration patterns are, reproduction, and habitat – including laying down artificial reefs where the bottom is appropriate.”
Some artificial “special cement” reefs were set three years ago, and Chiasson reported some good news. “Our divers went down last year and under 50 percent of the reefs there were lobsters – where before no lobsters had been found [previously]. It’s clear that the lobsters now have a place to hide.”
Chiasson also says that measuring effort is another important component. “We know that all participants have a vision of the future, and we want to be very careful, even with this seeding, that we don’t take out more than we produce,” he said.
“What we’re really after is a low technology, high density project. And what we want consumers to know is that they’re not eating the last lobster.”
For his part, Mallet said that “a lot more research needs to be done – for example, we started out feeding the lobsters chopped-up shrimp. That was, to put it mildly, very expensive – and that defeated the whole purpose of the project. We’ve discovered that shrimp flakes. the same ones you put in an aquarium work just as well. So we buy them in bulk. This whole project is a learning process. And remember, it’s going to be six or seven years before we have a lobster you can put on your table.”
MFU’s Chiasson notes that the project started three years ago “with a trip to Maine.” Mallet concurs and says that the project owes a debt of gratitude to Brian Beal of the University of Maine at Machias, Research Director of the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research & Education.
Beal is currently at work on a lobster nursery project that he describes as a continuation of the work he began in Ireland on a Fulbright Scholarship.