Crab fishery stalemate creating fear and uncertainty in Newfoundland fishing towns

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Two mayors in rural Newfoundland say there is fear and uncertainty in their towns due to the standoff in the province’s crab fishery.

Erica Humber-Shears is the mayor of Humber Arm South, N.L., which includes a fish processing plant in Benoit’s Cove that normally employs about 300 people at peak season.

She says the crab season provides the longest stretch of work at the plant, but this year harvesters are refusing to fish crab in protest of prices they say are too low to make a living.

Humber-Shears says there’s worry that workers won’t make the minimum hours required for unemployment benefits, which she says will lead to “dire straits” in the town.

Steve Ryan, mayor of St. Mary’s, N.L., says this was the first summer in eight years the crab plant in his town was supposed to be back in operation.

He says other businesses are suffering because there’s little money coming into the town as the work stoppage in the crab fishery drags into its sixth week.

Crab prices were set in early April at $2.20 per pound, a sharp drop from last year’s opening price of $7.60 a pound.

Prices are set by a panel that hears arguments from the union representing inshore fishers and fish plant workers and the association representing fish processors.

The association says some fishers want to harvest crab at $2.20 a pound, and it has accused the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union of using “bullying and intimidation tactics” to keep them on shore.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 18, 2023.

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