PCFA moving closer to retirement plan

O'LEARY - The Prince County Fishermen Association's Lobster Fishing Area 25 rationalization committee hopes to retire 34 fall lobster licences and sell the equivalent of seven gears back to the remaining fishers.
It's through that sell-back that the rationalization committee hopes to finance its share of the retirement package.
"We tried every option to try to collect off fishermen," PCFA president Shelton Barlow noted. He said selling traps back to fishers was the only plan the committee could come up with to get fisher participation in financing it. "This way he's getting something for his money."
"This idea is working in Quebec," Barlow added.
During a meeting in O'Leary this week, lobster fishers voted 124 to 13 in favour of the committee's lobster management plan. DFO is willing to cover half the cost of a rationalization plan, to a maximum of $3 million, provided fishers submit an acceptable management plan.
With the management plan receiving fisher approval, attention turned to the financing plan, with fishers voting 118 to two in favour.
Retiring 34 gears would take 8,500 traps out of the water. Allowing each of the remaining 220 fishers to buy eight additional traps, at a cost of $100 per trap annually, would put 1,760 of those traps back in the water. The money fishers pay for their additional traps, Barlow explained, would help the rationalization committee with its debt repayment obligations. Widespread participation is needed, he said.
Should some fishers choose not to buy additional traps, Barlow said other fishers would be eligible to purchase more. However no one would be permitted to exceed the current 250-trap limit by more than 20 traps.
If the number of licences retired is less than 34, then the number of traps available for purchase will be reduced accordingly.
The committee was successful in shelving 24 licences last year and wants to permanently retire them this year. That depends on getting funding from DFO before the end of March, or else those fishers can resume fishing. As well, the committee is looking to retire 10 more licences and has set a Jan. 22 deadline for interested fishers to respond.
The lobster rationalization committee will meet next week to finalize its proposal and submit it to DFO.

The management plan
Egg production -
Fishers agree to a two-millimetre increase in the minimum carapace length by 2014. The schedule for implementation is still to be determined.

Independent verification -
All fishers will be expected to participate in an electronic data collection program. Some fish buyers are already participating in a pilot project. Each fisher will have a card that, once swiped, will identify the fisher by name, boat and CFV number. The buying station will input daily data on landings, and the information will go electronically to DFO.

Reduction in ghost fishing -
Fishers will use biodegradable twine and sizzle twine so lost traps won't continue fishing.