CAPE WOLFE, P.E.I. — Fishing boat captains were going about their business at a leisurely pace on Tuesday.
With the fall lobster season set to open at 6 a.m. Thursday, captains were tending to last-minute details, fastening on sun shelters and making sure their engines were finely tuned.
Glen Ellis and captain Michael Ramsay were installing an insulated compartment on Ramsay's boat, berthed at Howards Cove.
Ramsay said he and his brother, Stephen, built the compartments for their fishing boats last year and they proved to work so well, they are using them again. The compartments will hold 20 fish pans of lobsters as well as ice so that the catch can be delivered to the scales cool and fresh.
It will get busier around fall lobster ports on Wednesday with crews loading gear onto their boats. A conference call on weather conditions confirmed the season will open Thursday as scheduled.
P.E.I. boats from North Cape to Victoria share Lobster Fishing Area 25 with Northumberland Strait fishermen from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The minimum carapace size this year stays at 77 millimeters.
