P.E.I. harbours damaged by Fiona being readied for spring lobster season

With the spring lobster fishing season just days away, the boats are returning to Prince Edward Island harbours damaged by post-tropical storm Fiona, squeezing in a bit tighter to find room for everyone. 

At Red Head Harbour near Morell, about 75 per cent of the harbour's infrastructure was damaged by the late September wind and waves from Fiona, and some of the repairs are expected to take years.

"We had lots of room before and everybody had to tighten up. Everyone had to take less space to allow a couple more gears in the east wharf and the south wharf," said David Sansom, president of the Red Head Harbour Authority.

"Everybody's pretty accommodating here. Everybody did what they were asked, and everything's good."

He added: "The north wharf is going to be fixed within the next year, I hope, and then the west wharf's going to be a couple-year project. As portions of the wharves get fixed, people will go back where they were before and but it's going to be probably a three-year plus project to get everybody back."

Everybody's just happy to get back in the water, and they're happy to have a place for their traps.— David Sansom, Red Head Harbour Authority

Sansom said the wharves will be built back four feet (1.2 metres) higher, and stronger, as mandated by the federal government, to protect the harbour from the impact of future storms.

He said funding for the wharf restoration is coming from the Small Craft Harbours program run by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, with no price tag yet for the rebuild.  

Ottawa designated $100 million for urgent harbour repairs as part of a $300-million recovery package for Atlantic Canada announced in the days after Fiona. 

"Everybody's just happy to get back in the water, and they're happy to have a place for their traps, and it's all good," Sansom said.

Wharf at Covehead can fit 16

At Covehead Harbour, a section of the wharf has been condemned and will need a substantial repair, but until then, there is enough space for the 16 lobster boats based there to squeeze together for the spring season.  

Ten buildings, mainly bait sheds, are gone entirely, having been torn down because of the damage, and the beach and parking lot still need to be cleaned up. 

But seeing the lobster boats and piles of lobster traps is one step along the return path to normal.

"It did do a lot of damage, don't get me wrong," Allan Coady of the Harbour Authority of Covehead said of the post-tropical storm.

"It was devastating to see this, especially coming down the next day. It's just ...you're speechless. It's unbelievable, you know? Nobody expected that."

Coady said the repaired wharf will be built stronger and higher, and he's hoping the harbour will get a bullpen, a sheltered area for the boats to tie up.

"This is one of the only harbours that I know of on Prince Edward Island that doesn't have one," he said. 

"We're open to the sea in every direction here. We have no shelter whatsoever. So this is going to be a big improvement if we get it."

At the harbour in Stanley Bridge, work is also continuing to repair the damage from the September storm, with new rock for protection and hydro lines going in underground. 

"We gotta get the work done, and get it going. So we spent a lot of time this last few months cleaning up," said Dales Doiron, of the Stanley Bridge Harbour Authority.

"But hopefully everything will be done by the 1st of July. That's the hope."