P.E.I. lobster fishers frustrated by low prices, say they're the same as 18 years ago 

There are just a few weeks left in the spring lobster season on Prince Edward Island, and while catches in many areas have been good, Island fishers are again frustrated by the prices they are being paid on the wharf. 

At North Lake, P.E.I., Jamie Bruce said fishers are getting $6.50 a pound up to $7 for canners, and market prices are the same.

Bruce said that's the same price lobsters were fetching 18 years ago. 

"I went back in my records, and I keep a record every year. Actually I had a guy called me today. He said he he thinks in 1997 we even saw these prices," Bruce said.

"So I went back as far as 2006 and we were very similar to what we are then, with the major difference. Everything else is either doubled or tripled in price. Bait. Fuel."

Bruce said Island fishers seem to find themselves in this situation every spring season. 

"We have a battle when there's so many different districts across Atlantic Canada open and there's lobster coming in, the buyers know ... the product is going to come in and they can basically do what they want," Bruce said. 

"They can lower the price, and they can buy low and sell high when the market asks for the product later on in the high season in July and August."

Bruce said industry observers are reporting more product starting to be sold, and the price starting to increase, just as the spring season is ending. 

He said it's a problem fishermen have been struggling with for years. 

"We sit around boards ... we hash [out], you know, can we do this? Can we do that? And to be honest, we're still stuck with no answer," Bruce said.

"A holding facility would alleviate a little bit of pressure. But the facility would have to be really large. You're not talking just 100,000 pounds to set aside, hopefully sell later, you're in the millions of pounds."

'Somebody's making money'

Bruce said the lobster marketing board has worked hard to promote the P.E.I. crustaceans, and the demand for them has grown around the world. 

But any increases in demand and price are not making their way back to the wharf, he said.

"Across the world right now there is demand, but we simply don't control where we sell it. The buyers do. The big brokers do," Bruce said.

"A lot of these buyers around this wharf are commissioned buyers and they sell to the bigger processing plants and the bigger brokers."

Bruce and other fishers are aware of the price that lobster is selling for at restaurants across the Island, which has been in the $40 to $45 range for a one-pound lobster. 

"Somebody's making money. We're selling that very same one pound lobster for $7 at the highest price right here today," he said. 

"So there's a lot of hands in the middle of the pie, and again, it's your primary producers that are suffering because of it."

Bruce said he and the 90 other boats fishing out of North Lake consider themselves fortunate because they have had a high volume of catches, but other harbours are down this year.

Bruce said he also worries about young lobster fishers just getting into the business and paying between $1 and $2 million for their licence and gear. 

"That's a big tall task. Just because we have volume this year doesn't mean we will have it next year. So you gotta be careful," Bruce said. 

"These prices at $6.50 and $7 just don't cut it for for most new entrances, making it really tough for them."

'Something's wrong'

Charlie McGeoghegan, chair of the Lobster Fishers of P.E.I. Marketing Board, fishes out of Pinette, on the Island's south shore.

He's also frustrated by the prices.

"If this year is the same as the last 50 years, the price basically doubles overnight. As soon as the season's over and the buyers have the lobsters in their hands, they can charge whatever they want for them," McGeoghegan said.

"They sell to restaurants at high, high prices and they keep them in live holding tanks throughout the summer and sell them across Canada and the U.S and they ask whatever they want."

McGeoghegan said government should intervene on the issue of differing prices from one season to the next. 

"Demand goes through the roof, and so does the price as soon as the season's over," he said. 

"It just boggles my mind that we're at this price that we are right now and we got that in 2006, 18 years ago. And what other item, food item, is the same price as it was 18 years ago?"

Demand goes through the roof, and so does the price as soon as the season's over​​​​​​—Charlie McGeoghegan, Lobster Fishers of P.E.I. Marketing Board

In an email to CBC News, Lobster Council of Canada executive director Geoff Irvine said his organization does not comment on specific lobster shore prices.

"Given our port market system, shore prices reflect competition on the shore and in the market," Irvine wrote. 

"Processors and live shippers pay the highest prices that they can to their buyers/dealers to ensure they receive the right lobster for their business to sell and to compete in the highly competitive international protein market."