Correction: An earlier version of this story said Clearwater had been granted the request from the DFO. The DFO is in fact only considering the request.
Canada-based Clearwater Seafoods has requested it be given the opportunity to catch up to 720 metric tons of lobster this year, while Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), the regulatory overseeing fisheries in the country, considers raising the total allowable catch in Nova Scotia.
Last year the Membertou First Nation and Mi'kmaw partners in the Indigenous-owned company asked DFO to increase the total allowable catch by 10 percent, reported the new site CBC.
Premium Brands has co-owned Clearwater together with the Mi'kmaq First Nation since 2021.
DFO has issued an "interim" total allowable catch of 720 tons for 2023 while it considers this request, the news site reported.
Halifax-based Clearwater has exclusive rights to Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 41, or LFA 41, off southern Nova Scotia, where Clearwater maintains a long-held quota of 720 tons.
The current offshore quota represents about 15 percent of the lobster Clearwater sells each year and a little over 2 percent of landings from the adjacent lobster fishing areas LFA 33 and LFA 34, the news site reported.
The areas comprise Canada's largest lobster fishery in the Maritimes region. LFA 33 and 34 license holders had landings of over 25.5 million kilograms of lobster in the 2021-2022 season. LFA 34 accounted to for 73 percent of that amount. In total the two fishing areas generated a landed value of approximately CAD 605.5 million ($445.6 million/€431.4 million).
The Brazil Rock Lobster Association, the Coldwater Lobster Association and the LFA 33 Advisory Committee have submitted letters to DFO in opposition to the measure.
