I started fishing, I think, in '22. I fished all my life.
Lobsters... I loved it. I miss it a fright. Getting up and going
out in the boat. Expecting to get a fortune. Every day I was
looking for a fortune. Never made it.
(Baxter Ross, 1980)
n some ways the fishery
has come full circle in the past century. In the early 1900s,
about $100 invested in a shoreboat, rope, traps and a few other
bits of gear could get you started fishing lobster. By 1980 the
basic investment had risen to $30,000 - although this much
again might be spent on getting a license. The upward trend
continues. Today, the few licenses that become available every year
can cost over $100,000. Boats and gear have become very
expensive - a new, well-equipped boat with all of the latest
electronics can cost over $300,000.
Despite - or maybe because of - its early brush with
disaster, lobster remains the backbone of the Prince Edward Island
fishery. Today there are new challenges to meet. The collapse or
decline of other marine harvests creates new balances in a fragile
ecology. Native treaty rights to the fishery, recently upheld in
the Supreme Court, must be accommodated without placing undue
stress on the stocks. The history of the lobster fishery warns
that collapse is a constant danger. But it should also encourage.
If respected and protected, the fishery can prosper for many more
generations.
Here ends the tale.
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