About 1,450 lobster boats to head out on Day 1 of Canada’s largest lobster fishery

Fishers aboard roughly 1,450 boats in Canada’s largest lobster fishery are to set their traps in the small hours of Tuesday morning off southern Nova Scotia.

The annual “dumping day” for lobster fishing areas 33 and 34 is set for the final Monday of November each year, but there was a one-day delay this year due to rough weather.

Dwayne Surette, a federal Fisheries Department manager, says wave heights are expected to subside to one metre and winds will be mild on Tuesday morning — good conditions for the vessels’ departure.

He says the first day of the season is always the most dangerous as each boat can be loaded with between 300 and 400 traps, a number that reduces the stability of the fishing vessels.

The boats in area 33 — which stretches from Cow Bay in the Halifax area down to Shelburne County — will be leaving about 7 a.m., while the vessels in area 34 — which extends from southern portions of Shelburne County around to Digby County — will depart at 5 a.m.

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Surette says the departure time permitted for area 34 is a bit earlier because rougher weather is forecast in the evening in that part of the ocean.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2024.