Lobster fishermen hopeful of price increase

The P.E.I. Fishermen's Association is hoping to see an increase in the price of lobster in the last few weeks of the spring lobster season.

Currently fishermen are getting up to $3.75 per pound for canners and up to $4.25 for market size lobster.

Typically this is the time of the year where the catches start to drop off, said Ian MacPherson, executive director of the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association.

We do have some reports of certain ports being down last week. So we expect that we'll see some price escalation here over the next few weeks.

Earlier this spring many P.E.I. lobster fishermen were faced with a glut of unsold lobster after learning some processors could not accept all of their catch due to a labour shortage in their facilities.

• Worker shortage leaves lobster at the wharves
• Labour shortage cause of lobster quotas, says processor group

The P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association said some plants did not have the staff to keep up with the catch.

MacPherson said some buyers still have boats on quotas of anywhere from 500 to 1,000 pounds a day. He is hoping that after the season ends, a solution can be found to avoid quotas in the future.

The lobster season closes June 30.