N.S. fishermen continue blockade of N.B. boats in crab fishery dispute

The protesters from Nova Scotia were preventing four boats from New Brunswick from leaving a wharf in Inverness to head out to the snowcrab grounds nearby.

One of the protesters said they would maintain their blockade until the federal Fisheries Department agrees to discuss giving them a portion of the annual crab quota off Cape Breton.

"We've been getting shafted here the last few years - they seem like they don't want to give us any quota," fisherman Louis Beaton said from his boat, which was blocking the passage of the four vessels.

"We just want a piece of the crab, that's all we want."

Three Cape Island boats began the protest late Thursday by blocking the 30-metre-wide channel to the wharf, keeping the New Brunswick vessels from leaving to set traps in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The fishermen said they wanted to meet with officials to ask for crab quota, which they're hoping could offset dismal lobster catches, high fuel costs and slumping prices.

"We felt this was a good time to stop it, to see if we can't get some meetings with DFO and if they can't give us any kind of an allocation at all," said David MacLean, a fisherman from Inverness.

But Luc Legere, a spokesman with Fisheries, said no one has received a request from the fishermen for a meeting and the quota has already been set, making it unlikely that it would be changed.

"The plan's already been approved, so it's kind of difficult now," he said from Moncton, N.B.

"On top of that, it's our position that we don't make decisions in response to demonstrations or protests."

Legere said Nova Scotia fishermen in the inshore fleet got 191 tonnes out of the total allowable catch of 20,900 tonnes for the year, down slightly from 212 tonnes last year.

Legere said the RCMP and a coast guard vessel were on site monitoring the situation, but that it had been peaceful.

MacLean said the crews simply want to stress the difficulty they're having in making a living from the lobster fishery and have asked repeatedly for a portion of the crab allocation.

"The lobster catches are way, way down. I mean, they've been going down every year, but they really took a dive this year," he said from his home overlooking the harbour.

"We're getting paid what we were 10 years ago. You can barely make your payments. It's just wicked."

MacLean said the plan was to rotate boats in and out of the blockade, allowing participants to continue lobster fishing, until they get a meeting with federal officials and Premier Rodney MacDonald, who represents the area in the legislature.

RCMP officers visited the wharf shortly after it began.

Beaton said they had spoken with the New Brunswick fishermen, who he said were supporting the protest.