OTTAWA – The lobster industry in Atlantic Canada and Quebec, beset by plunging prices amid a glut of product, needs to continue the process of retiring fishing licences if the business is to remain viable, a Senate committee recommends in a report released Tuesday.
The committee concluded that Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Atlantic provinces and Quebec should consider extending the Atlantic Lobster Sustainability Measures program, which will see some 600 licences retired and over 200,000 traps removed from the water by March 2014.
"The committee believes that these initiatives are going in the right direction, but these efforts must be sustained," the report says. "The lobster fishery must stay on course and continue to make needed changes to ensure stability and sustainability in the future."
The committee says the industry has been facing big challenges since 2008 as landings have risen sharply.
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