The Reel Bender; photo courtesy Craig MacLean
The outgoing president of the Gulf Nova Scotia Bonafide Fishermen’s Association says the 2020 season was better than expected.
Duane Boudreau says they were concerned COVID-19 would reduce the season to just two or three weeks, while dropping prices as low as $2-$3 per pound.
Boudreau tells The Hawk that didn’t happen.
“It was better than expected, but in saying that, our expectations were quite low to start with,” he says. “Compared to (2019), it was definitely a down season.”
Local fishers lost the first two weeks of the season due to the pandemic, but got back four days at the end.
Boudreau says they were getting $4.50/lb for canners and $5.00/lb for markets when the season ended.
“A lot of the fishermen were up, catch-wise, from (2019), even with the delay and lost days.”
Boudreau says they won’t know the full impact until catch numbers come in at the end of the year.
