Michel Arseneau’s fishing career spans nearly seven decades, beginning in the days when traps were made by hand and there was no winch to pull them off the ocean floor.
Today, the 84-year-old from Petit-Rocher is still lobster fishing. The physically demanding work is getting hard, but he plans to keep going until he can sell or transfer his licence.
But federal regulations say the licence will cease to be when Arseneau dies.
“It’s marked on the paper, it’s marked in the book that when I die, it goes,” he said. “And I don’t want to accept that.”
Arseneau is one of about 80 Category B lobster-licence holders in the Maritimes, including about 50 in New Brunswick. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans created that new classification in 1976 as a conservation strategy.
It put fishermen who held employment outside the fishery under tighter restrictions. They are restricted to 75 to 90 traps, depending on the area, and their licences cannot be sold or transferred to family members.
Read more:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/new-brunswick-lobster-fishermen-licences-1.6248737