Veterinary college partners with research institute on annual industry workshop

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By Cole Hobson
Times & Transcript Staff

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The future of Atlantic Canada's billion dollar lobster industry will be the topic of conversation as industry representatives, researchers and government representatives will gather for the fourth annual Lobster Science workshop, which begins at the Crowne Plaza in Moncton today.

Co-hosted by the Atlantic Veterinary College's Lobster Science Centre in Prince Edward Island and the Coastal Zones Research Institute Inc. in Shippagan, the workshop will have sessions on lobster seeding and health strategies as well as open forums featuring fishermen, processors, exporters, government representatives and scientists.

"When you look at the overall (lobster) landings for Canada they've been pretty much stable for the last few years, but you do have a pocket that are doing better and other pockets that aren't doing as good," said Jean Lavallee, clinical scientist at the AVC Lobster Science Centre and co-chair of the workshop. "I think overall the trend is it is somewhat going down and there's a lot of talk from fisherman looking for license buy backs and things like that. They're not as confident that the lobsters are going to be sustainable for their livelihood."

Lavallee said it's the first time the college has partnered with the institute on the workshop and hopes it will give them a broader range of knowledge to draw from. He adds that it was a "no brainer" decision to form the partnership.

"(The institute) have been involved in doing a lot of lobster enhancement research and this is something we don't do per say at the AVC Lobster Science Centre ... I think lobster enhancement is definitely something that more and more of the stakeholders are talking about," he said.

Martin Mallet is the director of Homarus Inc. in Shediac, a subsidiary of the Maritime Fishermen's Union and partner with the institute. He is one of the event's keynote speakers and plans to discuss their work and developments, which he is optimistic could lead to positive changes in the industry. "Since the very beginning, the idea was to try to build up tools that the fishermen could eventually use in order to try to build a sustainable fishery," he said, adding that enhancements in seeding processes and technology from the institute has allowed them to make many advances.

Upwards of 100 people from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Newfoundland and the United States are expected to be in attendance.