Someone is stealing lobsters from traps off Sainte-Anne-des-Monts in the Gaspé

A pilot project to determine the viability of lobster fishing near Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, off the north coast of the Gaspé Peninsula, is being bedeviled by lobster thieves.

Four fishing boats — two belonging to the Malecite Nation and two to non-Indigenous fishermen — have been authorized by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to catch lobsters in the area this season. 

It's part of an "exhaustive scientific process" Fisheries and Oceans is carrying out to determine whether lobster fishing in the area is sustainable, said Guy-Pascal Weiner, commercial fisheries co-ordinator for the Malacites in Cacouna, near Rivière-du-Loup.

Lobster stocks are thought to be high in this area, but Weiner said the Malecite Nation's fishing crews have noticed a lower than expected catch throughout the season.

And it does not appear to be simply a matter of bad luck.

"Why is this one open?" Weiner says the fishermen have been asking when they check their traps. "How come the door [of the trap] is not tightened?"

"It's all things that led us to believe that lobster traps were hauled."

Matters became more dramatic as the 10-week lobster season wore on, he said.

Now, "one trap is full, another trap is empty," Weiner told CBC.

The thieves have even resorted to hauling entire lobster posts ashore and emptying them, he said.

The lobster fishing area being tested is close to the shore, with buoys indicating where the lobster traps have been set.

Being close to shore means the area is not subject to the same restrictions as those faced by other Gaspé lobster fishermen, whose fishing season has been cut short because their activities were deemed a possible threat to right whales travelling through the area.

Proximity to the shore, though, makes it easier for anyone with a boat to approach the buoys and haul in the lobster traps.

Data lost in thefts

Fisheries and Oceans and the Quebec provincial police are investigating, but there are only two weeks left in the lobster fishing season in the area.

Fewer lobsters brought to market this year means lower revenues for the fishermen, as well as for processing plant workers and truckers, and it could reduce everyone's Employment Insurance benefits, Weiner said.

The thefts could also affect the findings of the pilot project.

Weiner said experts look at the number of lobsters caught, the breakdown between males and females, the percentage of juveniles, and the size of the lobsters, measured by the length of their thorax. 

"When [thieves] steal the lobsters like that, it's important scientific data that slips through our fingers," he said.

The success of the pilot project is critical to the Malecite Nation's development of commercial fishing activities.

Like other First Nations along Canada's coasts, they've been granted commercial licences in the wake of Supreme Court rulings affirming Aboriginal fishing rights. For now, Weiner said, the Malecites are hiring non-Indigenous fishermen, as they haven't yet developed the expertise to crew the commercial fishing boats themselves.