P.E.I. company testing new bait for lobster and crab fishery

A P.E.I. company has created a new bait that it hopes will someday replace traditional bait such as herring and mackerel.

Bait Masters Inc. is testing the new product in the fall crab and lobster fishery on P.E.I.

"The new bait is a mix of fish and other organic matters in a biodegradable casing," said Wally MacPhee, co-owner of the company.

"It reduces the amount of pelagic fish used in the bait process. We're hoping to reduce it by 50 per cent per piece so it would be a help with sustainability."

Mackerel and herring, the traditional bait used by the lobster fishery on P.E.I., has become increasingly more expensive and difficult for Island fishermen to find.

"The numbers are dropping, they're having a hard time catching them, catching what they used to catch," MacPhee said.

"We recognized the need for something better than the current way they were doing it."

'Lots of attempts'

Co-owner Mark Prevost worked for almost a decade in the fishery.

"It was the cost and the waste for me," Prevost said.

"The short amount of time I spent fishing mackerel, it was how much was wasted and how hard it was to catch and with the new quotas coming out, how much more expensive it's going to be."

The two started looking at alternative baits a couple of years ago.

They ordered what was available in North America, with the idea of possibly becoming a distributor.

"But there wasn't any available that actually worked or fished well so we made our own," Prevost said.

"It took a lot of attempts but now I think we're pretty close to having a finalized recipe."

The expansion is going to be pretty quick. Long term...we'd like to see it in as many traps as possible.—Mark Prevost, Bait Masters Inc. 

They turned to the BioFoodTech Centre to help them scale up to produce 10,000 units, after starting in their own kitchens and barns.

"It's kind of a secret formula. We'll just keep it at that for now," MacPhee said.

Testing phase

Bait Masters had the bait in traps on nine boats in the spring lobster fishery, along with an employee who tracked the catches, comparing the alternative bait to the traditional fish.

"We found out that it fishes well, fishermen seem to like it," MacPhee said.

"It is still going through its testing phases so we're going to keep tweaking as we go, but it seems to be working well and it's fishing right along with the other bait."

Prevost and MacPhee said they haven't set a price for the new bait but say it will be comparable per pound to traditional bait.

"It was a good feeling to see some positive results finally," Prevost said.

"We've definitely made many attempts at it and it took quite some time, so now to get feedback from the fishermen especially, it's been great."

Bait shortage

Donald Macdonald fishes out of Nine Mile Creek, P.E.I., and has been using the bait in both the spring and fall fishery. 

"I think the bait's really good, it's clean, efficient and it lasts," Macdonald said.

"The issue is getting it to fish as good as the other bait and once they do, it'll really sell."

Macdonald said he will use more of it next season — if the bait continues to fish well.

"Bait's more expensive, harder to get and you always want to try something," Macdonald said.

"I wouldn't want to go and set all my gear right away, but keep trying it slowly and if the numbers keep working out then, yeah."

Prevost and MacPhee will send the data they've collected on the new bait to a researcher at UPEI.

Next year, their goal is to make 300,000 units to start selling commercially in the spring of 2020.

"The expansion is going to be pretty quick," Prevost said.

"Long term I guess we'd like to see it in as many traps as possible."

More P.E.I. news