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Fishermen from Pointe-Sapin and Tabusintac staged a protest this week, urging the federal government to have the wharf channels dredged before lobster season opens on April 30. SUBMITTED
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The Maritime Fishermen’s Union is continuing to lobby the federal fisheries minister to have two New Brunswick harbours dredged before the beginning of lobster season, saying the clogged entrances are a safety threat to fishing boats.
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Martin Mallet, executive director of the MFU, said the Pointe-Sapin and Tabusintac wharves are accessible only by narrow passages with sandy bottoms, which are very shallow and treacherous for lobster fishing boats.
“It’s very sandy, and every year the sand needs to be taken out and pushed aside to open up a channel for the boats. It’s the cost of doing business,” he said.
Lobster traps are seen stacked next to a large hole in a wharf this week. Fishermen from Pointe-Sapin and Tabusintac are urging the federal government to have the wharf channels dredged before lobster season opens on April 30.PHOTO: SUBMITTED
He said the sand shifts through the winter with the tides and currents, making the passage just a few inches deep at low tide. A survey boat was expected to visit the wharves this week to prepare upgraded maps of the navigation channels with the water depth.
The lobster season opens April 30, and Mallet said the boats won’t be able to go out if the channel isn’t dredged. He said other nearby wharves are full and aren’t able to handle any more boats.
On May 18, 2013, a lobster boat went aground at McEachern’s Point in Tabusintac, resulting in the deaths of the captain and two crew members. An investigation report stated the need to dredge the McEachern’s Point navigational channel annually.
The MFU says the Tabusintac and Pointe Sapin wharves together represent a total of 105 fishermen from the local communities, Esgenoôpetitj First Nation and Natoaganeg First Nation and 60 represented by the MFU. If the channels are not dredged, they won’t be passable during the 2024 season.
Mallet said the fishery is important to the First Nations community, and there is a dredging machine at the Pointe Sapin wharf. During a dredging operation, the machines scrape sand and rocks from the bottom to create a safe navigational channel for boats.
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“For Pointe Sapin, it should be a one day job. But until they do the survey of Tabusintac, we’re not sure how long it would take,” he said.
“At Pointe-Sapin, at low tide, there’s about six inches of water, which isn’t enough for a small rowboat, let alone a lobster boat,” he said. “At high tide, a fishing boat can get by, but the tides only allow a 30-to 45-minute window, twice a day. If you have bad weather and have to come in, or miss the tide going out, it won’t happen.”
The channel is also just wide enough for a boat to pass through, so being thrown off course by wind would be disastrous, he said.
Mallet said navigational channels are supposed to be a priority, but this year the federal government postponed dredging on these wharves.
Etienne Chiasson, a communications advisor with the DFO told Brunswick News that the department has limited funds for dredging operations at harbours across the country, and therefore must prioritize funds available to maximize the operational capacity of as many harbours as possible.
“For these reasons, dredging at McEachern’s Point (Tabusintac) and Pointe-Sapin was postponed to a future year,” Chiasson said in an email to Brunswick News.
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