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Lifelines: Canada's East Coast Fisheries

A Lobster Tale
The Lobster Fishery of 
Prince Edward Island
 
Prologue
A Lobster Tale: The Lobster Fishery of Prince Edward Island

Lobster has been the mainstay of the Prince Edward Island fishery for over a century. It survived its early "boom" days to become one of the most sustainable fisheries on Canada's East Coast.


 

Lobster Fishermen
Past

Prior to the 1870s, Prince Edward Islanders were content to remain on shore while others pursued the rich fishery off their coast. Then came the lobster boom, and Islanders developed a fishery of their own.

Lobster Fishermen (ca. 1880)
(Scribner's Monthly, 1881)



 

Lobster Fisherman - 
Photograph: John Sylvester
Present

By the mid-1880s - only ten years after the boom began - overfishing drove lobster stocks to dangerously low levels. The industry faced imminent collapse, and was saved only by a combination of regulation, cooperation and good luck. The history of this fishery offers lessons - and warnings - for the future.

Lobster Fisherman (1998)
(Courtesy: John Sylvester,
http://www.johnsylvester.com)



 

 
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