January 21, 2014 — A huge increase in the haddock catch off Georges Bank has the southwestern Nova Scotia port of West Pubnico booming this week.
Pubnico's concrete wharfs have been swarming with forklifts and semi-trailer trucks for days as the fleet lands some of the 16 million kilograms of Georges Bank haddock available for fishermen to catch this year.
"We probably landed a million pounds this weekend," said Richard 'Bee' d'Entremont, the president of Acadian Fish Processors Ltd., as his crew unloaded 36,000 kilograms of freshly caught haddock.
"I love it. Money. People working. And a future, a future in the fishery. The fishery is healthy down in this end."
West Pubnico is a 10-hour to 12-hour boat ride to the Canadian side of Georges Bank — a large elevated area of the sea floor that separates the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean. A remarkable number of haddock that hatched in 2010 survived in the area and are now large enough to be caught.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada attributes several factors to a general recovery of haddock on Georges Bank, including favourable environmental conditions, less fishing effort and reduced capture of small fish in the fishery.
The biomass has grown from a low of 10,300 metric tons in 1993 to 183,300 metric tons at the beginning of 2013.
Officials can't say what caused the "exceptionally strong" class of 2010.
Read the full story at CBC News