A personal-use mackerel fishery is coming, but P.E.I. fishers don't know when

Lobster fishers on P.E.I. say they're happy to hear that a personal-use mackerel fishery will open this year, but they're not sure it will help them with bait during the spring season.

"If we got a chance to go get some, we certainly will," said Allan Cody, who fishes out of Covehead.

Mackerel is often used as bait in the lobster, halibut and other fisheries.

Cody currently buys bait from a supplier in Tignish but it comes from waters near Iceland, he said. They're frozen and then shipped to Canada. But, "the fresher the mackerel the better."

The commercial mackerel fishery was closed in 2022 after steep declines blamed on overfishing. The moratorium has remained in place ever since.

Allan Cody says he's more eager to get his lobster traps in the water this season than he is to fish bait. At this point, he says he's heard very little from DFO about the personal-use mackerel fishery. (Aaron Adetuyi/CBC)

A management plan for the personal-use fishery is being developed, "with the goal to implement an approach that provides harvesters with viable opportunities across multiple regions," a spokesperson for Fisheries and Ocean Canada told CBC News on Thursday.

Fish caught under a bait licence are intended for personal-use and cannot be sold, traded or bartered.

DFO said it's splitting the mackerel quota into two equal parts so "harvesters from different regions will have equitable access to Atlantic mackerel as the stock migrates through the waters of Atlantic Canada and Quebec."

It gave no indication of when the fishery might open, but said fishers will know "as soon as possible."

If the mackerel stock's migration doesn't line up with the lobster season, some fishers will go back out, catch bait with "drift nets" and save it for the next season, said Timothy Wall, who fishes out of Malpeque.

He's optimistic the seasons will align.

Timothy Wall, who fishes out of Malpeque, estimates about one in four fishers in his harbour will go out and fish for bait when the season opens. (Aaron Adetuyi/CBC)

"Everybody likes fresh bait," Wall said. "It's funny how it changes. Originally, it used to be the saltier and more preserved the bait was, the better it was."

Following a delay of almost a week, the lobster season off the Island's North Shore is expected to open Sunday, the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association said.

Besides freshness, saving money is another reason fishers like to catch their own bait.

"The expenses, they just keep going through the roof, so anything you can do to cut the costs a little bit certainly helps out," Wall said.

At a legislative standing committee two years ago, representatives from PEIFA told provincial MLAs that fishers spent between $20,000 and $40,000 on bait during the 2022 spring season.