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A cold spring morning marked the start of one of the most important days of the year for Prince Edward Island’s lobster fishers.
Monday was setting day for Lobster Fishing Area 26A along the P.E.I.’s southeastern shore — the official opening of the spring season, when crews head out at dawn to set their traps. The season in LFA 24, along the province’s North Shore, is set to open Tuesday.
Boats began leaving harbours as early as 6 a.m.
At Souris Harbour in eastern P.E.I., 17-year-old Thomas MacPhee was already hard at work.
The Souris Regional School student was helping his family load lobster traps onto their boat. It’s part of a routine he grew up with.
“I’m born into it,” he told CBC News. “It’s fun.”
MacPhee was working alongside his grandfather, uncle and a friend. The crew had already made one trip earlier in the morning, heading out to set an initial load of traps before returning to shore to reload.
For families like the MacPhees, setting day is a more than 150-year tradition passed down through generations.
Despite challenges facing the industry, like rising costs, safety risks and uncertainty in the market, young fishers like Thomas continue to step into the industry, helping sustain a way of life that remains central to many coastal communities on Prince Edward Island.
Thomas’s grandfather, John MacPhee, has been fishing for more than 43 years. While calm weather made for ideal conditions on Monday, he said the job still comes with risks.
Boats are packed with heavy traps and coils of rope, and crews work quickly to get everything into the water.
“It’s very important to keep everybody safe before you’re rolling traps off,” John said. “You go to worry with tangle, something tangled in the rope or something.… You’re trying to keep everybody in the boat.”
Thomas said he understands those risks and takes them seriously.
“It’s fine,” he said. “As long as you’re going slow and you’re being safe, watching everybody around you, I think you’ll do fine.”
The spring lobster season gets underway on April 25 this year, one week earlier than the traditional start date of May 1. That’s causing problems for at least one of the Island’s larger harbours. CBC’s Nancy Russell explains.
Beyond safety concerns, John said financial pressures continue to weigh heavily on the industry.
Rising costs for bait, fuel and maintenance are cutting into profits, especially for boats that travel farther offshore.
Broader economic conditions can also affect demand.
“A lot of people don’t travel or go to restaurants, and it hurts,” John said.
Still, he remains cautiously optimistic about the season ahead.
“I feel good about the season,” he said, though he added there’s uncertainty around lobster prices: “It’s always a fight.”
‘There’s a collective anxiety’
Setting day is also a community event.
Family members, friends and neighbours of the fishers bundled up against the cold and gathered along the dock at Souris Harbour, watching as boat after boat cut through the water and headed out to sea.
Among them was Lily MacPhee, who stood with her mother as her father’s boat left the harbour.
Lily, a third-year anthropology and sociology student at UPEI, has also spent the past four years fishing during the spring season, often working into June alongside friends and family.
“We grew up on the boat, so it’s kind of just part of who we are,” she said. “It’s a big thing in our family. I mean, my little brother’s out today, too. My sister and I both fish.”
Lily’s father taught her how to fish, and going out on the boat is one of the main ways she connects with his side of the family.
While she hopes to pursue a different career after graduating, she plans to stay connected to the fishery.
“Whenever I get the chance, I’d still love to go out,” she said.
“I feel really lucky to be able to go out there and kind of carry on a family tradition with my family.… I really value that and that’s kind of the culture that we grew up in. So I’m just very happy that we’re able to do that and I’m able to spend that time with my family.”
For Lily’s mother, Tara McNally MacPhee, setting day brings a mix of pride and anxiety.
Even after decades of watching loved ones head out on the water, she said the worry never fully leaves.
“It’s nerve-racking when your husband and your children and boyfriends and lifelong friends are all out there, all on the water today.… I have a brother who fishes, all of the aunts and uncles. You know, it’s just a fishing community,” McNally MacPhee said.
“I think there’s a collective anxiety, kind of, we all hold our breath until the end of the day and everybody’s home and we hear everybody’s safe, then we really celebrate.”
