The Newfoundland and Labrador crab fishery may be brought to a halt for the second time this season because there's now a glut of crab being landed at wharves around the province.Boats have brought back 15 per cent of this year's total allowable catch in less than two weeks.
Processing plants have not been able to handle the volume of crab, and some boats have been waiting at wharves for up to two days before they could be unloaded.
Tractor-trailers - used to quick turnarounds at the wharf - have been waiting for up to 12 hours to get their cargo.
Companies have also been withholding bait and ice to keep the boats from going out to sea again.
Rough start to season
The 2013 crab season got off to a rough start in April, with fisherman and processors disagreeing over price, and an arbitration panel siding with the processors' bid of $1.83 per pound.
That led to a union-organized, province-wide tieup of boats in hopes that processors would agree to the union's price of $2 per pound.
During the dispute, a group of protesting fishermen dumped 30,000 pounds of unprocessed crab over a wharf next to the Golden Shell Fisheries plant in Hickman's Harbour.
In late April, processors and the union agreed on the $2-per-pound price.
However, with the glut the price could drop back down to the original $1.83 per pound on Saturday which could, in turn, lead to another stoppage of the fishery.
