If you’re looking to buy a lobster fleet—license, boat, and equipment—it may cost more than you think.
There is a range and the price depends on the port where the person selling the fleet has been fishing. For example, the price may be higher if purchased from a port with a larger lobster catch.
Mark Hackett is a broker who works with people who want to buy and sell fishing licenses, boats and gear such as traps.
He recently retired after 50 years of lobster fishing at Seacow Lake in western PEI
Licenses purchased from ports that have historically had good catches may be more expensive. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)
Hackett said those were the highest prices he had seen — up to $1.8 million in some cases.
“I never thought they would be as high as they are now. It may start to decrease or increase. I have no idea. It doesn’t seem to be going down yet. It could go right down, depending on the interest rate,” he said.
It was different when Hackett got into fishing.
Catches and prices are rising
“When I started in the early 1980s, they [licences] it was 25 thousand then. But no money was made. If there was nothing else to do, you would never survive because the catch was gone and the price was gone,” he said.
“Now the catch goes up, the price goes up, the license price goes up … just supply and demand.”
Lobster fleets consist of a license, boat and gear needed to fish. (Brian Higgins/CBC)
Hackett said sometimes people will give family members a break from the price. But not always.
He said it’s a busy time of year for him, with four deals poised to close by the end of the month. On average, he makes eight transactions per year for lobster fleets.
Hackett said not everyone can be approved by DFO to hold a lobster license. He said you need two years of lobster fishing experience, at least five weeks a year. There’s also paperwork that can take months—something a broker like him can help with.
Charlie McGohegan has been fishing alone for 23 years. (Laura Meader/CBC)
Charlie McGaughan said he started fishing on his own 23 years ago.
He said then a lobster license in Lobster Fishing Area 26a on the south side of PEI cost about $225,000. In retrospect, MacGeoghegan said he wished he had bought a fishing license earlier, when it was half the price.
It’s great for the guys who are retiring…but it makes it harder for young people to get into fishing.—Charlie McGohegan
He said the current price is good for some but not for others.
“It’s great for the guys who are retiring. It’s a lot better for them, but it makes it harder for young guys to get into fishing,” he said.
“Any young angler coming in should really look at their accounting very carefully to see what their fuel bills are going to be and what their bait bill is going to be. And there are fixed costs like hired helpers and insurance and things like that,” McGohegan said.
“So they have to take all of that into account and then be able to take a salary from that and give their loan for 20 years and see if it makes sense or not.” In some cases it has and in other cases it doesn’t, so that’s where things are right now.”
He told PEI when someone buys the lobster fleet, it usually stays in the port where the license was purchased.
Catches, lobster prices and interest rates are increasing. (Sarah Fraser/CBC)
“Some ports froze up … some ports were getting a lot of boats congregating in their port and it’s just that the physical port didn’t have room for more boats in many cases,” he said.
“And it keeps a lot more peace in the water if you just keep it where it was. That’s usually the way it works, is you buy a license in a certain harbor and fish it there.”
Interest rates can determine the future
MacGeoghegan said it was difficult to say what would happen in the future. His best advice for someone looking to get in?
“I guess I would say what some of the older fishermen told me when I was graduating high school. They said if you really love fishing and you know that’s what you want to do eventually, then you just have to make a decision,” he said.
He said he was told that waiting five or ten years would not help him. MacGeoghegan said it turns out they were right.
“But at the same time, you want to make a smart financial decision. … You also have to run the numbers and make sure it’s working right now with the interest rates and the cost of the licenses, do those numbers and make sure Yes is right more important than ever.”
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