Fishermen and community leaders hope a summit in St. John's on Wednesday will be a first step toward saving the fishery and the communities that depend on it.
INDEPTH: Fishing
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is bringing together more than 70 people to participate in the summit — including representatives from the fish union, processors, economists, scientists and regional, provincial and federal politicians — to discuss problems facing the fishery.
Gerald Cumby, a crab fisherman for more than 15 years, says it is growing increasingly difficult to make a living in the industry.
"It's costing us double than what it was a couple of years ago," Cumby said. "Fuel is gone sky high, money [is] going out that's not coming back. You know, it's only a matter of time that you're going to see a lot of fellows go out of this."
Worried fishermen
Aiden Broders, another crab fisherman, said he is glad the province has organized the summit, but says time for a solution is running out.
"The fishery's in trouble now, the last eight or 10 years, 10 or 12 years now," Broders said.
"You can see it slowly going and and everyone knew this was coming."
And it's not just the fishermen who are worried.
Wayne Ruth, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Municipalities, says the summit is unlikely to provide help for rural communities that are suffering because people are moving away to find work elsewhere.
'All become challenges'
"Being able to finance the basics that's in a municipality — the basic structure, street lighting, garbage collection, snow clearing, this type of thing — it all has become challenges as of late," Ruth said.
Liberal Opposition leader Gerry Reid has said the summit is coming too late for people in Harbour Breton and Fortune, ports that are already facing unemployment and population loss.
The summit, which is taking place in the Fairmont Hotel, will be closed to the media and the general public.
"My concern, and the concern of government, was that if media were in and cameras were there, then we may find that some people may play to the cameras — that maybe some politics get involved, maybe some showboating," Williams said.
"That's not what this is about. It's an attempt to put a lot of the significant stakeholders in the same room, as many as we can accommodate in one day, and make sure there's a good exchange of information and discussion."