Altogether, their plan would more than double the intensity of fishing in the Miramichi Bay area, on a stock that is declining. This poses a major conservation concern. Overfishing means catching so much fish that it reduces the stock s biomass and future catches below desirable levels. In a normal fishery, a moderate harvest gets replaced by new growth. In an overfishing situation, too much fishing pressure reduces the population and curtails reproduction.
Scarcity prevails, annual catches drop, and fishers lose money.
Overfishing if carried to an extreme can interfere with reproduction and cause a stock collapse. The fishing plan put forward by Burnt Church First Nation calls for 15,000 traps to be fishing in the spring fishery and an additional 5,600 traps to be fished in the fall. This level of effort would, if followed, be a dramatic example of overfishing a local population. Status of the lobster population Lobster catches in the Miramichi Bay area dropped by more than 20 per cent in the last ten years. Declines have also taken place in other nearby areas.