Page 3 - Jeff Loder News Today

"We have a shortened season, we have an increase in quota, and it's very important that we keep our focus not on what has happened, but where we need to go," ASP executive director Jeff Loder told reporters Tuesday.

A bitter standoff that shut down Newfoundland and Labradors lucrative snow crab fishery for nearly six weeks came to an end on Friday.

The proposal sets $2.20 per pound as the minimum price of snow crab for the rest of the season. There is the opportunity for increases, which would be tied to the Urner Barry Index, which dictates the market price.

The head of Newfoundland and Labrador's Association of Seafood Producers is now putting negotiations with the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union out in the open, saying the union mischaracterized meetings between the two groups.

Jeff Loder of the Association of Seafood Producers is calling on the fisheries union to start the snow crab season despite low prices.

The trade association that represents Newfoundland and Labrador's seafood processors says each day fishermen keep their boats tied up in the hopes of getting a better crab price is only making an already dire season worse.

Plant workers worry about impacts on jobs if season is delayed for weeks

It started out six weeks ago as a rare show of unity between the fisheries union and seafood producers, but efforts to agree on a price formula for this year's snow crab harvest have ended in failure.

The Fish, Food & Allied Workers union and the Association of Seafood Producers are promising to set aside their combative history to work together this snow crab season.