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Much like my adopted state of Maine, Atlantic Canada has a booming billion-dollar lobster industry supported by the trap harvest of Homarus americanus.

A recent uptick in thefts of live lobster are leaving the local industry out in the cold. Earlier this week, someone stole 48 crates — that’s about $28,000 in value — from an outdoor pound on Cape Sable Island.

“A lot of wars are started affecting somebody else's livelihood," lobsterman Hubert Saulnier told the Canadian Press.

That’s another thing Maine lobstermen have in common with their counterparts in Atlantic Canada. Lobster wars are serious business and have led to the destruction of lives and property. Just last year, a Cape Breton lobsterman was sentenced in the “murder for lobster” case.

Boats & Gear Editor Michael Crowley wrote about some cases of Maine Lobstermen’s Law in “Guns, sinkings and fishermen’s justice.”

Later this week, I’ll occupy myself comparing my home of Portland, Maine, and Moncton, New Brunswick, a lovely little Eastern Canada town smack dab in the middle of the Maritimes and perched on the Petitcodiac River.

Every other year, Moncton hosts the Fish Canada trade show, and I love to head up there — despite the fact that everyone else I know is trying to get out of the cold, dark, snowy north for warmer climes. Two years ago the show hosted a record 4,500 attendees, and that was with a blizzard brewing (OK, there’s almost always a blizzard brewing).

If you’re in easy driving distance, I hope you’ll come by the Moncton Coliseum this Friday and Saturday, Jan. 22-23. The show has a lot to offer, including new gear and specials for attendees. If you’re planning a visit, come see us in booth 111.

No doubt we’ll be talking lobster and tapping (ahem) the local sources to find out what’s to be done to protect local lobstermen. If we get any good ideas, we’ll be sure to bring them back across the border, customs permitting.

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Jessica Hathaway is the former editor in chief of National Fisherman.

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