by Marc Laframboise MMNN Contributor

Ten years after acquiring an old, obsolete, virtually all manually operated fish processing plant in Bas Caraquet, New Brunswick, the community is in the process of putting the final touches on a full-production, modern and automated plant. By mid-April 2023, a large, powerful blast freezer is will be fully functional and ready to keep large volumes of fish freshly frozen prior to being shipped.

The community of 1950 members and 1330 residents is located in Northumberland County on the beautiful Miramichi Bay about 35 kilometres north-east of Chatham, New Brunswick. Their commercial fisheries enterprise (CFE), Pêcheries Baie des Chaleurs Fisheries (2012) Inc. is amongst the largest in the Atlantic region with 15-20 fishing vessels currently in operation and the fish processing plant purchased in 2012. Over to 200 employees are employed by the CFE at peak season.

Fishers harvest snow crab and herring. In 2023, the community is expected to harvest close to one million pounds of snow crab as well as harvest close to 800 barrels of herring per day (during the season). The bulk of the community’s fishers are in the business of harvesting snow crab, the community’s biggest revenue generator.

Bas Caraquet, where the plant is located, is about 90 kilometres north of their community. In 2022, roughly 4.2 million pounds of snow crab was processed at the plant. This includes the snow crab harvested by their community. The balance comes from snow crab harvest ...

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