Cape Breton boatbuilders help DFO to face commercial, climate change challenges - Action News
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Nova Scotia

Cape Breton boatbuilders help DFO to face commercial, climate change challenges

Samson Enterprises of Petit de Grat, N.S., is building four new 13-metre patrol boats that will allow DFO fisheries officers to go farther offshore and stay out on the water longer, regardless of the weather.

New patrol boats will allow fisheries officers to go farther offshore, stay out longer regardless of weather

Three people stand in front of the unfinished hull of a large boat inside a workshop.
MP Mike Kelloway, left, Samson Enterprises manager Rachelle Samson and DFO area chief of conservation and protection Scott Phillips pose with the unfinished hull of a new 13-metre patrol boat. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans is having four new patrol boats built in rural Cape Breton to address some of the challenges faced by fisheries enforcement officers.

The new boats are larger than the existing ones to better deal with the effects of climate change, larger commercial vessels and heavier fishing gear. Once completed, the boats will be used in the Atlantic region.

"As we've seen in the last couple of years, climate change is a huge thing ... and adverse weather conditions are getting more and more frequent and our officers just don't take a day off because it's really bad weather-wise," said Scott Phillips, DFO's eastern Nova Scotia area chief of conservation and protection.

"This is going to provide a vessel that's very safe on the water, very stable on the water."

Samson Enterprises in Petit de Grat, N.S., has built boats for DFO before, including small science vessels and 8-metre jet boats for fisheries monitoring and enforcement.

This week, the federal government announced the company has been awarded a $5.4-million contract for four new 13-metre patrol boats.

They will be equipped with Seakeeper machines that help control the roll of a vessel and will provide a larger, more stable platform and a crane, making it easier to haul traps and weather the seas.

At sea longer,farther offshore

"Right now, weather dictates," Phillips said. "Sea state dictates how far we can go in our current vessels."

The new boats will allow enforcement officers to be farther offshore where commercial fishing boats are increasingly able to go and to stay on the water longer, he said.

The existing patrol boats are reaching the end of their life, so it's a good time to increase the size and capability, Phillips said.

Rachelle Samson, office manager for the boatbuilding company, said the contract will help keep 23 employees busy and add up to five new jobs.

"It's vital for this company to be able to continue to maintain its current workforce and so to have gotten this contract was a great piece for us," she said.

A group of people stands in a line in front of a boat in a lift on a dock.
Officials with DFO, Samson Enterprises and the federal government announce a $5.4-million contract for four new 13-metre fisheries enforcement patrol vessels. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

Cape Breton-Canso Liberal MP Mike Kelloway said the contract helps DFO provide safer and more effective fisheries enforcement and provides economic development in rural Cape Breton.

Two of the new vessels are already being built and are expected to be put into service this fall, replacing smaller, older boats in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The other two are expected to be on the water next spring in the Atlantic region.

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