It will be at least another day before lobster fishermen on the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy find out whether their season will be delayed because whales are in the area.

About 300 boats were due to begin setting lobster traps Tuesday, but the Department of Fisheries and Oceans decided Monday to postpone the start of the season by at least a day because of high winds. It could decide Tuesday for a longer postponement.

A delay would be economically disastrous because the bulk of Bay of Fundy lobsters are caught in the first two weeks of the season, said Ralph Brown of the Campobello Fishermen's Association.

"You've got fishermen with major investments in their boats and in their gear," he said. "Everybody has payments on their business assets, and if they can't fish then they can't make the payments."

A better solution would be to create an exclusion zone, Brown said, barring fishermen from setting lobster traps in the path of the migrating whales.

Steve Wilson, spokesman for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said that's one of the options the department is considering.

"Ideally, what we want to do more than anything is have the season start on time," said Wilson, the department's area director for southwest New Brunswick.

"It's a great economic driver for the area and for the fishermen. They depend very heavily on the lobster fishery … it's their bread-and-butter fishery."

The department says it will assess the situation throughout the day Monday. 

According to department spokesman Leslie Burke, windy weather was behind the one-day postponement. It might be possible to start the lobster season Wednesday morning, although there are no guarantees that will happen, he said.

In recent weeks, about 50 right whales have been observed in the area, but by last week the number had dwindled to half that, Burke said.

The concern is that the lines connecting the lobster traps with the fishermen's buoys could entangle the whales, an endangered species protected by Canadian law, he told CBC News.