Low prices for Atlantic lobster are forcing the provinces and Ottawa to find new markets for a product that is the mainstay of many coastal communities.

Canada produces $5 billion worth of fish and seafood each year, and 80 per cent of it comes from the Atlantic region. More than 60 per cent of Canada's lobster catch is shipped to the United States, but fisheries ministers are also starting to look to China.

The Atlantic Council of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministers — which includes representatives from the Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Nunuvut and the federal government — met in Halifax Monday and agreed to work together to expand and improve markets for lobster.

In the lead-up to Monday's meeting, Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea announced new money for lobster marketing, a new Lobster Council of Canada and a one-year bailout for lobster fishermen worth $15 million.

But $6 million of the bailout funds have not yet been earmarked and should be used to promote lobster to potential customers in China, argued Nova Scotia Fisheries Minister Sterling Belliveau.

"We raised the issue, and we should be targeting that money toward new marketing initiatives," Belliveau said Monday after the one-day meeting. "Our whole industry for generations has depended on the United States, and we have to move away from that."

Lobster prices in the region dipped to below $3 a pound last season, a 20-year low. On Saturday, Shea announced $417,000 to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy for Atlantic lobster.

Seal products ban

New markets also need to be found for seal products because Europe is about to ban them this summer, said Georges Mamelonet, assistant to Quebec's fisheries minister.

The Chinese already look favourably upon Canada as a tourist destination, so the potential for marketing Canadian seafood products to them is huge, Mamelonet said.

Shea, who attended the meeting, said the federal government has a plan to get more seal products into the marketplace.

"Our plan identifies ways that we can work together more effectively on projects such as broadening the array of seal products available for market and methods to strengthen the professionalization of the industry," she said.

The government plans to train sealers in a three-step process of killing the animal humanely. If they master the process, they will become certified sealers, Shea said.

The Canadian Association of Professional Fish Harvesters will carry out the training.

Nova Scotia has issued 38 licences to fishermen about to participate in a seal hunt off Hay Island in Cape Breton.