Fishermen in the southwest hope to see fewer boats on the water next year. (CBC)

P.E.I. lobster fishermen have put forward plans for reducing their catch in order to preserve the stock, but are still waiting for money from Ottawa to fund them.

There are three separate lobster fishing areas around the Island, and each is required to submit a conservation proposal to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The department has $50 million to fund those plans and others around Atlantic Canada.

Area 25, the western end of the Northumberland Strait, has settled on the most heart-wrenching of the conservation choices available. It is asking for fishermen to volunteer to retire their fishing licences for good.

For the last three decades, lobster fishing has been Charles Doull's life. But season after season of low catches and poor prices have forced him to make a tough decision.

"About the first of January there until the 22nd, I was doing a lot of thinking about what I should do, what I shouldn't do, right up until I put my name in," Doull said Wednesday. "My stomach's been in cramps every since."

Doull is one of 32 fishermen, out of 252 currently holding licences in area 25, who have agreed to retire their lobster fishing licences. In return, they'll each get $175,000. But the fishermen are still waiting for Ottawa to approve the conservation plan.

"If the federal money is not received by the end of March 2010, these people can go back on the water," said Ed Frenette, executive director of the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association.

Fewer traps

Fishermen on the North Shore are taking a different approach. Rather than retire licences, they are looking to reduce the number of traps each fisherman puts in the water.

Currently each is allowed 300, and the proposal is to reduce that by 10 per cent.

"Because of the health of the resource there, DFO biologists say that reducing traps is equivalent to reducing licences," said Frenette.

"By going 30 traps per fishermen, that makes it even across the board."

Frenette said both areas have also agreed to raise the minimum size of lobster by two millimetres.

P.E.I.'s other fishing zone — in the southeast — is only beginning its proposal. All the proposals need to be submitted by the end of March.