Lobster licence cost in Nova Scotia

How DFO issues lobster licences

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has run the inshore lobster fishery as a limited-entry program since 1967 -- before that, there were no restrictions on getting a lobster licence, but new licences have not been issued freely since. Licences are managed by Lobster Fishing Area (LFA). The Maritimes region alone has 12 inshore LFAs, numbered 27 through 38, running from the Bay of Fundy along Nova Scotia's coast and into southwestern New Brunswick, each with its own season dates, trap limits, and size rules set out in DFO's Integrated Fisheries Management Plan.

Most commercial harvesters hold a Category A licence, which carries the full trap limit for their LFA and can be reissued to a new eligible harvester. A smaller number hold a Category B licence -- created by DFO in 1976 for part-time "moonlighter" harvesters, capped at roughly 30% of a Category A trap limit -- which cannot be transferred at all and simply expires when the holder dies or stops fishing it.

DFO's owner-operator policy also requires that the person named on a licence personally fish it, with only narrow exceptions (a medical emergency, for example), so a licence can't just sit in a company's name while someone else does the fishing. In the Maritimes region, several of these core rules -- fleet separation between the inshore and offshore fleets, and elements of the owner-operator policy itself -- have been written directly into federal regulation since 2021, not left as guidance DFO could quietly change.

Why a licence isn't simply bought from the government

There is no DFO storefront where a new harvester pays a fee and receives a lobster licence. Instead, an existing eligible licence holder who wants to exit the fishery requests a "reissuance": DFO cancels their licence and issues an equivalent replacement to a specific incoming harvester who meets the eligibility rules for that LFA, including, in most areas, having a home port within the same DFO-defined area as the outgoing holder. A licence holder generally has to have held the licence for at least twelve months before they're eligible to request a reissuance.

What DFO does not do is set, cap, or publish a price for that transaction. The outgoing and incoming harvester negotiate a price privately -- often through a fishing-licence broker or lawyer -- and DFO's role is limited to confirming that both sides meet the eligibility and paperwork requirements before approving the reissuance. That's the structural reason a lobster licence "costs" wildly different amounts in different places: DFO controls who is eligible to hold one, not what it sells for.

What lobster licences actually go for

Because there's no central price and no requirement to report the sale price of a licence reissuance, there's no single published figure -- what exists is dated news reporting on individual deals, and it shows a wide range. A group of Category B licence holders in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick told CBC News in November 2021 that their non-transferable licences were worth roughly $200,000 to $500,000 based on earning potential -- worth noting mainly because that licence type can't legally be sold at all, which is the whole reason those harvesters were lobbying DFO to change the policy. A fishing-licence broker told CBC News in January 2023 that full licences, typically sold bundled with a boat and gear rather than on their own, had reached prices as high as $1.8 million in some deals, "depending on the season and the harbour" -- with the broker adding he'd never seen prices that high before and had no idea whether they'd keep climbing or start dropping.

Sources

• DFO — Maritimes Region Commercial Fisheries Licensing Policy — accessed 2026-09-07.
• DFO — Lobster Fishing Areas 27-38, Integrated Fisheries Management Plan — accessed 2026-09-07.
• CBC News — "Decades-old DFO policy preventing aging fishermen from selling lobster licences" (Nov. 4, 2021) — accessed 2026-09-07.
• CBC News — "Looking to get into lobster fishing? You'll need deep pockets" (Jan. 8, 2023) — accessed 2026-09-07.
• Undercurrent News — "Canadian broker: Lobster license prices range widely, have reached CAD 1.8m" (Jan. 9, 2023) — accessed 2026-09-07.