LFA 35 Lobster Season: The Upper Bay of Fundy's Fall and Spring Fishery

The LFA 35 lobster season is split in two. Under the federal regulations the upper Bay of Fundy opens for the fall at 7 a.m. on October 14 (a Wednesday in 2026) and closes after December 31. It reopens at 7 a.m. on the last day of February and runs to July 31. The fall opener comes about seven weeks before the much larger southwest Nova Scotia fleet sets its traps on Dumping Day.

LFA 35 is also the strangest place in the province to fish lobster. The tide here can rise and fall more than 14 metres, so boats sit on the mud twice a day and crews plan around the water rather than the clock. This guide covers the boundaries, season dates, trap and size rules, how the tides shape the work, and how to buy Fundy lobster while it’s landing. For the rest of the province, see our Nova Scotia lobster season dates for every area and our guide to Nova Scotia’s lobster fishing areas.

Where is LFA 35?

Lobster Fishing Area 35 is the upper Bay of Fundy, shared by Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The official boundaries are set out as map coordinates in Schedule XIII of the Atlantic Fishery Regulations. By our reading of that map, the area starts on the Nova Scotia side near the base of Digby Neck. A line crosses the bay from there to the New Brunswick shore near Fundy National Park, and everything east of that line is LFA 35. In practice that means:

• Nova Scotia’s Fundy shore, from the Digby area up past Annapolis and Kings counties, including harbours such as Hall’s Harbour.
• Minas Channel and Minas Basin, the funnel-shaped arm of the bay that runs past Parrsboro toward Cobequid Bay.
• The head of the bay, including the waters off the New Brunswick shore east of Fundy National Park.

Treat these place names as a guide, not a legal description. If you need a precise boundary, use DFO’s map and coordinates.

To the west and south, LFA 35 borders LFA 34 (southwest Nova Scotia) and LFA 36 (the New Brunswick side of the lower bay). Because LFA 35 overlaps several DFO districts, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) runs it directly from its regional headquarters in Dartmouth, not from a local area office, according to the DFO management plan for LFAs 27–38.

LFA 35 lobster season dates

Season	Regulated opening	Regulated closing
Fall	7:00 a.m., October 14	December 31
Winter break	Closed January 1 to the last day of February
Spring and summer	7:00 a.m., last day of February	July 31

The dates come from Schedule XIV of the regulations, which sets the closed periods for LFA 35 as January 1 to 7 a.m. on the last day of February and August 1 to 7 a.m. on October 14. DFO’s 2026 science update describes the fishery the same way: a split season, October 14 to December 31 and the last day of February to July 31.

Two cautions:

• Dates can move. DFO can change season dates by variation order, usually for bad weather or ice. Check the DFO Maritimes notices or the Maritimes Orders Registry for the current year before you plan around an opening day.
• The season spans two calendar years. DFO’s science reports label each season by the year it closes, so the “2026” season runs from October 2025 to July 2026.

The fall half matters to the market. It puts Fundy lobster on sale weeks before the much larger LFA 33 and 34 fishery opens on the last Monday of November.

Trap limits, sizes and conservation rules

LFA 35 is managed with limits on fishing effort rather than a catch quota. DFO’s 2026 notice for LFAs 33–38 lists these controls for the 2025-26 season, with no changes from the year before:

Rule	LFA 35
Trap limit (Category A licence)	300 traps
Category B licence	30% of the Category A limit
Partnership	150% of the Category A limit
Minimum carapace length	82.5 mm
Egg-bearing (berried) females	Must be released
V-notched females	May not be kept

The 82.5 mm minimum is measured from the back of the eye socket to the back of the body shell. Our guide to Nova Scotia lobster regulations explains how measuring, v-notching and trap tags work across the province.

DFO’s 2022 plan counted 94 licences in LFA 35: 73 Category A, 2 Category B and 19 communal commercial licences held by First Nations. Mi’kmaw communities also fish in the area under food, social and ceremonial licences and moderate livelihood understandings. DFO reported 46.3 tonnes of moderate livelihood landings across LFAs 35–38 in 2025.

How Fundy tides shape lobster fishing

The Bay of Fundy has the biggest tides on Earth. Guinness World Records gives the record to Burntcoat Head in the Minas Basin, with a mean spring range of 14.5 m (47 ft 6 in). That is inside LFA 35.

For a lobster crew, that tide sets the whole working day:

• Boats ground twice a day. In tidal harbours like Hall’s Harbour, boats settle onto the harbour bottom at low tide and lean against tall wooden wharves, as in the photo above. Crews can only leave and return when there’s enough water.
• The hauling window is short. Glanville Travis, a Minas Basin fisherman, told Fishermen’s Voice in 2016 that the basin’s tide rises and falls about 42 feet, coming in about seven feet an hour. He said crews there can haul for two hours before high tide and the hour of slack water, and start pulling “when the buoys start showing.” At his wharf, he said, the water retreats a mile or more at low tide.
• Currents are strong. Travis also described the risk of setting traps in the basin’s fast tidal currents.

Travis argued that the tides help conservation by limiting how many hours anyone can fish. That’s his view, but it fits with DFO’s finding that fishing pressure in LFA 35 has been “relatively low and stable” since 2013.

How healthy is Fundy lobster?

The stock is in good shape, though landings have come down from their peak. DFO’s 2026 stock status update for LFA 35 found:

• The 2025 commercial biomass index was 3,570.4 tonnes, about 39 times the limit reference point of 90.4 t.
• Landings peaked at 3,941 t in the 2014 season. They have been steady for four years, at 2,354 t in 2025, about 60% of that peak.
• Catch per trap haul has held steady since 2020, at about 2 kg.

Season (closing year)	LFA 35 landings (t)
2005	1,172
2010	1,898
2014 (record)	3,941
2020	2,645
2024	2,462
2025	2,354

DFO also flags several risks. Illegal and unreported harvesting likely means real fishing pressure is higher than the numbers show. The Bay of Fundy is warming and its salinity is changing, both of which affect how lobsters develop and how easy they are to catch. Our American lobster facts guide covers how water temperature drives growth and moulting.

Fundy lobster communities

Lobster is landed all along LFA 35’s shores, often from small harbours shared with scallop and groundfish boats:

• Digby area. The western end of LFA 35, close to the boundary with LFA 34.
• Hall’s Harbour (Kings County). A small working harbour on the Fundy shore of Kings County. It’s famous for boats lying on the harbour floor at low tide.
• Minas Basin and Parrsboro shore. Crews here work with the most extreme tides in LFA 35, often from wharves that dry out at low water.

How to buy Fundy lobster during the season

The fall season is the time to look for Fundy lobster close to home. A few practical tips:

1. Know the shore price. Shore prices change week to week. In late November 2025, Bay of Fundy fishermen were getting about $10 a pound at the wharf, according to Dan Fleck of the Brazil Rock 33/34 Lobster Association, speaking to QCCR. Retail prices are higher.
2. Buy from an established pound, fish market or shop. Our guide on how to buy live lobster in Nova Scotia covers what to check and how to spot a lively, hard-shelled lobster.
3. Visit Hall’s Harbour. Hall’s Harbour Lobster Pound and Restaurant is a working lobster pound on the wharf, where you can choose a lobster from the tank. It lists 2026 hours of 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily from September 15 to October 26, so the first weeks of the fall season overlap with the end of its year. Call ahead (902-679-5299), especially in late October.
4. Time your visit with the tide. If you want to see boats aground or crews landing, check a tide table for the day. Low tide puts the boats on the bottom, and the water returns within a few hours.

Once you have your lobster, our guide on how to cook lobster the Nova Scotia way covers boiling and steaming times by weight. For restaurants across the province, see where to eat lobster in Nova Scotia.

LFA 35 compared with its neighbours

	LFA 35	LFA 34	LFA 36
Waters	Upper Bay of Fundy, Minas Basin	Southwest Nova Scotia	Lower Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick side
Regulated season	Oct 14–Dec 31; last day of Feb–July 31	Last Monday of Nov–May 31	2nd Tuesday of Nov–Jan 14; Mar 31–June 29
Trap limit (Category A)	300	375, rising to 400 from April 1	300
Minimum size	82.5 mm	82.5 mm	82.5 mm

Seasons and trap limits are from the regulations and DFO’s 2026 notice. LFA 35 is small next to LFA 34, the largest lobster fishery in Canada, but its October opener gives Nova Scotia buyers fresh Fundy lobster weeks before the southwest shore starts fishing. For more on how all these areas fit together, browse our seasons and fishing areas hub or start with the complete guide to Nova Scotia lobster.