Victoria Co-operative Fisheries Ltd.

10/19/2025

Sharing on behalf of AEL.

12/19/2023

Quality Nova Scotia Seafood Since 1955

Click the link below for a spotlight on our lobster and snow crab.

https://youtu.be/FyIb3FwMHWo?si=U_6PexSH0TuRA3MI

12/12/2023

All the best for the festive season and beyond.

Holiday Hours:

Neil’s Harbour Office

SAT DEC 23 to TUE DEC 26 - CLOSED for Holidays
WED DEC 27 to FRI DEC 29 - CLOSED for Inventory
SAT DEC 30 to MON JAN 1 - CLOSED for Holidays

Bay St. Lawrence Marine Supply Store

CLOSED for Season | REOPENING on March 4, 2024

12/11/2023

Looking Back, Part 5

Employee Profile: Melinda MacIntosh, Accounting Manager

Today, meet Melinda MacIntosh, Accounting Manager at Victoria Co-operative Fisheries Ltd.

Melinda has been a key figure in our office for nearly twenty years, beginning with her time as seasonal staff to now as a full-time employee trusted by all, including her co-workers across the organization and our many member-owners made up of fish harvesters from our seven ports.

To say every detail of our operation, from daily finances to overall accounting, passes the desk of our always considerate and conscientious Accounting Manager is an understatement, with seemingly no ask too small or request too big for Melinda as long as it might serve the ongoing needs of our co-operative and the communities North of Smokey, where she was raised and continues to reside amongst family and friends.

When asked about her favourite part of the job, Melinda does not hesitate to respond it is the “interactions with the people” behind the work, especially internal staff and the fish harvesters, which is in keeping with her mother who held a similar role at the co-operative, with Melinda fondly bringing to mind those times she helped her mom “sort the fish slips” that in turn meant the fish harvesters would be paid for their catch.

With a focus on the people of the organization, from internal staff to the many member-owners, Melinda looks from the co-operative’s own past, as shared with her mother, to the work she does today accounting for the numbers, with more than a glance into the future, which includes updating processes and upgrading functionality to fit the demands of a now digital world and always in the end to serve the community better.

We are so pleased to have Melinda on the staff, with our numbers being looked after at her desk.

12/11/2023

Looking Back, Part 4

Our national television debut on the French language program Les quatre coins de l’assiette, hosted by Jessica Emin, featuring Marketing Manager Joel Burton aboard a snow crab vessel off Bay St. Lawrence before speaking about the history and present of our company in New Haven and sitting with others in a dining room serving our product in Dartmouth, from our area to the city.

Watch the debut on Season 2, Episode 6:
https://ici.tou.tv/les-quatre-coins-de-l-assiette/s02e06

Watch Jessica Emin, host of Les quatre coins de l’assiette, present three food products from Nova Scotia, including cider from Lake City Cider and sea asparagus from Fred Dardenne, used by Chef Renée Lavallée from The Canteen in a beautiful plate of food featuring our snow crab.

Season 2, Episode 6:
https://ici.tou.tv/les-quatre-coins-de-l-assiette/s02e06

12/11/2023

Looking Back, Part 3

Achievement of the Year

Our General Manager Osborne Burke and his operations team ensure we are back up and running on time for the season after suffering devastation from Hurricane Fiona in September 2022.

Big thanks to Operations Manager Roland Michaelis for his work!

"With millions of dollars in damages done to the facility and the loss of products in the range of $1 million, the road to recovery for VCFL would be a long one. That journey started the day after the hurricane, with Burke and the VCFL team immediately reaching out to partners and contractors to start the work on building back."

For more, read the Taste of NS Blog, “Victoria Co-operative Fisheries Ltd.: Building Back Bigger, Better, Stronger” at the link.

https://tasteofnovascotia.com/victoria-co-operative-fisheries-bigger-better-stronger/

Last year changed us. This time last year changed us. More precisely, the results of Hurricane Fiona, the disastrous weather event that made landfall on September 24, 2022 as the storm of a century in our geographic area, changed us and the province, the entire region.

Did it change us for the worse? Certainly in the short term. We were devastated. We’re still in recovery to a point, and we all know it’s been recovery after recovery since 2020, which leaves us seeking longterm solutions, not quick fixes. Plus our region shudders now come September, in response to hurricane season, storms like Lee, bracing itself for a late summer and early fall that is more uncertain, on shakier grounds, uncertain shores for a people and an economy. But we get back up, after we’re down, always we get back up, with resilience in reserve after decades of overcoming most certain hardships. The region, too: we see you, Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, connected as we are, we see and support your efforts to rebuild, as do others.

For the better, then? Can we emerge stronger? We think so, we remain hopeful that’s the case, after much work by our team and local crews in partnership with experts and funders in the province, across the country and the continent. It’s what folks in rural and coastal communities take on time and again, the task of rebuilding when it might be just shy of impossible, so we can continue to do our part, contribute as it were in helping feed the world, in our efforts to rebuild our modern seafood processing facility, after almost all was lost for dear friends and family. It’s the same work taken on by our neighbours across the way in Newfoundland after Fiona and by countless citizens every single year at points further south, all together in this post Fiona era.

In light of one year since Fiona, we invite you to read our climate story of change and recovery on the Taste of Nova Scotia Blog with remarks from our GM Osborne Burke and wide-ranging contributions on resilience in local food from leading voices in hospitality, Garth E. Brown at Akerley Campus, Nova Scotia Community College - NSCC, and Kyla Welton from Benjamin Bridge.

See link below for the Taste of NS Blog:

https://tasteofnovascotia.com/victoria-co-operative-fisheries-bigger-better-stronger/

Gudie Hutchings
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

12/11/2023

Looking Back, Part 2

We did it again, folks! Another highpoint: our lobster and snow crab products hold the BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety.

As a reminder, the BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard is accepted by 70% of the top 10 global retailers and adopted by over 22 000 sites in more than 130 countries, continuing to set the benchmark for food safety globally for nearly 25 years now.

Special thanks to Facility Manager Marlene Rambeau in helping us achieve this certification.

Food safety in the production of any raw and ready-to-eat seafood products is our highest priority.

To that end, we’re very happy to report we received an A grade for our lobster and snow crab products in a recent certification for the BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety, Issue 8, through Perennia for technical and specialized services across the seafood sector in Nova Scotia.

Of note, the BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard is accepted by 70% of the top 10 global retailers and adopted by over 22 000 sites in more than 130 countries, continuing to set the benchmark for food safety globally for nearly 25 years now.

Our thanks to all involved in helping us achieve this important certification in global food safety.

12/11/2023

Looking Back, Part 1

This time of year is for looking back, but, after the challenges we have faced over the last few years, like other businesses, we thought we might start a year back and begin with a highpoint.

In 2022, Office Manager Maureen Grover accepted the Safety Culture Champion Award, Safety First CB, from Fred Jeffers, ED OHS Division, NS Department of Labour, Skills, and Immigration.

In response to accepting this award for the co-op, Maureen said, “I was the one to accept the award, but it is the organization’s safety culture that needs to be acknowledged and celebrated.”

12/08/2023

Thank you to our great crew and customers for a standout year at Chowder House 2023 - until 2024

We're happy to report The Chowder House in Neil's Harbour, which we've been operating continually since 1991, will reopen for the season tomorrow on Saturday, May 20 - join us for a bite.

And, for news and specials this year, see Chowder House 2023

12/05/2023

In memory, one year today, Lloyd Lamey

A week ago today, on December 5th, Lloyd Lamey, who served as the Manager of Victoria Co-operative Fisheries for over 30 years, starting in 1978, passed away surrounded by his family.

It is impossible to overestimate the impact Lloyd had on our co-operative as Manager, moving the organization from a dated operation reliant on methods from a bygone era to a global seafood company buying and transporting fish worldwide with the help of modern processes.

Under Lloyd’s leadership, Victoria Co-operative Fisheries began processing a range of species in an updated facility that included specialized lines for lobster and snow crab, in addition to expanding operations with a cold transport company and local restaurant to showcase products.

Lloyd’s legacy will live on in the impact he had on our company specifically and the economy of an entire region more generally, preparing us all for the demands of this century, helping us to continue to live and work in our region by sharing the seafood we have on offer with the world.

We will remember Lloyd Lamey as a beloved boss and deeply respected community leader, and we would like to offer our sincerest condolences to his family and friends at this difficult time.