Ocean Pride Fisheries Ltd. was established in 1986 as an Herring Roe processing plant in Lower Wedgeport, Nova Scotia. When this industry began a slow decline in the marketplace Milton LeBlanc, president of OPF Ltd and a visionary, decided to try his hand in the Dogfish industry. Only a couple of plants in the northeastern part of the United States were processing this low value, under-utilized species at this time. Through lean times and uphill battles Ocean Pride became a leader in the Dogfish industry in Canada.
In 1999, Milton decided to expand his operation in Wedgeport and process another underutilized species, Sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa), in a small unused building across the parking lot from the dogfish operation. This business has now grown to be 80% of the total production and sales for Ocean Pride Fisheries and led to major expansion of processing area, storage room, cooking and drying capacity, and freezing.
In March 2008, OPF Ltd purchased the assets of North Lake Fishermen’s Co-op.
Ocean Pride can process up to 50,000 lbs per day of whole sea cucumber. The factories employ, on average, 5 full time staff and 70 seasonal workers. In addition to this up to 3 vessels (3 crew each) harvest while 4-5 people unload the boats and 2-3 truck drivers haul these loads to the factory in Wedgeport.
The factory in Wedgeport processes nearly year-round. Ocean Pride is currently the only full time processor of Sea Cucumber in Eastern Canada.
To sustainably harvest, procure, process and export high quality seafood worldwide