Sheena Young

Lobster Buyer & Entrepreneur

Sheena is a businesswoman involved in many aspects of fisheries on Deer Island, New Brunswick. She works as a lobster buyer for her family business and recently opened a storefront called the Boatique in partnership with her sister to service local fishermen on the island.

From a young age, Sheena had the opportunity to be out on the water with her father, who was a fisherman. She adds context, “There are pictures of me in my dad’s new boat at three weeks [old].” Sheena credits her father for encouraging her to be a woman on the water, which wasn’t always common, and explains that one of her favourite things to do when she was young was to take a day off school in the spring to go lobster fishing with him.

As a businesswoman, her ethic is to first build honesty, integrity, and trust, and then everything else will follow. She considers herself a fisherman first and a seafood buyer after. “Today, for my sister and me to be leading a business in a completely male-dominated industry is something that we relish the challenge of, and I think have really earned our way and earned respect. If you want to talk rope, or quality of bait… we can talk the talk because we’ve walked the walk.”