Cape Breton fishermen say a planned coal mine could be "catastrophic" for their industry.

The manager of the proposed Xstrata mine in Donkin, near Glace Bay, met with about 60 fishermen Wednesday night. The company's plans call for coal to be transferred from the mine to barges, and then onto bulk carriers waiting offshore.

Fishermen say the barges could disrupt their traditional fishing grounds and cause environmental damage.

John Prendergast, a committee member with the Port Morien-False Bay Fisherman's Association, was at the meeting.

He said Xstrata told them what would happen with the site, but did not outline the size of the area that would be affected.

It could "be quite catastrophic for fishermen in our area," he said Thursday.

"It's mostly going to displace a lot of fishermen that fish that area. There's going to be a lot of area that we can't travel through because there is going to be tugs and barges and a pier."

Prendergast said one fisherman expected to drop from 275 traps to just 40. Prendergast says 75 fishermen would be directly affected and more than 100 indirectly.

Prendergast said it would have an "enormous" impact on earnings.

"It's hard enough to make money in the lobster fishery with costs going up and the price of lobster getting less. It's going to be a big hit," he said.

"We would support a coal mine in Donkin, but not if it's going to take jobs and money out of the pockets of fishermen."

Will meet before lobster season

Val Istomin, project manager for Xstrata Coal Donkin Management, said the company will meet again with the fishermen before lobster season opens in mid-May.

"We gave a commitment we would come back to them, we'd keep them in the dialogue, and we wouldn't, even if the government gave us approval to do certain things, carry on with the project unless we had an understanding of how we could ameliorate certain impacts," he said.

Xstrata hopes to get environmental approval next year and start producing coal in 2014.