My Wednesday began at 5 am. My International Studies professor, Lois, and her husband Dale live on Deer Island, an island that is a short ferry ride off the southern Canadian Atlantic coast, part of the Bay of Fundy. I had driven there the night before in anticipation of the early morning and long day. One of the primary occupations on Deer Island is fishing, and I was waking up early with Dale and others from the island to join them in pulling in the nights catch.
The day before Dale and the crew (his son Judson, Judson's friend and a classmate of mine, Kyle) had baited and dropped the lobster traps (300 of them!). As the traps rest on the ocean floor, the bait attracts the lobster and they get caught in the cage, "trapped" until the cage is hauled up and the lobsters removed.
Hauling in the cages was our job that Wednesday. And because it was the first catch of the season it was also one of the most important. The cages are attached to a rope with a buoy on the end of it (sometimes the rope is up to 50 fathoms or 300 feet long). The rope retrieved by hooking the buoy and then fed into a hydrolic pulley which begins pulling up the cage. Once up the cage is then emptied of its catch (lobster, fish, crabs, sometimes pop cans), re-baited with fresh bait and dropped back down into the ocean.
The lobsters are kept, obviously, but only those over a certain size. Rubber bands are put on their claws to keep them from fighting and injuring each other when they are stored in their crates. It was my job to put rubber bands on the lobsters and pack them in the crates while Dale drove the boat and Judson retrieved and re-baited the cages. We worked on the boat from around 6:30 am until 5 pm, moving from buoy to buoy and pulling up each cage. By the time we headed back for the harbour we had managed to pull up 295 of the 300 cages and about 2000 lbs of lobster!
Some might be interested in what side affects I felt from a day on the ocean. Well, sorry to disappoint, but I found my legs and stomach were quite solid. It was a beautiful day though, with calm water and the only major waves being the ones that the fishing boats were making. I may or may not have fell into the bait box a couple times when I lost my balance banding the lobsters. I also lost feeling in my hand about halfway through the day from using the banding pliers so repetitively.
It's funny to think that an animal which was once thought of as a bottom feeder, and not to be eaten unless at last resort, is today one of the more popular and expensive dishes. The coasts of New Brunswick and Maine are well known for their lobster. An article I read from back in 2007 pointed out that lobster is one of Canada's most valuable seafood resources, with live lobster generating anywhere from 400 to 600 million dollars in revenue per year. The last couple years have been tougher with catches lower than usual. He said the catch we pulled in that Wednesday was good for an average year. Dale said prices for live lobster were low now, but he still seemed optimistic. Like many fisherman, Dale counts on the various fishing seasons throughout the year. Lobster season opens in mid November and closes mid January, and then scallop season begins and others follow. Canada's fishing industry is important to the many maritimers throughout New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland who depend on the fish and lobster each year.
During my time here I've experienced a lobster "feed" a couple of times. I think it takes some getting used to. For any who have yet to experience it, eating lobster is interesting and messy work. If done right it tastes great, and the experience quite unforgettable. Here are a few pictures from the day on the boat and also one from from our lobster feed earlier this year.
1 comment:
You're a phenom photographer, Ray. Mm... I love the East Coast. and Lobster.
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