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Saturday, December 30, 2017

Canada's Newfoundland Scruntians

Canada's Newfoundland Scruntians
 
July 5, 2002

In the colloquialisms of Newfoundlanders, a butterfly is a butterfly, a bee is a bee, but a “fly” is a blackfly.  Or, a trout is a trout, a salmon is a salmon, but a “fish” is a Cod.  Cod fishing season started the day after Canada Day – July 2 – and the catch seems to be good.  Cod fishing boats return to harbor, riding low in the water with large catches.  In the harbors, these same boats unload from a hold that appears full of “fish” on ice.  Fresh cod, cod tongues, and cod cheeks are available in some restaurants and fresh fish markets.  But both times I ordered cod tongues, the restaurant had none.  Some commercial buyer is taking all he can get and leaving none for the local restaurants.  If you order something called “Fish & Brewis” from a restaurant, you get salted Cod Fish with potatoes, onions, and scruntians (cooked pork fat in oil).  One story we were told was that even before the fishing season started, fresh cod could be ordered in some restaurants.  When the waitress was asked where the fresh cod came from, she said, “I cannot tell” -- meaning that the catch was illegal and she could not reveal her source.  Another story we heard from a native of Ontario who was invited by a commercial fisherman to accompany him on a fishing trip.  The Ontarian caught several good Cod and carefully placed his tag on the fish according to fishing law.  The commercial fisherman took the tagged fish, filleted them and tossed the remains containing the tags into the sea.  “Just keep fishing and don’t worry about the tagging stuff,” he was told.  “If we are caught by the game warden, I’ll tell them that you are working for me and that your fish are part of my quota.” 

Cod Fishing Boat
 
The penalty for illegal fishing can be very high.  One tourist cast his hook into a local stream and was caught without a license.  His fifth-wheel trailer and pickup were impounded for something like six months.  Commercial fishermen caught fishing illegally may have their boats confiscated for the fishing season.  Maybe the moral is that crime does not pay for amateur poachers – only for skilled professional poachers.

The fact that the catch of cod is good is somewhat surprising.  A moratorium on cod fishing was implemented by the Government of Canada a few years ago because over-fishing had decimated the fish populations.  Local fishermen blame the decline on giant Japanese and Russian trawlers who were sweeping the Grand Banks off the east coast of Newfoundland.  Of course, local fishermen also contributed to the fish decline.  Apparently, the Cod have recovered on the West Coast of Newfoundland more rapidly than on the East Coast.

  Cod Fisherman Brewis
 
Newfoundland history is full of stories about the poor Cod-fishing families, struggling to survive on the few fish they could catch before the moratorium.  Often they bought supplies from the “company store” and paid for them with the fish they caught.  Of course, the price of the fish was also set by the “company,” so the poor fishermen were seldom out of debt. ( Just another example of Tennessee Ernie Ford’s – or was it Johnny Cash’s song about working for  “The Company Store” at the coal mines.)  When these “companies” went out of business after the moratorium, these poor fishermen were economically devastated.  Many lived in remote harbors of Newfoundland and their families had been “tied to the sea” for generations.  They knew of nothing else to do.  The young men and women of Newfoundland found it relatively easy – but painful – to move to other parts of Canada to take up jobs in the oil fields of the Canadian Plains or on tugboats on some Yukon river.  But older folks, who knew nothing but fishing all their lives, struggled to find an alternate source of income.  Many survived only on the government “dole.”  However, according to one fisherman we met, the cod stocks off the west coast of Newfound are recovering enough so that there is now a 7,000-ton quota for the province.  He explained that the current price of cod is $0.75 per pound, but varies with the grade of the fish – larger fish commanding a higher price than smaller fish.  The size of Cod is much smaller than in the good old days when some Cod might approach the size of a fat adolescent.

Tearoom Menu
 
Fishermen with larger boats survived the moratorium by switching to snow crabs, lobster, shrimp, and shellfish.  Many took up logging. But there is considerable evidence that the citizens of Newfoundland have diversified into other businesses and are prospering.  The most obvious evidence is the numbers of new homes that are appearing on the harbors and lakes all around Newfoundland.  The fact that the Canadian economy grew at a 6% rate last year has also been helpful.  Of course, some of these homes have been purchased by foreigners who are attracted by the relatively cheap prices of attractive, waterfront sites.  Many of the local folks have a home in town and a cabin in the country.  One young fellow, we met in a secluded cove had two cabins around the Middle Arm of the Bay of Islands.  In winter, he could drive his car across the bay ice to his cabin, but the last few years the ice never froze deep enough to support his automobile.  He could not reach his cabins by boat because there was too much ice for boating.  Consequently, he could use his cabins only in summer.

We have observed a few fly fishermen testing the waters of local streams and rivers, where they fish for Atlantic Salmon.  At one campground on the river, where most of the customers were Salmon fishermen, the catch for the previous day had been only two salmon for the whole group. 

Lobster Traps
  
However, it appears that fishing is still a very important commercial activity in Newfoundland.  Every harbor is inhabited by a few fishing boats and many are capable of switching from cod to the small caplin fish, lobsters, oysters, snow crabs or whatever else is currently available.  There is a quota for each type of animal harvested.  For example, each lobstering family is allowed 300 traps, which must be carefully marked to identify the owner.  The homes around the harbors are freshly-painted and new homes are being built, so apparently many fishermen have overcome the devastation of the moratorium.  But when I ask a fisherman -- who had just returned from a trip with a boat-load of cod -- if he was soon to be rich, his face twisted into some sort of sardonic grin and he said nothing.
 

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