Growling from the den

By Carla Allen

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

It’s a stormy windy day at the Hawk in southwestern Nova Scotia and the seas surrounding this southernmost tip of Cape Sable Island are almost as wild as the group of fisherman gathered inside the Duck & Dominos Den.

Their comments have been fast and furious since reading a newspaper article about how the World Trade Organization is examining whether employment insurance for fishermen amounts to an unfair subsidy.

“Who pays it in?” asks one angrily. “There’s people that paid in unemployment and have never drawn a cent.”

“Unemployment helps the fishermen in the off season, says another.

Others expressed the hopelessness they feel.

“What do we do because can’t do nothing anyways? We ain’t allowed to do nothing. Period.”

“If my understanding is right, you’re gonna need it (EI) because we won’t be going fishin’. We’d be done,” added one fisherman.

“The only thing we had was a handful of halibut and they’d be taking that away from us.”

The last comment triggered a long discussion on the increasing difficulties fishermen are facing with regulations.

“Halibut, it was 500 pounds a week. Now they’re planning on putting out a community quota. We’ve got the most boats of any community around,” said one.

“If they go with that quota it averages out 75 pounds per licence, that’s for the year.”

The group complained that if the 75-pound per licence halibut quota were implemented, a typical three-man crew would have to live the summer on that weight catch.

“And they’re gonna take all the unemployment away? So why don’t they just say they’re comin’ down to Cape Island to shoot all the fishermen, ‘cause I think I’d rather die being shot than starve to death,” said one in disgust.

Some of the myriad regulations governing what, when, where and how much fish can be taken are viewed as senseless by this group.

“Take cusk, a cusk blows his poke (expells the lining of his stomach) and can’t get back to bottom. He’s gonna die. He goes floating away and the gulls pick at him. To me that’s pretty stupid. We’re not allowed to touch him. We can’t keep him, we can’t use him for bait, you have to shack him overboard. You can’t help but catch them in your traps. Let them bring them in and give them to the poor farm or someplace,” said one.

“Did you get one of those big white envelopes (from the Department of Fisheries)? I have to take it to a lawyer because I can’t understand it. I’m afraid to answer some of the questions because I might answer them wrong. I have to pay a lawyer to help me fill the darn thing out,” complained another.

“We’re going to be branded all criminals. You can see what they did to Nickerson (referring to a fishermen who was recently fined in court on groundfish violations), they wrestled him down the South Side wharf, locked him in handcuffs and dragged him up off the wharf and the man was ONLY making a living. He was out there fishing. Now he’s not allowed on salt water or in a boat for 10 years. All he was trying to do was feed his family,” pointed out one man.

“When you put laws enough, in order to survive, you’re gonna have to break them,” declared one fisherman.

“Anyone who goes fishing now, if they don’t break the law, they can’t make a living. Now they’ve turned all the fishermen into crooks and bad people.”

Morton Nickerson summed up the group’s sentiments with a recollection of the Marine Emergency Duties course he was required to take two years ago. He completed it and received a 96.

“When the course was over they asked everyone if they had any questions. I said I got one. They told me how to bring someone to that fell overboard that was partially drowned…if they had a heart attack how to bring him to, and if he cut his fingers off how to tack that back, but there’s one question they never answered…If I found him in the ditch starving to death, what am I supposed to do then?”