The Bluenose and the Cape Islander: Two Different Fishing Vessels, Two Different Stories
Nova Scotia will have the honour of having two of its fishing vessels featured on Canadian currency when the Cape Islander will be part of a commemorative Loonie celebrating this country’s 150th anniversary.
The first one was the Bluenose, which first graced the Canadian dime in 1937.
Two different boats, two different tales.
The Bluenose was built in Lunenburg, N.S., to fish and race against its counterparts in Gloucester, Mass., in the 1920s.
The schooner design had actually ...
Dark Seas, Bright Lights, Snow Crab and Lights
Know how to make a snow crab do what you want?
Remember, they’re sweet and delicate and not to be pushed around.
Dr. Corey Morris, a research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, knows how important snow crab is as a fishery in this province. Morris, from St. Anthony, has always had an interest in fishing.
“I guess I’m steeped in the culture of fishing and in using the resources around us,” says Morris.
One of his interests is studying effects of man-made stressors on ...
Shaping the World We Live in
The beginning of a new year seems to be a good time to think about what the future will bring.
Little did we think at the beginning of 2016 that now, just a year later, Donald Trump would be President of the United States, Britain would vote to leave the European Union, or the very existence of the EU would be under threat just as Canada is about to finalize a free-trade agreement with it. Life seems to be full of surprises.
But should they really be surprises? Over Christmas, I read a ...
Fish Kill an Enigma Inside a Maze, So Far
Finding dead fish, shellfish and whales along the jagged coastline of southwestern Nova Scotia isn’t a rarity.
These species, like us humanoids, expire from natural causes after a number of years — the way of all flesh.
The shoreline around Port Maitland, for example, has seen its share of dead whales washing up on its pristine sandy beaches. I well remember a whole slew of pothead whales committing suicide on that beach years ago, the carcases unceremoniously buried on the site by a ...
Trump Trade Threats May Not Amount to Much
The election of Donald Trump as president of the most powerful country in the world wasn’t an isolated incident, as other countries — especially in Europe — blazed the trail by electing people opposing global trade agreements and wide open immigration policies.
Great Britain led the way with its opposition to the European Union and voted narrowly to opt out of the organization.
France and Germany also have ultra-right wingers vying for top political offices, with free trade arrang...
Eelgrass Nursery School for Juvenile Cod
As a child growing up beside the sea in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Bob Gregory spent a lot of time in tide pools with his friends.
They would jump and splash through strands of green plants they’d call grass or weeds.
“My mother jokes that when I was a little kid, I used to say I wanted to be a nature scientist. In grade one, I couldn’t spell ‘nature scientist,’ when I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. She told me that I wrote down, ‘milkman,’ simply because I could ...
Learning from 40 Years with the 200-Mile Limit – Part I
As we approach 2017, we are also coming to the end of 40 years since Canada’s 200-mile limit came into effect in 1977.
Overall, it has been a tumultuous — and costly — 40 years, as we oscillated between tremendous opportunity and unmitigated disaster.
Forty years ago, we thought the 200-mile limit offered a huge opportunity. But the following 15 years brought little but trouble, culminating in a series of moratoriums on fishing the groundfish stocks that had been the industry’s ...
EU Trade Deal the Perfect Christmas Gift for Our Fishing Industry
Christmas is a time for fellowship and giving, where, for a very brief period in time, an aura of peace and goodwill that seems to permeate the psyche of many of us, placing what we perceive as ill winds at bay, at least for a few weeks.
The problem is, when we awake from the festivities, the ever-so-brief lull which is like medication to dull the pain does nothing to solve the cause of the pain.
Free trade deals between nations have become a fact of life and as with most deals there are ...
Fishing for Answers
Fisheries Ecosystems, Stocks and Sustainability Focus for MI Researchers
A group of researchers at the Fisheries and Marine Institute (MI) of Memorial University believe the ocean is of fundamental importance to Canada and the world.
Drs. Noel Cadigan, Paul Winger and Jonathan Fisher are part of the newly created Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI). They will be the principal researchers on projects related to stock assessment, ecosystem assessment and sustainable fishing gear.
“We’re ...
Charting Your Way
Gary Smith - Canadian Hydrographic Service
When Captain James Cook sailed into St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1762, his navigation tools were the heavens above and good luck.
He was a surveyor and a cartographer and the first to chart the treacherous and jagged coast around Newfoundland and Labrador.
He spent five summer seasons here from 1762-1767. During that time, he produced the first large-scale accurate charts and several volumes of Sailing Directions for parts of the island’s ...
