The Twine Loft – November 2020

Passed On: Maxwell Williams – Pond Cove, N.L. fisherman

Williams, 83, passed away on September 8 at home. Born on June 26, 1937, he spent his life as a hard-working inshore fisherman to provide the best life he could for his family. He also enjoyed hunting, fishing and being in the woods.

Passed On: Oliver Ross – Stoney Island, N.S. fisherman

Ross, 88, passed away on September 28 at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital. Born on February 1, 1932, he was a son of the late Wallace and Flora (Atkinson) Ross. He was a fisherman for many years and loved being on the open water. He also loved deer hunting and ducking. He spent many hours carving ducks and he was well known for always telling stories.

Passed On: Troy Nickerson – South Alton, N.S. fish plant worker

Nickerson, 56, passed away on August 16. Born in Kentville, he was a son of Conrad and the late Anna (Medicraft) Nickerson. His family moved to Alberta when he was 20 years old. He worked on horse, dairy and beef farms. He moved to Cape Sable Island in 2003 and worked at Wilson’s and several fish plants.

Passed On: Clare Williams – West Green Harbour, N.S. fisherman

Williams, 82, passed away on September 21 at the Roseway Hospital. Born in West Green Harbour he was an only son of the late Leonard and Flossie (Sperry) Williams. He was a fisherman, mostly lobstering and swordfishing, all of his working life. He enjoyed hunting and feeding the birds and animals.

Passed On: Michael Pothier – Wedgeport, N.S. fisherman

Pothier, 83, passed away on September 17 at the Little Dolphin Seniors’ Home in Mavilette, N.S. His parents, George and Doris (Pothier), welcomed him to the world on October 5, 1936. They raised him along with his 11 siblings in Wedgeport, N.S. He became a lobster fisherman early in his life, to help support his family, and continued through to his retirement in 2004. Many of those years were spent on a crew with his brother and best friend Donald. He was known as Handy Mike around the wharf because he was always willing and able to do whatever was needed and whatever was asked of him. He worked hard year-round to support his family, Irish mossing in the summer and apple picking, in Massachusetts and in the Annapolis Valley, in the fall.

Passed On: Osborne Perry – North East Harbour, N.S. fisherman

Perry, 97, passed away on September 16 at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital. Born at North East Harbour, Shelburne County, on December 4, 1922, he was a son of the late Enos Elliott and Juema “Jean” Medeline (Greenwood) Perry. He was a WWII veteran having served with Queens Own Cameron Highlanders 2nd Division as a dispatch. After returning home, he was a fisherman most of his working life.

Passed On: Paul Waybret – Barrington, N.S. fisherman

Waybret, 65, passed away on September 6 at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital, Yarmouth. Born on February 21, 1955, he was a son of the late Basil and Susan (Hatfield) Waybret. Most of his life he was the captain of his own fishing and lobstering boat.

Passed On: George Fitzgerald – Wedgeport, N.S. boat builder

Fitzgerald, 84, passed away on September 1 at home.  Born on May 3, 1936 in Wedgeport, he was a son of the late Edward and Antoinette (Cottreau) Fitzgerald. After a short career with the Royal Canadian Air Force with postings in Europe, he settled in Toronto, Ontario where he met his wife Gloria and trained and worked as a welder at the former Massey-Ferguson manufacturing plant in Toronto and subsequently worked with Otis Elevators. Following a move back to Wedgeport in 1975, he and Gloria operated a general store and gradually expanded into building supplies. Always open to new opportunities, he embarked on a boatbuilding career as a founder and operator of Wedgeport Boats Ltd. that would last until his retirement.

Passed On: Jeffrey Morrison – Lower West Pubnico, N.S. fisherman

Morrison, 55, passed away on September 24. Born on June 6, 1965 in Shelburne, N.S., he was a son to Ethel May (Morrison) Firth and the late Edward Firth. He was a fisherman for 37 years and his heart belonged to the sea.

Passed On: Hazel Fisher – South West Port Mouton, N.S. fish plant worker

Fisher, 82, passed away on September 27 at the Queens Manor in Liverpool. Born in South West Port Mouton, she was a daughter of the late Wilbert and Rita (Roy) Allison. Along with being a full-time mother, she also worked many years at the local Port Mouton fish factories.

Passed On: Robert Bradley – Sydney Mines, N.S. fisherman

Bradley, 60, passed away on September 3. Born in Sydney Mines on April 12, 1960, he was the son of Shelia (Cheata) and the late Robert (Bobby) Bradley. He spent more than 40 years working and fishing as a commercial fisherman and was truly happiest out on the water. The sea was in his blood.

Retiring: Dave Decker – Fish Food and Allied Workers (FFAW/UNIFOR) Secretary-Treasurer

The FFAW’s Executive Board recently announced that it had received a notice of retirement from well-known Secretary-Treasurer, David Decker. Decker was born into a fishing family in Ship Cove on the tip of the Northern Peninsula. Like so many young people in rural communities, Decker grew up fishing with his father, and later took over the family enterprise. In 1990, he took his first job with the FFAW when he was hired to deliver health and safety courses for the union. A short time later, in 1991, he joined the staff at the Union’s Corner Brook office. He carried on in that role until 2003, when he was hired as the Union’s inshore director, working on behalf of harvesters across the province. Later that same year, David was elected to the position of secretary-treasurer. In accordance with the FFAW’s Constitution, the Executive Board has notified the Election Committee of the vacancy. The nomination period for the position of Secretary-Treasurer will open on October 9. Nominations close on October 22.

Appointed: Boris Worm – Ocean Frontier Institute Ambassador

The Dalhousie researcher known as CBC Radio’s Oceans’ Guy is the first person inducted into the Ocean Frontier Institute’s (OFI) Ambassador Program. Dr. Boris Worm earned the nickname thanks to his bi-weekly appearance on CBC Mainstreet in Nova Scotia (since 2010), but he is also well known to the public through his work as founder and host of Ocean School — a ground-breaking educational experience developed in partnership with the National Film Board of Canada. Ocean School is a free, interactive media platform to engage students and teachers in ocean knowledge, exploration and inquiry and is now used in classrooms across Canada and the world. Dr. Worm has also been working as a marine ecologist and Killam Research Professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. His research focuses on the relationship between people and the ocean, changes in marine biodiversity, and the effects of fisheries, climate change and other human impacts on global ocean ecosystems. He is also leading one of OFI’s 23 large research projects. His role as OFI ambassador will be to lead the OFI in the area of ocean literacy.

OFI is a partnership that links ocean researchers at Dalhousie, Memorial University and University of Prince Edward Island with leading national and international collaborators to deliver ocean research results and recommendations to inform government policy, community development and industry needs. It was founded in 2016 thanks to a $94-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund designed to position Canada to become a global leader in the search for safe and sustainable solutions for harnessing the world’s ocean resources.

Awarded: Shawn Bath – Stan Hodgkiss Outdoorsperson of the Year Award

With more than 20 years of experience as a commercial diver in the waters off Newfoundland, Shawn Bath is as comfortable beneath the surface of the cold North Atlantic as anyone you’ll ever meet. Over that time, the Twillingate, N.L. native has noted with alarm that the province’s harbours are filled with shocking amounts of garbage. Bath was so moved by the mess that in May 2018 he started the Clean Harbours Initiative to publicize the problem and engage the public in his efforts to reverse the damage. Since then, he has been personally responsible for removing more than 7,200 kg of ocean trash, including 1,200 tires and 17 ghost nets. In an effort to accomplish even more, Bath has launched a GoFundMe crowdsourcing initiative to raise $25,000 to cover the cost of gas, supplies and eventually wages for more divers and supporters to help. In a poignant gesture in February of this year, the family of Lindsay Petten, a respected local fisherman and fellow diver who drowned tragically last year, donated one of his boats to help take on this enormous task. Since 1975, the Outdoorsperson of the Year Award has been presented every year to a Canadian who has demonstrated an active and enduring commitment to conservation. The award was renamed in honour of CWF’s founding President Stan Hodgkiss.