Land and Sea Hugh Alcock

dawn the heart of downtown st. John's probably the last place you'd expect to hear the story of an inshore fishery but the pull of the waters everywhere in this province even here in the capital city the grounds are just a stone's throw away I'm Pauline and this is Huey Alcock he won't tell you his age but he admits to being one of the oldest inshore fishermen left in st. John's one of the hard time fishermen he raised a family of nine on the fishery and at sixty something he's still at it even in the middle of a moratorium you'll know Huy by his white hat his boat by her green gunnels it's been this way for more than 50 years Hughie's sons both followed him on the water Ronnie and his older brother Roy all their lives they fished against the backdrop of a city now they fish in the face of a moratorium not codfish of course lumpfish everyone agrees lumpfish is a poor substitute for COD the Alcock sever bothered or but now at least it gets them on the water and at this stage that's what counts mainly skipper one declaratory he's worse no Oliver put together he can't get around the boats or underwater he'd go crazy alia so when we mentioned him he lubes our games just kidding he was taken under water I know something to do get off he's normal ago pioneer land this in the city your endo porch so when all you know it might be the difference nothing to hold me down get up every morning walk to the wharf come back go over the wharf indeed that's some boring me they call lump goldfish in some bays with the row selling at 220 pound lungfish can't be quick easy money but not here the lump are scarce on these grounds this season the Elk Hawks won't make the $6,000 they sunk into their nets Roy's giving them a hand on this trip but he ended up taking a LAN job trucking fish tonight ends meet I don't like it I don't know get it out I shouldn't be off the boat someone since Colo there we're not gonna make you make a few dollars under Dan now if Huey had his way he'd have picked office jobs at Confederation building for his boys but Ronnie wouldn't hear that neither would Roy the water was what they wanted so eventually Huey let them come aboard another generation of Al Cox joined the ranks of the inshore fishermen of st. John's youie remembers 24 trap crews fishing out of st. John's over 200 including some from the out ports men who come to the city to help make up crews fish was big then and plentiful it was landed and sold in st. John's Harbor hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds in 56 alone fishermen split 18,000 candles for steers salt fish plant jobs had all the fresh they could have it was the same at Crosby's fish meal planned fishermen worried about price about what tract birth they draw but no one worried this could change so drastically that a time would come when you are not allowed to fish much less than a trap that there could ever be a moratorium on cod fish I'm out of here you didn't signal think we get out one way we like will do money I'll ask someone you know that's one dog this someone does only knows you know the realize how bad it is we just thought your debt the family that's the way it was it was just like something's taken from was dead but he just couldn't believe it was I never thought something that could happen that's what was like so the old and their crew settled for lump row on ground that were traditionally rich with Cod they're grounds they now share with only a handful of other fishing families all that's left of the old inshore crews of Saint John the crews of that other era when fish was thick and the battery was covered in flakes the battery was the heart of the ensure the leap of the narrows the city's fringes it belong to the inshore fishery the battery was once gatekeeper to the city the site of a British sport set up to defend st. John's against the French by the mid-1800s fishing families had begun to take root they con like barnacles to a rock and their food they worked under the shadow of the city family after family the riches the Garland's the piercings and the wells Auto Wells with his brothers Jack and ellic they were here when sands Harbor was so clean they could wash their fish in it when they could go out at daylight and jib 3000 pounds by dinnertime Otto's retired now he has been for 10 years but he still lives in the battery and still spends most of his time in his store when we were saying each other the rotation on that diesel is there Bo he never station where the waste he wouldn't little do it otto was fishing before confederation before unemployment insurance there was no such thing as stamps or the winter then so he'd fish till weather drove him ashore he was often out in boat too just to make enough to get his family through the winter Elsie Wells cooked for the entire track crew six sometimes seven men that meant up every morning by $500 for every meal I cooked for Dame me then there were children to look after and saltfish to be made Elsie and her sister-in-law were two of the women who worked on the flakes spreading the dish to dry I loved it I used to take my youngsters I can put him down in that tub on the flaking and it's my she never had no children mr. wibbles never see Alex boys I have four just take him out in the mornings and put them to come down to talk dictator that's great a break from a fish miss open a car you know yeah it was just spread to fish fillet and while they were fishing LC and Otto have watched the fishery change and watched the battery change it may still seem a world of hurt from the city but it's nothing like it used to be when the insurer was thriving only a few from that time are left a few like Otto still clinging to the roots he wouldn't need to better happen but I would know I mean I go in town now because no no they're now ready as I'm concerned you know while he's here I was thinking I wouldn't deny him that you know LC wouldn't deny him his little boat either on fine more in summer the battery still waits to the sound of his make and break Otto doesn't worry about his Acadia breaking down he's got enough spare parts aboard practically the thing anyway so we just dodged along you were still allowed to jig a fish when we took these pictures it didn't matter much though we couldn't even hook a sculpin there's honey Marine towel I might really know five times only guess I got one made of fish did you ever think that you'd see such a change in your lifetime never know I didn't know baby I didn't think you'd ever say today Gwen wouldn't give cake a fish every what I'll become not along here anyway sometimes as I was her I would go to fish there hardly ever fail it saddens Otto to see it like this to be virtually alone on grounds that were once peppered with trap crews but at least fish isn't his livelihood anymore for him now the water is just a hobby but not so for others the ones who have sheds full of cod traps boats to keep up they were a dying breed anyway these inshore fishermen of st. John's what happens now with the whole industry in crisis will look to the future when land and sea return kiddy vide otherwise known as the gut that other corner of the city where time seems to have stood still it's where Eli Tucker sat down steaks in 1961 he'd been renting space in the battery for years but he wanted something of his own so he came here and built apprentices back when there was big fish and lots of it you don't get known that big long fish now like we used to just the odd one but then it was I should get them to be fish that you could only dip one and two at a time those days are over those days won't come back anymore the price wasn't there though you had to catch a lot to get by and that's just what Eli Tucker did his premises grew and his son manborg then his grandson they built more boats bought more gear and they did well right until the end their last season they landed more than a million pounds of codfish then came the moratorium the premises Eli figures he could sell but not his gear we got knowing here now knowing boats I got six of me songs got tree what are you going to deal with what am I gonna do me cut traps I got a salmon trap up there now in 35 salmon eats nobody wants them you're not allowed use them like a - Caitlin traps I got a macro trap from Nova Scotia designed macro trap for kitchen mackerel brought it in from Nova Scotia 20 years ago and I got 10 car traps all of this fishing tackle if I got to tell me son there's no fish you know the industry is finished and it's only one way we can find out and that's the weed to see when the Oakland up again if there's any fish I don't think there's going to be any fish you can't grow fish in two years first you've got that defeats the lead spawn and then the feast got the growth and dead and what are you going to do in two years at least it's a 20-year job any man who get any knowledge and that's a long time the wait isn't that 20 years ray yeah it sure is Nestor to get fishing off the go around the oil and like we was always you still you won't find too many twine sheds in the West End of st. John's but there is one in ronyell Cox backyard like Eli's pack a gear the L aren't allowed to use these are only lump nets but they're an excuse to get together for what's become a Friday Alcock tradition a feed and a few drinks there's two buckets of riblets in the pot today skipper stared at one Friday afternoon he gave it off and I had to take it off he's deep back down so he taught you how to cook as well as fish well it's not on those how the cookies dating fish village these days the elk hawks and their crew are biding their time there's no talk of selling out or getting out of the fishery only of toughing it out until the end of the moratorium whenever that turns out to be even with Huey who could have retired years ago I don't want to retire to what what are you gonna retire to tenon walk around the streets can't head of this I mean I'm a little time anomalies that I'm on at least 200 times in the world right I mean we would've loved here basically for something though oh you could say we got six thousand dollars invested now I don't think we'll never get it back this year but you were kept busy corrected we're still underwater when I'm lying off a bit can you see yourself though being forced out of the fishery running oh no I'm here to stay so when I have some money to get me up some 110 traps now look here we got 250,000 jail down oh yeah that's our money give me up but you're an island anomalies doctor think any way I'd want to get out of it custom only now because I'm a father I'm doing quite happy but I don't like this bag where are $0 the official yes sir after the official but I make a watch let's business if we get shorter you clear them draggers could be a good fishery for the inshore fishery when she gets rid of drivers that's our don't bother draggers offshore I'm in short nationalist sea and that crowd that's why supply to our fishery and I never forget that I said that's that's the ruination of our fishery once we all cop tried to keep his sons away from the fishery he wanted a better life for them and that's when fishing was good now things have never looked worse yet the Alcott's all of them seem happy with the choices they made and are determined to see things through to wait out the moratorium I think they done the right thing now if you know I did be always fishing cuz we got so much spirited I was at the stairs you know do you worry about their future mr. Alcott no they're big and ugly the floater old put the work for ourselves and do what they got to do take if they can get a living out of size and you know all my Sonny Boy don't ask in there is the average rates only time will tell whether the elk ox can tough it out whether there will even be a fishery to come back to they're among the last of their kind here at st. John's one of the last of the inshore fishing families part of the fishery that grew beneath the show of the city well that's it for us this is the last show of the season thanks for watching everyone and don't forget about us we'll be back this fall with a brand new series of programs for you until then here's a little something to aspire a last look at some of the people you got to know this year on land and sea you

Channel: Ron Bursey

Views: 44,895

Keywords: Land, and, Sea, Hugh, Alcock

Id: oHu01rLgwQ4

Length: 25min 29sec (1529 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 05 2012