Land & Sea: The downswing of the hook-and-line fishery in Burnt Islands

[Music] hi everyone I'm Phil Kelly and this is burn Thailand's population 1000 a half hours drive from porta Bosque a stone's throw from one of the best fishing grounds in the province generations of burnt Islanders have made a good living from the sea but these days their prospects are every bit as bleak as this desolate stretch of coastline on the southwest corner of the province for the past five years the hook and line winter fishery the mainstay of this area has been going from bad to worse last year was a complete blank and this winter is looking no better boats that should be out fishing are tied up at the wharf and fishermen used to working year round and making big money have been reduced to trawling for steps and angling for make-work projects there's nothing you look forward to I don't know what to do I like for somebody down me that's all event oh it is tense times it's not money anymore in a place like burnt Islands no fish means no work for everyone down here at the fish plant the town's major employer things have never looked so grim a few years ago this plant processed 15 million pounds seven million from the hook and liners alone and had 200 people on the payroll last year production plummeted to only two million pounds and many workers didn't even make enough to get you I we used to pray for get a son yeah yes I work there you know six eight sunny straight seven days a week seven days a week [Music] no you I know government health Rhode Islanders feel let down how come we were like you today they're fighting for a make-work project at the UI office and for the best we don't want projects we want work but when you can't get work you've got to come back and something we go get our 52 weeks a year we take the collapse of the fishery here in burnt islands is causing major problems for the town council most residents simply can't afford to pay their property taxes Mayor Kevin Barry himself a fisherman understands that Barry can hardly manage his own well a budget for this to the town the size of a thousand thousand people we're looking at 150 thousand dollar budget for 1991 year for example were fifty thousand dollars behind in collections of taxes that's just for 1991 there's no reflection on people paying taxes because I mean back taxes for 1990 we're totally paid off it's just last year's total failure of the fishery I've seen it firsthand I mean was a large part of my income was was I mean actually seventy or eighty percent of my income was longline fishery and since that thing has failed totally that 70% of our eighty percent of your income is waked it up overnight like most Newfoundlanders people in this area are used to ups and downs in the fishery you learn to live with the uncertainty to take everything in stride after all there's always next year but this time things are different you really get the feeling around here that people have given up they've lost hope their morale is down their confidence shaken their spirits broken in fact a recent survey found that 85% of the people in this area believe there's no future in the fishery that it's never coming back there's a crisis out here a real crisis but more than that it has all the makings of a human tragedy because if you think you're beaten you are it's certainly a human tragedy for people like Gideon Courtenay 45 years old 30 years in the fishery so fed up so disillusioned he's just sold his 52 footer and thrown in the towel boy just got turned from it I started out late February maybe last year and up to the 22nd day is September I had six tanks so you wouldn't sell it I don't know what else you would do it I just got fed up I couldn't take it no more and we wanted four more stamps I took a small boat along to my first cousin one fish neither and that's how I got the last force tank best of all that's how you get through the winter I'm fine I mean what do you do with yourself these days well I don't know right now gets off into Marny takes two youngsters over to school I'm that I'm going from one stage to the hütter a bunch of us just summertime can we go as home gives up for day that's killin time just gallant on you sound like a man who's almost depressed oh it's all rocket yes is because I don't know where to turn to next and I don't know what is going that into us endure these people you know is taking it for a joke but to my point is not a joke anymore I just don't know why he's told me compass and that's highness we all got that and now is the lobster fishery fell in the spring and there's not all that much do that there's just a few stamps there that's always there it's the food stamps and what food was around for a year that fast why just on the hat dose I'll tell you you said everything about it it's a lot to make you are it around here there are as many theories about the collapse of the inshore hook and line fishery as there are fishermen the majority believed cold temperatures have driven the fish into deeper warmer waters and although not conclusive there's a fair bit of evidence to support that theory example the man who owns that boat just said 24 tubs of trawl about 12,000 hooks in a hundred to 150 fathoms of water he didn't come back with enough for a good meal of tonics at the same time otter trawlers fishing 13 miles off and 250 fathoms have come back with as much as a hundred thousand pounds from one three hours then the evidence may be compelling but as we said it's certainly not conclusive some people think the cod being taken off shore are from a different body of fish that the insurer stocks have all been cut up and many don't know what to think all they know is they're in trouble big trouble these days most people here have trouble just making ends meet a big come down for inshore fisherman used to being among the highest paid in the province fishermen like Kenny Voltaire 30 Plato and they sure know I'll be looking at me Tim tried there's a big difference hey summertime now I just straight enough forget stance and wonder time on you I suppose it's a scraping by her days not doing it right no I suppose it hurt enough foot rub on the table yes very you're a family man yeah so I guess the few years ago if the youngsters wanted whatever they wanted to Dita's shoes or whatever it's latest style all the youngsters wants the same things okay happy no problem for you oh no Dean yeah go plastic baggy Boop what do you see is the future what he gonna throw yourself don't know much occasions oh no no jobs here that's not a don't go you want work okay no I'm working yes I'm not getting paid I think there's not much point of going out for nothing well you can't you got bait Kenny's wife Debbie one of dozens of fish plant workers who didn't get enough work to qualify for you I last year since they're both under a lot of stress he's not himself and neither is she vanaroja Wandy he worked five months every year after work was there for me and he'd be fully contented to work any 12 months but when he's doing nothing now he's that same person but you wants to be doing something right and there's not gonna do it can I do it one time I wish it was good I mean us stable income you you didn't you it like you didn't go extravagantly and buy things right but I mean you always knew that you could before this if you wanted it what I mean right now I mean you know you just paying bails and that's it you do more looking than buying these days I let it and when you're buying I mean you're you're looking for a better price is me lower price to say missus door chair went back to school recently to try and qualify for other work but here - she's running to a snag I took an IDE course there through Community College in cordobas what's a B you know it's an adult basic education program they establish it air and I think last year I went in and friends first proud of April and what a great in education and I upgraded to a grade 12 equivalency and I finished out by like Hargis right it wasn't easy about you know what I must I enjoyed it because you you were getting back into things again right I mean my intent was to get an education that we maybe we'd go out and get a better job if the fish were failed right and so I apply for an Icee yes of course of course upon this course yeah that's a correspondence course and I fight for like a bookkeeping course and it's a spear and summer and $700 for the course right for a 24 month period of making payments and if I could got to work that I could see an extra little bit income there that I could further this enroll right but I mean right now is on stand-down so so right now you'd like to go and take this this campus course bookkeeping course you can't afford to I can't afford you know well I suppose you can barely afford it for food I mean that's an extra Pam you got look at anymore and I don't think anybody in the fishery those days with like small boats that taking it for take on any more parents like Debbie vote here these fish plant workers have all gone back to the classroom the idea is to upgrade themselves to high school equivalency enabling them to qualify for other courses then what so if people have to move from here basically what we like to know is is it better that they move away educated or just leave the fish plant and try and find work somewhere else well no good leaf fish mountain goal up for cuz me know is not getting on so I mean it's better approach if I get educated and make better chance get a job being educated right okay what about your kids you got kids now what future would there be for kids here if there's very little future for you I don't think it's commanding but that my babies or was that let me know so knows he's gonna have away how important is education now to your kids how much more are you more important now what an advance I mean if you don't have education nothing and that don't get none I mean that's right you get leave it's me there's nothing here for nobody once this woman here gets her high school diploma she'd like to take a trades course that would qualify her for a high-paying job in the construction industry nice food job so if we're not as drug testing for there are no jobs here no you have any way to get each other so are you willing to hold you saying what is nothing around here for me do so well move and make their life research as well do it maybe that woman will move away but if she does she'll be the exception most of the women told us off camera it would be totally impractical for them to uproot their families for them this is just another form of make work they're being paid to go to school and although it's far preferable to building a second fence around the graveyard it's not a means to an end just an end in itself unfortunately for most a dead end during the past few weeks we have we've been doing you know five and a new clan fishery and we've also looked at how that's impacted on our way of life more likely to leave Brent Islands are these people high school students who believe they'll have no choice but to make a life for themselves somewhere else okay very good what do you feel is the cause for decline in the fishery over the last four or five years does anyone have any answers federal government just the federal government but most of their basic concern is Ontario and Quebec because that's where basically all basically auto results come from they're not SAS buddy and you don't care of it we so you're saying this is basically a lack of concern on the part federal government the problem do not give it you don't care about because we're not give them no much before anyway we almost small part of what do wrath for the vote is coming from self something desperately needs to be done a bit the fishery in order for anyone else to have a better future yeah how many people think that the way things are currently hidden that there's practically no future for around here showmance over at the Western Community College in port of asked principal George Anderson understands only too well the frustration out here over the decline in the fishery he's experienced at himself anderson heads up a committee appointed by ottawa to recommend ways of moving hundreds and hundreds of displaced workers out of the fishery and into other occupations but he says it was an exercise in futility because there were no buybacks or other incentives to encourage them to leave and no other jobs to put them into anderson says the whole experience has left him disillusioned we were a short term committee expected to come up with long term solutions and it doesn't make any sense really to to try and deal with the problem that's magnitude in in that fashion it requires much more coordination at all levels of government that i think we've seen in the past Anderson and his committee may have been stymied in many areas but they did manage to get nearly a million dollars to fund one major initiative a three-year project centered around this high-speed multi-purpose boat brought over from Iceland these boats have proved out in a number of other countries including Norway and the United Kingdom and Anderson hopes they can be successfully adapted to the inshore fishery in Newfoundland beginning with the hook and line fishery on the southwest coast we'll be doing some research in the area to see what kind of things might work here with the kind of gear technologies are using a nice thing we also want to see all the boat fit in to the area whether or not it'll be able to stand up to the conditions that we have and whether or not the fish we don't know if this is going to work but we don't say anything else happening nobody else is trying we're gonna start fishing the boat as soon as the weather settles down not that we can can get out and try it we will we'll put the boat over fish and then we'll see what we can do time for a break now when we come back we'll have a closer look at the Icelandic boat and we'll see how burnt Islanders feel about it [Music] welcome back the innovation she's called the wave of the future fast versatile a fully equipped 30-foot fiberglass boat designed and built specifically for the changing inshore fishery the skipper of the boat is yang the crime an experienced fisherman and an instructor at the Marine Institute his deckhand is the man we met earlier at the Town Hall the mayor Kevin berry the innovation comes with a price tag of about a hundred and forty thousand dollars but the and the grind maintains she's a lot of boat for the money especially if she can live up to her reputation in Europe as a more economical alternative to long liners costing three to four times as much when you're looking at a hundred and forty thousand dollars I think you need to put it in a bit of perspective because this boat princeton says to 220 horsepower diesel engines that's somewhere in the neighborhood of between 35 and 40 thousand dollars there and then you have five thousand dollars worth of electronics about twenty thousand dollars worth of fishing gear even with a load of about six thousand pounds the two big engines can drive this boat along at over 20 knots so if the fishing grounds are safe 25 miles away she'll get there in a little over an hour about three times as quickly as a regular displacement boat and according to the grind for about the same amount of fuel the reason that we got the high horsepower was that we only have to run these engines about 60% of capacity so we get fuel good fuel economy the innovations navigational and fish finding technology is state-of-the-art the same level of sophistication you expect to find on a typical 65 footer and her fishing gear computerized jigging reels and automated fader is also the latest stuff to come on the market today the green and berry are testing the gear for the very first time and they're bound to run into a few snags nothing unusual about that and the grind says they're only minor anyway nothing they can't overcome with a couple of practice runs this fishing technology itself is old hat earlier versions were tried here years ago failed miserably but this particular equipment is all fourth and fifth generation the manufacturers have supposedly worked out the bugs and it's being used successfully in many other countries in Iceland for example about 350 fishermen have bought this type of boat and on just about every one of them you'll find three or four computerized jiggers and the automated longline in gear the Icelanders used long lines almost exclusively to catch cod and several other species but the boat is set up in such a way that a fisherman can change over from one set of gear to another literally in a matter of five to ten minutes it's nothing it's not flexible right now the boat is about 14 miles out in about 250 fathoms of water but even if the fish are down there the grind says there's no guarantee they'll go for the bait it's not a problem of the depth because you can catch code even deeper than that it's just whether you can catch them here it might be a difference in water temperatures are different in difference in oxygen levels there are many factors that influence that and it might be that it won't work here but we think that it's worth a try not much today a couple of pans of redfish and dogfish no Cod at all but at least they got a chance to give the gear a workout and the crowd back at the wharf will be anxious to see how things went there's a good bit of interest in this boat but a lot of skepticism too many people feel it's a waste of time it's money that the real problem is the lack of fish and no amount of fancy gear and new technology is going to solve that you'll find the odd believer of course but they're few and far between this is a fine-looking craft boy good football player bless and this point you wants a day getting back and forth at least in there what's going around there 34th volt karen1012 talesrunner fish I mean she got a capacities you got diesel engines cheap on field I would say their money right now I'd say the truth I don't think some whichever beyond a favor well wise I know which is too small for one thing but go anywhere a joke on your summer day well I'm digging at jeju-do get the folks are gonna get it I'm dick they well they use them overnight 130 go home Widow apparently talking don't twenty miles that kind of thing you guinea fish already well I'm laugh you down at doubtfully 51 years old I don't think I want anyone compromising they show me how to catch fish definitely I do it all I get hundred only one the government or just the way someone is I thought it was way cool to give this way couldn't give us a couple boards here give us the money go in expose your deal why character though hard weather is right gale-force wind day after day for weeks on end and the site of the innovation tied up at the wharf hasn't done much to instill any confidence in the boat or the experiment we've had nothing but succession of gales and storms and very low temperatures - 20-25 up to - 35 now even though 65-foot draggers are only getting yours on rare occasions for two days in between breezes kind of thing the grinding company have no control over the weather they can hardly be held responsible for that but the two government agencies that had all to do with this project will have to take responsibility for something they had total control over the decision to bring this boat in from Iceland when it could have been built right here in Newfoundland the two agencies in question the Canadian Centre for fisheries innovation and the provincial Department of Fisheries rejected a proposal from the Marine Institute to design the boat there and to have it built locally the irony here is that the end the crime was one of the authors of the Institute's proposal the one that lost and he now finds himself running a boat it did not choose and defending a decision he did not make what does it say - Newfoundlanders out there when we see a proposal such as this put in through the Marine Institute through the naval architecture Department in there which is supposed to be the best in Canada it almost shows a lack of confidence on the part of government in our own people and yet they seem to jump on board as soon as we talk about other technology frozen ER well I can't speak for four other people I can't speak for the way the decision was made and I don't know if it reflects what you're suggesting or if it reflects an attitude that there was an easier or faster way to do it but I suppose there there it could be viewed in how I am okay well let me ask you this how does it make you feel when you go to the trouble to put together this kind of proposal and then find that it's rejected on those grounds it had to be disappointing it was disappointing yes it was disappointing but I think you know after after thinking about it and and and talking to the people who are involved I was heartened by the fact that it looked like we would would be able to bring one over and try the technology I mean I was I really believe that this technology will work in Newfoundland it works elsewhere and there's no reason to expect that it won't work here so in the end I was I was glad that we were able to get the boat here no matter no matter in which way to prove that this kind of a concept would work but obviously I would have preferred it to - upon the original route en the grind may be able to swallow hard and gag down this decision but local vote filters like Harvey humpy are ready to throw up hum be like his father before him has been building votes all his life and he feels like he's been kicked in the guts Oh sick to the stomach tells the truth I'm so discouraged in I feels knit down by you know our people are our powers to be so to speak that we wasn't given a chance to probably design this boat in Newfoundland and billith here and make work for us I might have to go overseas somewhere and learn a new language and become a citizen of some other country and didn't come back and maybe I'll have a chance back in burnt islands the weather is still terrible and the innovation stays tied up at the wharf mo of the time even in the few days he's been able to get out she's come home empty-handed unable to find the elusive Cod but it's still way too early to pass judgment this is after all experimental fishing and there are only a few months into a three-year project before it's all over they'll be trying all kinds of things and even if this particular experiment doesn't work out the concept itself is sound and there's undoubtedly a niche for this type of boat in the inshore fishery of the future the real question for burnt Islanders however is whether there will be a future for them good night everyone from Earth Islands

Channel: CBC NL - Newfoundland and Labrador

Views: 53,953

Keywords: Newfoundland, Labrador, CBCNL, CBC, NL, Land, and, Sea, land and sea, land & sea, burnt islands, port aux basques, inshore fishery, unemployment

Id: hDijCoWvccE

Length: 26min 41sec (1601 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 15 2018