Life in Newfoundland before and after the collapse of the cod stocks | Your Morning

[Music] as we continue to celebrate Canada's 150th year we look to how Canadian culture has been impacted from Sea to Sky today we head to Petty Harbor Newland to talk to a father and son with different experiences from the sea living before the collapse of the Cod stocks and [Music] after it's the most photographed town in Newland and Labrador Petty Harbor is a pretty fishing community of less than 1,000 the Chafe family landed here over 300 years ago the first place uh my great great great grandfather stopped was right here in this area from here down to the to the building there and then another crowd of weers were next to us and they all took their place their fishing places then they went and built houses wherever they might be anywhere around around the community now that's how they come in the 16 1700s Four Brothers four Chief Brothers come from d and that's what I started two married an girls and two married Catholic girls and we're fighting ever [Laughter] since Todd grew up helping his dad George see when I was in school I used to come fishing every year just help my father out cut a few tongs and I made 100 bucks a day like say grade seven $100 a day in early AGS it was a lot of money but I always loved it always always always I still love it that was a big difference back then you know holl the the card trap and then you holl up the doorways and then CAU the fish in and Trap full of fish that's splash the water up your face and everything nothing like it unreal you lower down the dip that you don't know if you're going to get a fish that big or that big great bit of excitement especially for youngsters yeah there with a ga then just gaffing in the big ones for ahead when I was a young fell very young I learned by going out to the to the C D some up here grandfather and father and from there I picked up as I went at them times you had to work a lot harder than you have to work today because you done everything by hand you had the paint boat you had a bunch of men get together and and get some round sticks and hul up boats and then in the F area put the boats out uh in the spring area put the boats out again back and for hard to work right and and know it's how much fish you got you you never had any money because you're tied down to a merchant different Alat today you can make it out today right the people wouldn't bead today if they had to do what we had to do to be nobody in the fishery all all people here got bad backs from C tracks yeah all backs gone cuz all hand see muscles are gone you grab a hole to it then all of a sudden the sea like the sea heave then they down like that so you need to have a big ho to be able to get over it put the pain out of your mind half time yeah I remember one time we had an old fell with us jumping from the big boat to the speed boolt to help dip the fish in and he fell in the Trap and he went down here he couldn't go no further and he said help me help me I'm going to drown I nearly died laughing at where you going you couldn't go [Music] nowhere but by the mid 80s the Chafe family knew change was coming we start not and we see the fish from that size go to that size and when you start getting that fish like the youngsters around if the youngsters are gone there going to be no grown-ups that's the way the fish was went down let take one the crow memory on made $800 for 4 months at C fish yeah that's that's that's why fish they landed $800 for 4 months fishing that's what he made I'm not doing this because I I think it's fun in games or whatever I'm making a decision based on the desire to ensure that the northern Cod survives as a species in 1992 the over fishing came to a head in what is considered one of the biggest ecological disasters of the 20th century the Cod fishery collapsed a government moratorium on all cod fishing forced 30,000 new finlanders out of the only way they knew to make a living everyone here in the community was ready to go fishing right and we uh had two brand new C trps brand new ones and we put out the the gear because the gear us the grapes and anchors and everything for the traps right and uh we had two new traps on the warf and uh they called the moror so we had to go out and take in the back the gear back in again that's where to and we took the new traps D because the rain and everything put them right back in the shade but George found a new way the fisherman made more money after the moratorium than they ever met their lifetime because I was one the fellas was on a committee his three or four got together and on a committee and I with the government the federal government to give us some crab that'll help help us through the moratorium and that's what they done and that's how we got the crab we wouldn't take no for an answer they made more money at the crab than ever made new before and the fishery Todd took the idea of Farm to Table to a new level opening a coffee shop that served more than just coffee on the Harbor with his wife Angela w we open up like a little Cofe shot down the har there's nothing down there there lots of Tours tourism barrels of tourist coming make do I right but I sh it try not ventur nothing game I used to catch the crab cleaner for and then at that time was big in Crab sandwiches at that time we were selling crab sandwich for 3.99 people used to always say that that's got to be artificially no way that real crap we wouldn't put the price up cuz we I said we used to say nobody's going to pay $8 or 9 on crab sandwich you got to be cracked to pay $8 or 9 on crab those $4 crab sandwiches paved the way to a new restaurant called Cha's Landing one of the most successful spots in all of newfinland you can't get any fresher and I don't believe and my wife don't believe in cooking stuff early in the morning you want to fish in chips be cooked oh people says oh I got to wait it's just cooked for you it's was only swimming 20 minutes ago it'll be cooked for you yeah and that's why there's a line up there some days in June July and August is 2 and a half 3 hours get in there and that many people told was told us we're nuts hope restaurant F here we never succeed 11 years later we're still gone stronger now than never how are you all right how are you a fishing family making plans in times of uncertainty if fellas don't take the opportunity if they didn't learn nothing from 92 they'll never learn nothing cuz if you don't have a business on to go now at this something right cuz then if he has a bad year you're not waiting for a hand out from government or you're not staring yourself to dead or had to go to work somewhere else fueled by a passion as deep as the ocean they fish in a passion that still Burns as bright today as it did hundreds of years ago I looks forward to getting up in the mornings now I'm not even Ed and see if anyone's going out fishing there's nothing else like it I'm just either he likes it or he hates it no in between yeah the day that I hates get out of bed the V is the day that I [Music] retires tomorrow we head to Gander New Finland to take a tour of one of history's most iconic airports

Channel: CTV Your Morning

Views: 17,284

Keywords: newfoundland, cod stocks, petty harbour

Id: 6Dr4AQePeRM

Length: 7min 6sec (426 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 19 2017