A rare glimpse

The water was calm on this early summer morning. Winds were light with just a hint of cool air. Weather perfect! 

We came to view the sea stacks but on this day, Thunder Cove, Prince Edward Island, afforded my husband and me a rare opportunity to observe the lobster fishery. 

Several vessels were visible from the beach but one in particular, The Hailey Jo, was just beyond the sand bars. We watched her four fishers work as we walked the beach, the buoys for their traps visible from shore.

One-by-one, the traps were lifted over the side of the vessel as fishers checked for crustaceans inside. 

Occasionally an undersized lobster was dropped back into the water.

The boat visited the location of each buoy and fishers repeated the process. Traps were replaced over the side of the boat, sinking into the Gulf. On this calm day, only the usual occupational hazards apply. Imagine how those can be amplified by bad weather. 

While we were excited to see the lobster fishery in action, we were reminded of the tragedies recently off the shores of our province. Two men aboard a lobster boat were killed recently when two boats collided. 

At the beginning of the season, sandbars in several harbours around the island caused problems for lobster fishers. One boat was caught on a sandbar and started taking on water. The fishers were rescued by nearby boats. Others had to return to different ports rather than run the same risk going into their home port. 

Later on this day, we had our picnic at nearby Cabot Park where a channel through the sand bars along the beach, allows the boats to return to port at Malpeque.

While we were there, The Hailey Jo returned to port, negotiating her way through the sand bars. 

Red marker buoys should be kept right of the boat on the return to port. The Hailey Jo moved around the red buoys, as did the other boats who happened by during our visit. The sand bar must have shifted over the last two months and fishers know the location of the shifting channel. 

I admire and appreciate the work of all professional fishers.

The beach at New London Bay lighthouse

Walking on this beach is unusual because of all the activity mere meters from shore in New London Bay. The beach stands at the entrance to the bay and a channel is marked for boats. My husband and I took my brother, Frank and my sister-in-law, Michele there when they visited last week.

We walked the beach within sight of the lighthouse 

 

 

as the lobster

 

or mussel fishing boats 

 

powered alongside us in the bay, headed home after a morning of work. We waved to the crews who waved back or blew horns in response.

For Frank and I, the shoreline with the boats in the background, brought to mind our grandfather O'Brien and his fishing career. When he first began fishing in Newfoundland as a young lad with his father, Edward, they rowed to the fishing grounds, fished all day and rowed home. We wondered what he would say about these boats and the seafood fishery.

Some crews threw offal overboard as they motored into the bay, 

 

causing a feeding frenzy for the gulls. 

 

The flutter created great photo opportunities.

 

The beach showed the effects of winter but little garbage. The only garbage we saw was a deflated helium balloon from some occasion which is but a memory now. We were reminded of the hazards such balloons present to wildlife. This one was mired in the sand.

 

The old lighthouse stands watch as it has since the 1870s. Its tapered construction makes it look small from a distance. Behind the sand dunes, it is protected from the sea as it operates on solar power these days. The lonely hours tending the light are part of history now.

 

Much has changed with the fishery too, a modern industry today, which developed over the one hundred years since our grandfather rowed to the fishing grounds for cod. Today, this area of New London Bay is a great location for watching these modern boats as they head home from work.

What work did your grandfathers do?