Land & Sea 1990: Port aux Basques winter fishery

In the early1990sthe small community of Petites, found at the end of the line for the road from Port aux Basques, was struggling.

Just a few years earlier the town had been not just surviving, but thriving. Lifethere centredaround the traditional hook-and-line fishery, which brought in thousands a year for fishermen. Others in town worked at a local fish plant that was kept busy with the catches.

But things had changed considerably in just three years of bad catches, leaving many in town to wonder what had happened to keep the cod away. Some of them thought they knew the answer -- it was the draggers, specifically the ones hauling up cod during a few months of busy winter-time fishing near Port aux Basques.

Winter dragger fishing

When Land & Sea went aboard one of those draggers in 1990, theyfound boats hauling up cod, trying to catch half of their quota for the year in order to make ends meet.

Cod concentrated in the waters off western Newfoundland in January or February so as it became harder to catch the annual quota in the summer months, larger boats began to go beyond the 12-mile line in the winter chasing that cold-weather catch chasing the fish instead ofwaiting for them to show up in the warmer parts of the year.

That strategy was a bonanza for the inshore dragger fishermen, who could get half the year'squota of cod over a few weeks of work, even if the work was cold and hard.

"This is the time," said Port auxChoixfisherman MartinCaines, who had been coming to the area to fish for years, heading into the deeper waters.

He aimed for half his quota during these few winter weeks, he said he could make 100 trips out in te summer and still not get the other half whilespending far more to try.

"The more fuel you save, the more money you make."

Hard times in Petites

But the winter fishery wasn't without controversy. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans stepped up patrols both on the water and in the air after some fishers were caught using liners in theirtrawls and dumping small fish. Andsome of the inshore fishermen blamed the draggers forkeeping the cod from making its way closer to shore, where they would be able to catch it.

In Petites, some of those fishermen stood on shore there was no reason to be on the water discussing the potential reasons for the lack of fish, and the small size of the ones they could catch. In one fishing stage hooks on tubs full of trawlwere growing rusty from thebait that had been sitting on them, unused, for three months.

"It haven't been put in the water because there's no fish in sight," said fisherman JayHarrett.

Fishermen in the community used to use $20,000 of bait a day whenthey were out, but that winter there hadn't been that much in cod landed, total.

'There's nothing else here'

During a time of year when they would usually be out on the water, the boats were all tied up. Some younger families had left town, or were talking about it, moving to Ontario or British Columbia. Others were migrating to Nova Scotia to fish.

"One of these days, probably, it will just be summer homes and the tourists coming in," said Ruby Payne, who ran the local store.

"If nothing happens to the fishery, there's nothing else here."

Some men relied on make-work projects.

"It's not very nice, $199 a week, wife, threeyoungsters," said KeithEdmunds, who was working to help repair a slipway.

"Couple years ago Iwas making probably $3000 a week. We was making big money. Everybody enjoyed it, it was good."

What happened to Petites?

Some in the community hadn't given up on the hook-and-line fishery yet.

Lenny Ingram had heard about auto jiggers in use in Nova Scotia and decided he would try it, but he acknowledged that it came with no guarantees.

"Anything is a gamble, right now."

Wallace Kinslowwas trying to get fishermen in nearby communities together to work on solutions for the failing fishery.

"There's always a better time coming."

When Land & Sea had come to the area three years earlier, to work on a show about the winter fishery, they'd found a small but prosperous town.

The program returned to Petites more than 25 years later, in 2017, but this time it wasn't to film a fishing community.

Instead the show focused on how Petites, which had been empty since2003, was of interest to tourists who wanted to see one of Newfoundland's abandoned outport communities.

For more archivalLand & Seaepisodes, visit theCBC Newfoundland and Labrador YouTube page.

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