EPISODE 206 THE LOBSTER TRAP RESCUE IN THE STRAIT OF BELLE ISLE, NEWFOUNDLAND
alan skeoch
Dec. 24, 2020
GIFT TO ANDREW AND KEVIN FROM DAD AND MOM (CHRISTMAS 2020)
When you were little boys. Before you became teen agers and would
find your parents less dominant in your lives. Before those teen age
years which we thought might be difficult. (Which turned out to be untrue.)
Marjorie and I decided that the best gift we could give you would be Canada.
So we planned to give you Canada. We bought a used pop up tent trailer made
of chip board and canvas. Camping seemed the best way to give you Canada.
We wanted you to touch the earth. We wanted you to realize how lucky you’re
to live in the second largest country on earth.
That means at least two grand trips. First to the east to dip your feet in the Atlantic Ocean
and then to the west to put bigger feet in the Pacific Ocean. The trips could have been
miserable failures with us pulling you across Canada like a pair of stubborn mules.
So, for the first trip, we bought a pair of handcuffs. You were both going with us
whether you liked it or not. The dogs too…Sonny and Daisy…both Labradors. And a lot of other stuff
like four bicycles, a Coleman stove, pile of groceries and a first aid kit.
OUR TRIP TO NEWFOUNDLAND….2 KIDS, 2 DOGS, 4 BIKES, 1 TRAILER, 1 TRUCK, MARJORIE AND ME.
The trip East was terrific. Most of the trip you remember because you talk about it but this fragment you may have forgotten.
We crossed to Newfoundland on a big car ferry..overnight…sleeping with other Newfoundlanders on the floor as it lifted
and fell. Then we drove west to Gros MorNe Park where another ferry took us over a short patch of water. Remember the fish and
chip store? Real Newfoundland fried fish. Complete with a long white worm in my chunk which amused you both.
Then we drove up the coast alongside the Strait of Bell Isle heading towards St. Anthony and the wonder of the Viking
settlement at L’Ans aux Meadows. Eric the Red had landed and lived here 400 years before Columbus.
We camped part way up the road. Alone on the Newfoundland shore.
“You boys own this country…did you know that?”
This story is about that camp. By then the four bicycles strapped on the front of the truck were becoming a hazard so
we gave two of them to a Newfoundlander we met. He was overjoyed. Told us about the water. “Whales out there…lots of
them. And lobsters by the truckload. And codfish. A good land, mind you.” We had camped earlier on the west
side of Newfoundland and seen thousands of tiny fish flip flopping and eventually dying on the rocky beaches.
Newfoundlanders gathered buckets of them and hung them on clotheslines with pegs. “Good eating…that’s why
the whales are after them. They try to escape and end up on the beach. Millions of them survive but millions
also die. Good eating.”
“Any capelins here on the Strait of Belle Isle>”
“Nope but lots of other creatures.”
“How do you make a living?”
“Lobsters…trap them in season…sell them to the three piece suit
people back in Toronto.”
Here, a bushel or two of live capelin have attracted DAISY AND SONNY … dogs that became a fisherman.
This was a nice camping spot so we stayed for two days or longer.
That was when we discovered the lobster traps…dozens of them washed up on the rocky shore.
Some smashed all to hell
Others that were perfect.
“Let’s see how many lobster traps we can collect, boys…stack them up neatly.”
“Can we fill the truck with them, Dad?”
“Sure…pile them on the roof…three or four high…see
how they hold when we rev the truck up to 70 miles per hour.”
“What can we do with them?”
“Alan, there’s a fishing village up the shore a bit. I bet these
are their traps. Maybe we can carry them back to them.”
“And so began our Lobster Trap Rescue Episode.”
“These must be your lobster traps?”
“Reckon they could be.”
“We have gathered up a pile of them way up he shore…done this for you…
we even carried some to your village.”
“Wish you had not done that boys.”
“Why not?”
“Because we get a government grant to cover
lost lobster traps. The more you boys bring
back here, the less we get. Understand?”
Kevin and Andrew did not understand.
The Newfoundlanders had a better idea.
“How would you boys like to meet a whale?”
“Meet a whale?”
“Sure…we can motor out a ways and meet a whale for sure..
maybe more than one. Ask your mom and dad.”
And so we went whale searching…using a little motor boat…outboard motor. Just enough
room for the four of us and the Newfoundland crew of one. Low in the gunwales.
I did not expect we would meet a whale. But I was wrong. We met two or
three. Animals far bigger than our little boat. Animals that seemed to
know where we were.
“Remember what you did when one whale swam up and under our boat, Andrew?”
“What?”
“You dived down on the floor of the boat and would not look.”
“I Felt like joining you”
“Dad, do we really own this country…this Canada?”
“We do…we really do.”
“Makes me feel good, dad.”
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alan skeoch
Dec. 2020