Fishing is an ancestral skill on the shores of the St. Lawrence.
What is life like for a fisherman?
What are the special aspects of this trade?
What does the future hold for this set of skills?
Let’s start with an introduction.
Getting to know Quebec's fishermen
Seven people from the fishing industry introduce us to the realities of their trade and their love of the sea.
Information
Video length: 4 minutes and 36 seconds
Location and shooting date: Gaspé Peninsula, 2022 and Magdalen Islands, 2023
Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Jean-Sébastien Laliberté et Maylis Persoons, Exploramer museologists
Videographer and editor: Guillaume Lévesque, Les productions de la Morue Salée
Interviewees:
- Jérémy Jérôme, member of Gesgapegiag Mi’gmaq First Nation
- Yann-Philippe Poirier, captain of boat La Chouette III
- Antoine Nicolas, Un océan de saveurs
- Jean Côté, Regroupement des pêcheurs professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
- Réal Tapp, Les Agrès de pêche ACPG Inc.
- Réginald Cotton, former cod fisherman
- Patrick Denis, Cloridorme
Credit: Exploramer, 2024
Transcription
[View of the coast from the sea, background music.]
[Shot of Jérémy Jérôme at the water’s edge, talking.]
Jérémy Jérôme: My name is Jérémy Jérôme, member of the Mi’gmaq First Nation of Gesgapegiag.
[View of a fishing boat at sea.]
My hands are always wet, my feet are always wet, either in the river or here in the bay.
[Back to Jérémy speaking.]
Anybody, any other Micmac, as such, we’re born like this.
[View of a boat arriving at a dock, then of a few boats docked in a marina, music volume increases.]
Yann-Philippe Poirier: My name is Yann-Philippe Poirier.
[Shot of Yann-Philippe Poirier talking, with his boat in the background.]
I come from the Islands, from L’Étang-du-Nord. And here we are on the harbor at Cap-aux-Meules. I’m a young entrepreneur in the fishing industry. I’ve been doing this for at least ten years as my main occupation.
[View of boats moored at dock.]
You see, I grew up here by the docks.
[Back to Yann-Philippe speaking.]
It’s always been part of my environment. My father was a fisherman, his father before him, his great-grandfather and so on have practically always been. That’s what I chose as a profession, and the profession chose me a bit too, at least as much as I chose it. I do it out of passion.
[View of Antoine Nicolas in his diving suit, carrying his inflatable boat from his car to the water.]
Antoine Nicolas: Antoine Nicolas. I’m the owner of Un Océan de saveurs.
[Shot of Antoine indoors, speaking.]
In fact, I’m a seaweed harvester. So, we go diving to harvest the algae. We’re located in Gaspé, in the Gaspé Peninsula.
[View of Antoine putting on his flippers at the water’s edge, then swimming in the water.]
We have a harvesting zone that extends from the foot of the Cap-des-Rosiers lighthouse to Grande-Vallée on the north side.
[Underwater view of Antoine among the seaweeds, showing some of them.]
And then there’s a little nine-kilometer enclave on the south side, at Cap-aux-Os.
Jean Côté: Hello, Jean Côté.
[View of Jean Côté talking, indoors.]
I am the scientific director for the professional fishermen’s association of the southern Gaspé Peninsula. Lobster fishermen used to be polyvalent, and the oldest among them have all experienced the moratorium on cod.
[View of a boat entering a marina, close-up in the boat’s cabin with a man at the helm, followed by a shot of the boat docking.]
They were cod fishermen who lost their jobs that day and became lobster fishermen out of necessity.
[View of a man holding a helm at a dock.]
So, for a long time, they’ve been working to ensure that this particular fishing never suffers the same fate.
[View of a crate full of lobsters, a hand moves one, an Aliment du Québec label attached to its claw.]
Lobsters are produced in hatcheries to compensate for three to five percent of the annual catches.
[View of Jean talking, inside.]
So, we say to ourselves “we’re not just hunter-gatherers, we’ve become farmers of the sea”.
[View of a group of people on the dock.]
[View of the port, from a little further away and higher up, view of Réal Tapp talking, in the workshop.]
Réal Tapp: When you walk in here, you realize that, like it or not, it’s a fishing gear workshop.
[Close-up of a hand weaving the edge of a net, followed by a more distant shot.]
In terms of fishing gear, we’re talking all kinds of trawl nets. We can make gillnets too. Our skills, we learned by, shall we say, working in here.
[View of the upper body of a young man weaving the net.]
I didn’t used to do this.
[View of a net being made; stretched in the workshop, then shot of Réal talking, next to the stretched net.]
I loved it when I started. The experience, I was a fisherman, and the work it entailed. We also went on training courses abroad. I’ve already been to Denmark for training.
[View of another, older man weaving a net.]
And in Quebec, we’re the only ones who do this.
[View of a boat pulley with nets in it, view of a net and its buoys spread out on the ground.]
Réginald Cotton: Hello, my name is Réginald Cotton. I live in Rivière-au-Renard.
[View of 4 boats docked one behind the other, seen from the side.]
I’m a resident of Rivière-au-Renard, in the town of Gaspé.
[View of Reginald talking, inside.]
I’m a former cod fisherman because of the first moratorium in 92 in the Atlantic, then in 93 in the Gulf. Of course, we don’t fish for cod anymore. By force of necessity, like most bottom-trawl fishermen, we became either crabbers or shrimpers. In my case, it was shrimper. I bought licenses and a bigger boat because I was fishing in the Atlantic, so that’s my story.
[Shot of the front of a boat, seen from the front, overlooking several stowed boats.]
Patrick Denis: My name is Patrick Denis. I’m of the third generation to take over the Cloridorme Fishmonger family business, based in Cloridorme in the Gaspésie region.
[Shot of the coast, then of Patrick Denis talking, seated at the water’s edge, bags of products placed beside him.]
We mostly process bottom fish. But now our main product is sea cucumbers.
[Close-up of a dried sea cucumber, which Patrick twirls between his fingers.]
Widely consumed in China, but little known in Quebec.
[Shot of Patrick holding the dried cucumber between two fingers at head level.]
That’s something we want to work on. I wouldn’t say in the short term. It’s more in the medium-to-long term, with various local players involved.
[View of Cloridorme’s wild sea cucumber bags.]
[Music volume increases. Shot of village with a church by the sea.]
Jérémy: Water …. it’s a magnificent force that cannot be resisted.
[Shot of the shoreline, then of Jeremy talking at the water’s edge.]
You have to go with it. Then I’ll go on into the sea. I…
[Shot of a small boat tied to a dock with an angler next to it.]
I can’t give up fishing.
[Close-up of waves hitting the beach.]
I can’t even explain it, I don’t know how.
[View of the beach, seagulls with their feet in the water, music fades out, the sound of waves intensifies.]
[Exploramer logo.]
Traditional know-how
Before the arrival of Europeans, Aboriginal communities in eastern Canada were already fishing for several species, including eel, salmon and lobster.
The Innu of the Côte-Nord, the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation in the Lower St. Lawrence and the Mi’gmaqs in Gaspésie made their fishing gear from sinew, wood, animal bones and plant fibres. Relying on their boat-building skills, the Mi’gmaq were among the few people able to fish on the high seas.
Practices and gear have since evolved, but fishing is still central to the lives of many people living on the shores of the St. Lawrence, whose way of life remains oriented toward the sea.
The skills and practices associated with the fixed fisheries of the St. Lawrence, such as weir fishing, were added to the register of Quebec’s intangible cultural heritage on October 26, 2023. This recognition confirms the fundamental place of fishing in the province’s history.
Photo credit: weir construction on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, circa 1960.
Musée de la mémoire vivante, Rodrigue Labrecque collection.
Photo credit: weir construction on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, circa 1960.
Musée de la mémoire vivante, Rodrigue Labrecque collection.
Tools of the trade
There are multiple fishing techniques and gears.
Fishing techniques are constantly evolving to meet the needs of profitability, selectivity and, increasingly, ecosystems.
For greater efficiency and selectivity, gear is positioned according to the habitat zone of the targeted species: in the water column, in other words pelagic waters, or close to the bottom. They can also be differentiated by their “mobile” or “fixed” placement.
Mobile gear
Mobile gear is usually towed by a boat.
A trawl is a wide net towed by a boat called a trawler. After it leaves the water, the bag containing the fish is emptied onto the deck of the boat.
As this gear catches all fish in its path, the mesh size of the net can be adapted to improve selectivity. A large mesh will allow smaller fish to pass through.
For Nordic shrimp fishing, a Nordmøre grid ensures a selectivity close to 95%. This innovation has made the shrimp trawl a more eco-responsible fishing gear.
Video: Underwater images of a Nordmøre grid
In the St. Lawrence, the trawl is mainly used to catch bottom fish and northern shrimp. Trawls can be deployed in the water column or close to the bottom.
Information
Illustration: Maxime Bigras
Animation: Exploramer
Credit: Exploramer, 2024
Transcription
Animated illustration of mackerel and other unnamed fish caught in a forward-drawn trawl.
This jig is made up of semi-plumbed plastic baits fitted with a ring of hooks.
Information
Illustration: Maxime Bigras
Animation: Exploramer
Credit: Exploramer, 2024
Transcription
Illustration animée de quatre turluttes rouges accrochées en ligne les unes après les autres. La ligne de turluttes descend. Deux calmars viennent s’accrocher de part et d’autre des hameçons. La ligne est remontée.
Used for squid fishing, jigs are installed along a fishing line. The movement of the line imitates the movement of prey, which attracts squid. Traditionally, this type of fishing was carried out at night, using torches. Light sources tend to arouse the curiosity of squid, accustomed to the darkness of the deep.
Jigging is one of the oldest forms of fishing still practised today. Although the few fishing permits issued in Quebec are not currently being used, a desire to revive this activity is beginning to appear…
Video: Jig fishing in Newfoundland and Labrador
The purse seine net is released by a boat called a seiner. While the seiner encircles the shoal of fish, a small boat, called the skiff, holds the extremity of the seine. This process is called pursing.
To allow the net to spread, floats hold back the upper part, whereas the lower part is fitted with weights. This net is then gradually closed to form a purse and prevent the fish from escaping. The fish are then removed from the purse using a pump or a large landing net, known as a brail net.
Purse seines are used in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to catch pelagic fish such as herring, capelin and mackerel. Mesh size can improve selectivity.
Information
Illustration: Maxime Bigras
Animation: Exploramer
Credit: Exploramer, 2024
Transcription
Illustration animée d’un filet positionné en cercle, dont les extrémités sont reliées au mat d’un grand bateau. Le filet entoure un banc de poissons et se rétrécit au fur et à mesure. Le banc est capturé lorsque le filet est remonté. Un 2e bateau, en avant, plus petit, est relié à l’autre bateau par deux câbles.
The modern Norwegian jigger is longer and shinier than the older jiggers.
Information
Illustration: Maxime Bigras
Animation: Exploramer
Credit: Exploramer, 2024
Transcription
Illustration animée d’un appât en métal avec hameçon, attaché au bout d’une ligne de pêche. La ligne fait des mouvements de montée et de descente afin d’attirer une morue qui se prend finalement à l’hameçon et qui est ensuite remontée complètement.
Cod jigging is a fishing technique that has been used for centuries. Fishermen unwound their line from the boat—in those days, a small wooden boat called a dory. The line was launched and hauled in by hand. Today, everything is mechanical, and jiggers have changed. Today’s equipment allows fishermen to handle several jiggers at once.
This gear gets its name from its associated technique: jigging, and the up-and-down movement that attracts cod.
Dredges, pulled by a boat called a dredger, rake up the sediment from the seabed. In doing so, they unearth and collect the animals that live there, mainly bivalves such as scallops, razor clams and clams, but they also carry away sea cucumbers, anemones and rocks along the way.
In the 1940s, the hydraulic dredger was developed. Rather than raking the soil, it projects a powerful jet of water to dislodge the species, which it then collects in its nets.
As you may have guessed, dredging, whether mechanical or hydraulic, has a serious impact on the ocean floor. Research is underway to reduce this impact while maintaining efficiency to remain sufficiently profitable for fishermen. Solutions are beginning to emerge for sea cucumber and scallop fishing, for example.
Video: Underwater images of a dredge
Dredges can be made up of a wide variety of pockets. Shown here is a Digby three-bucket dredger.
Information
Illustration: Maxime Bigras
Animation: Exploramer
Credit: Exploramer, 2024
Transcription
Illustration animée de trois poches de formes rectangulaires aux mailles métalliques épaisses avançant sur le fond marin, tirées par un pôle sur roues. Des concombres de mer ainsi que des pétoncles géants sont ratissés et se retrouvent dans le fond des poches. Du sable se dégage à l’endroit où la drague frotte au sol.
Fixed gear
Fixed gear is deployed at sea and left in place for a few hours or days before being recovered.
Traps are used to catch crustaceans and molluscs, such as crab, lobster and whelk. Trap shape depends on the target species and is optimized for easy storage on fishing boats.
Traditionally, herring or mackerel are used as bait. However, with these species in decline, it is imperative to develop alternative baits.
On board, fishermen can easily sort out unwanted animals and return them to the water. Because of this selectivity, trap fishing is considered responsible.
Video: Underwater images of a lobster trap
The lobster trap is designed to allow small individuals to escape. A second selection is made on board once the trap has been recovered.
Information
Illustration: Maxime Bigras
Animation: Exploramer
Credit: Exploramer, 2024
Transcription
Illustration animée d’un casier à homards. Le casier a une forme rectangulaire. Un appât en forme de tête de poisson est placé dans la partie gauche du casier. Un petit homard rentre dans la partie droite, traverse le casier et ressort par une trappe placée sur la gauche, devant. Un grand homard rentre à son tour mais reste dans la partie gauche du casier. Il est trop gros pour sortir par la trappe.
Longlines are mainly used for bottom fish, such as halibut.
Information
Illustration: Maxime Bigras
Animation: Exploramer
Credit: Exploramer, 2024
Transcription
Illustration animée d’une ligne de pêche, avec plusieurs hameçons appâtés, posée sur le fond. Deux bouées reliées aux extrémités de la ligne flottent à la surface de l’eau. Un flétan mange l’appât et se prend dans un hameçon. L’ombre d’un autre poisson se prend dans un hameçon plus à gauche.
The longline is a line on which several baited hooks are spread. This gear has a wide range of uses: pelagic, mobile or fixed, or placed on the sea bottom.
Even if fishermen try to target certain species through their choice of bait or hook size, selectivity remains difficult to achieve.
An improved version, the floating longline, enables fish to survive longer. Because of its placement further from the bottom and the way the line is designed, the fish do not become entangled around the line.
Gillnets can be fixed or mobile. They are set on the bottom or hang in the water column.
The fish’s gills become entangled in the net’s meshes, allowing the fishermen to haul their catch aboard the boat. Depending on the targeted species, mainly smelt, mackerel or bottom feeders such as halibut, the mesh size will differ, as does the depth at which the net is installed. Despite these adjustments, the risk of incidental catches remains high.
As the net can extend over dozens of kilometres, acoustic repellents are beginning to be used to ward off marine mammals and prevent their entanglement.
When fixed, the gillnet is held taut in the water with anchors holding the bottom of the net relatively still. Buoys hold the top in position and indicate the placement of the net.
Information
Illustration: Maxime Bigras
Animation: Exploramer
Credit: Exploramer, 2024
Transcription
Illustration animée d’un large filet rectangulaire fixé au fond grâce à des encres. Le dessus du filet est soutenu par des bouées cylindriques. Deux grosses bouées rondes reliées aux encres du filet flottent à la surface de l’eau. Deux flétans passent leur tête dans les mailles du filet et se retrouvent pris.
Feet and hands in the water
No need for big fishing gear to catch marine species.
Have you ever heard of harvesting by hand?
It is practised commercially by native communities and professional diver–fishermen, mainly for soft-shell clams, seaweed and sea urchins. As with fishing, commercial harvesting requires a fishing permit and compliance with certain regulations.
Here are a few rules to observe in commercial harvesting: sea urchins must be at least 50 mm in size to be harvested. Rockweed, for example, must be cut at least 15 cm above its holdfast.
What are the rules and specifics of seaweed harvesting?
Antoine Nicolas presents this facet of his trade and introduces us to some of the algae found in the St. Lawrence.
Antoine Nicolas presents this facet of his trade and introduces us to some of the algae found in the St. Lawrence.
Information
Video length: 3 minutes and 19 seconds
Location and shooting date: Gaspé Peninsula, 2022
Excerpts from interviews conducted by: Jean-Sébastien Laliberté, Exploramer museologist
Videographer and editor: Guillaume Lévesque, Les productions de la Morue Salée
Underwater images were provided by Antoine Nicolas.
Interviewee:
- Antoine Nicolas, Un Océan de Saveurs
Credit: Exploramer, 2024
Transcription
[View of Percé Rock in the background, then of a beach, a village and then the sea.]
[Music in the background and Antoine Nicolas talking.]
Antoine Nicolas: LHere we’re at Petit Cap in Gaspésie, in the village of Gaspé.
[View of Antoine in a diving suit in the back of a car with an open trunk.]
o, in fact, we’re getting ready to go harvest some algae.
[View of cliffs by the sea, background music.]
[Back to a view of Antoine in a wetsuit preparing his equipment.]
We’re on our permits, our sectors in fact; so, we’re authorized to harvest in this sector. There can be only one harvester per sector, to facilitate management by Fisheries and Oceans and ensure the sustainability of the resource.
[Two views of the beach, then of Antoine seated at an indoor table, music stops, sound of waves.]
In fact, we have quotas with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), which regulate harvesting areas. So we have permits with harvesting sectors. And then we have quotas by species, and when we harvest, the names of the harvesters and divers are mentioned on the permit. So, nobody can harvest unless their name is written on my permit. If someone is checked on the beach, they must carry some form of identification to prove that he or she is the one who harvested the algae. Still, it’s strict, it’s rigid. Each species is described in terms of harvesting conditions and how it should be cut. And there’s no margin for error. In other words, no seaweed is allowed to be pulled out from its base.
[View of an end-of-road sign with the sea in the background.]
[Close-up of Antoine in diving suit.]
Actually, we take the approach opposite to most processing plants, which have to absorb what the fisherman has caught as quickly as possible. We really base our harvests on what we need, on our orders. So, it really depends on own our needs.
[Various shots of Antoine walking down to the beach carrying a small inflatable boat.]
When we really went looking for fresh seaweed, we tried to find the areas with the greatest diversity in the same place, so as to make the fewest dives possible during the day.
[Antoine sets the boat down on the water’s edge.]
Now, we’re really going to be looking more for biomass, in fact, for volume.
[Back to Antoine who is getting ready at the back of the car.]
We were also looking for that before, because the objective, still, is to try and use only the high biomasses and leave the low biomasses completely aside.
[View of Antoine swimming on the surface of the water with his boat following him.]
So, I haven’t used this area for three years, because there’s one year when it was really clear-cut because of the ice.
[Background music, underwater view of various species of algae. Antoine appears in the frame and shows some of them.]
When it comes to harvesting, we really try to be as responsible as possible. For me, it’s the only logical thing to do.
[Underwater view of Antoine swimming amidst seaweed.]
I start from the principle that if we destroy the environment, we destroy the business; which means that if we want to continue exploiting resources in the future, we absolutely have to preserve the environment in the broadest sense. So, the goal at our level is to try and make ecological rhyme with economical.
[Underwater view of various species of seaweed. Background music stops.]
[View of Antoine at the water’s edge, holding a long seaweed in his hands and pointing to different parts of it.]
Ideally, this is where you cut it so that it can grow back. It grows from this part, so if you cut it here, it will be able to grow back on its own. So here we have a specimen that’s actually several years old. When algae is cut, for example, brown algae in particular can live for fifteen to thirty years.
[Succession of views of different species of seaweed in Antoine’s hands, sound of waves.]
If you’re smart when cutting the algae, it can grow back. And we could exploit the same algae for fifteen to thirty years.
[A full-length view of Antoine holding an equally long seaweed at the water’s edge.]
[Background music stops.]
[Exploramer logo.]
Hand harvesting of seaweed is no different.
Beyond following the rules, this is a highly technical process that requires expertise.
Harvesting seaweed while preserving it for the future requires a great deal of know-how.
Also, for amateurs
Recreational shellfish harvesting is a popular activity for people living in coastal regions. Our friendly advice? Before you try it, check the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) website to see whether the area is authorized for harvesting. The DFO is responsible for closing areas where there is a risk of contamination.
Being a fisherman is a way of life filled with challenges to find a balance between the sustainability of income and that of marine life. It is a balancing act that these hard-working men and women of the sea engage in every year to bring you delicious, fresh products.
Fishing skills are not the only ones passed down from generation to generation in Quebec. There is a whole new world, full of potential, waiting for you…
