Cod moratorium hit Black Tickle hard

Labrador community barely hanging on

At one time Black Tickle was a bustling community, with fishermen coming from all over Newfoundland and Labrador in pursuit of cod.

Bernard Dyson, 72, remembers that time. It’s a far cry from today, with the small community now barely hanging on.

“The fishery that was here was as good as one you could have anywhere,” he said in a recent interview. “I suppose there were hundreds of long-liners and speedboats and little old shacks along the point where the plant was. But right now there’s nothing. You can’t even get a drop of gas.”

Dyson started fishing with his father when he was 13 years old. Even after he took a job with Newfoundland Hydro he continued to fish, taking eight to 10 weeks off every summer to go out on the water. To this day, he takes his speedboat out when the fishery opens every year.

“Everyone fished here,” said, adding no one had to go very far to catch cod. “Five or six minutes out of the harbour and you’d get the fish in a speedboat, little longer in a big boat.”

The closure of the cod fishery had a huge impact on Black Tickle, Dyson said, with the plant in town closing and a steady closure of businesses since.

“We have nothing here. If you want to go out fishing, you can row out or you can sit on the land looking out through the window. That’s all you can do. If I want gas now, I have to go to Cartwright to get it. It’s a heartbreaking situation here in Black Tickle.”

Dyson said at the height of the fishery there were so many cod caught in the area that the factory boats couldn’t take it all.

“I saw more fish thrown off the side of the boats than we catch here now in a whole season,” he said.

There are only a few fishermen left in town, said Dyson, and no one has a groundfish licence. Only a couple of fishermen have a crab quota. There was a crab plant there at one point, but that lasted only about six years.

Dyson said he has been keeping an eye on the cod, though, and he is impressed with what he’s been seeing the last few years.

“Last summer and the summer before last the cod was as plentiful as I’ve ever seen it. I’ve never seen it so plentiful my whole life. I’ve seen a lot of codfish, I’ve seen them scarce and I’ve seen them plentiful, and I’ve never seen it like this now.”