Still on the go

Port aux Basques fisher still has hope for cod

It’s not all bad news. Twenty-five years after the cod moratorium there is still a fish plant operating on the southwest coast. Lobster and halibut are the two big fisheries, and there are smaller species being harvested too.

The main employer in the area is now Marine Atlantic, and a lot of the residents still commute to other provinces to work in the oil industry or on lake boats. But it wasn’t always this way.

Before the moratorium there were five fish plants operating along route 470 from Port aux Basques to Rose Blanche-Harbour Le Cou. Generations of families would harvest the cod, sometimes risking life and limb to make a living.

“Lobster was a blessing, to see the lobster come back cause at the time of the moratorium there wasn’t no lobster,” said Gerald MacDonald, who has spent his life involved with the fishing industry.

He believes the cod stocks will recover eventually.

“It must,” said MacDonald. “It must because there’s not a big lot of cod being caught around. The quotas is managed properly and obviously it should sustain.”

Fisherman Melvin Bateman has been out on a boat since he was a boy, becoming a fulltime commercial fisherman in 1998. He believes that if the cod fishery had been only hook and line, like it is in 3Pn, it would still be going strong to this day.