Come From Away

I spent the day yesterday scallop fishing with a friend. I hopped out of bed at 4am, so that I could get to the dock by 4:45am. The boat left at 5am…

We “drove” for an hour until we were where we wanted to drag. There are conservation laws in place that say you are only allowed to fish scallops between 6:00am and 6:00pm. At 6:06am, we were where we wanted to be. I noticed Danny referencing and updating a notepad that looked like it had two columns of scribbled numbers on it. I assume they were longitudes and latitudes that were telling him where he was at yesterday. Once “we” started, “we” did not stop until just after 6.00 PM (the drag was in the water until 5:59:54pm :0). I say “we” in quotes as I was more of a tourist/hinderance than a help. I also took breaks and even had a nap on a folding deck chair. Yes, on deck!

This is the process:

1. The drag is lowered into the water and dragged behind the boat for about 10-12 minutes.
2. It is then hoisted up and dumped on a long table of sorts attached to the back of the boat (it’s actually longer than the boat is wide.
3. You then have to sort through all the rocks, old shells, crabs, starfish, fish, mussels, hermit crabs, empty pop bottles, etc. for the scallops that are large enough to be harvested.
4. They are all collected up into a bucket and dumped into a tray that is in a little cabin that has been built onto the door of the actual cabin of the boat.
5. They are shucked right there on the boat. They legally have to be as the shells have the roe attached to them.
6. Go back to step one.

Here are some pictures of the procedure:

Robert waiting for the drag. He grabs it with a boat hook and guides it onto the sorting table.

Here it comes.

Once it get’s up above the table he pulls it forward so that and Danny drops it onto the table

This is it crashing down onto the table

Then he hooks a hook from a second winch onto the bottom of the drag

This pulls the drag up upside down to dump it

Being dumped

Robert gives it a good shake as Danny drops it back onto the table (trying to free a rock that is stuck in the basket)

Most of the way through the sorting process

Shucking

Under the yucky snot-like creature is the scallop muscle that you want to eat
You may have noticed the lighting changing in the photos above. This is not because the pictures were taken at different times of the day, but because as Danny is playing with controlling two winches to dump the drag, he is also making notes about where we are and turning the boat around to do a pass back in the opposite direction.

(Click to Play Movie)

Bucket of shucked scallops

This is where the scallops are shucked.

A pile of discarded shells and guts forms on the outside of the little window above.

Some times the window gets missed and some guts end up behind your bucket… Oh well, we’ll clean that up later.

Sunrise

Other boats that were out on the water also

Critters we caught that we tossed back into the water

Of course, when you are discarding fishy body parts, the gulls come around looking for a free meal

Sorting table, winches and Danny driving and working the winch controls

Sunset

By the time I got home at 8:00pm, I was happy to sit by the fire and warm up. It wasn’t a particularly cold day, but I don’t have a pair of hip waders and therefore got a little damp. I was also happy to not be going back out today!

Across our nation for the past few weeks, children and their families’ have been crowding into school gymnasiums to honour veterans of past and present wars and conflicts. The children read poems that they wrote themselves, acted out skits, and sang Flanders Field. Their friends and family sat respectfully through it all; straining their ears in a futile effort to understand “little Jimmy’s” mumbled little voice as it was inadequately amplified by the school’s thirty year old “state of the art” sound equipment.

Was it worth all the time and energy spent by students, teachers and school administrators organising and performing? Was it worth the efforts of the parents to not look bored and impatient while listening and sharing false smiles with the other parent (whose kids are fat, stupid and obviously inbred – Not like our sweet little Sally)?

Sadly, no.

Veterans have been dropping like flies from the incredibly high germ count of these poorly ventilated events. With swine flu on the rise, we need to rethink this before there are no veterans left at all. I say next year that we all have our moment of silence at 11:00 on 11/11, but save the veterans. Please think hard before you organise another veteran massacre for next year.

Late last night around 11:00pm I’m startled from my important web surfing by “B” saying, “Mousie?”

Apparently, the “Barn Cats” were swatting around a cute little mouse. We quickly jumped up and saved it. I mean, we had to. It was the obvious thing to do. We couldn’t possibly let the sappy, spoiled (house) cats that we got to kill rodents in the barn kill a rodent in the house!