Category Archives: Fish

Lest you think…

04 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Fish, Newfoundland, Observations

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In 1992, the Canadian government shut down the fishing industry in Newfoundland for 10 years in hopes that the fish would come back. When they revisited it in 2002, they found the fish stocks were in worse shape than at the outset of the moratorium. It is now in place permanently. And apparently, outside of Canada, no one took notice of this catastrophe. For the rest of the world, it looked pretty much like an example of “It couldn’t happen here.” Yeah, right.

If we didn’t know this before, we now know better than that. Here is an article from the National Post illustrating that the Newfoundland disaster was not an isolated incident. This will happen across our planet with increasing frequency, yet there doesn’t seem to be anyone terribly concerned with it.

Aquaculture while an amazing achievement is not the answer. Our naturally reproducing fish are in grave danger of disappearing and still we harvest them irresponsibly. There are a few countries starting to act with an eye to the future, but until the rest of those countries contributing to this dilemma own up to their own hand in this, nothing will change except for the greater decrease of this natural resource.

Write letters. Make phone calls. Protest even. It is our “Today” and our children’s “Tomorrows.”

Twenty years later, New England fishery collapse mirrors Newfoundland disaster

Kelly McParland | Jan 31, 2013 11:36 AM ET

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Twenty years after Ottawa imposed a moratorium on Newfoundland’s cod fishery, northeastern U.S. states are looking at similar cuts as fishery officials argue for steep new limits in an effort to stave off disaster.

“The game is over” reported the Boston Business Journal, noting that one official called it “a day of reckoning.”

The New England Fishery Management Council voted Wednesday night to cut the catch limit on Gulf of Maine cod by 77 percent – although most members reportedly agreed the move was tantamount to shutting down direct fishing for cod, which has sustained New England’s inshore fishing industry for centuries.

The Georges Bank cod catch is to be cut by 66 percent.

The Gloucester Times reports the cuts are so severe, at least one council member argued for a complete shutdown of the cod fishery, altogether. ““I don’t see myself leaving the dock next year, I’m not sure we’re going fishing (anymore),” said Councilor Joe Orlando of Gloucester, according to the Times. Another Gloucester fisherman, Paul Vitale, said the “docks and the stores” will be quiet.

The New York Times report was similarly grim:

“We are headed, slowly, seeming inexorably, to oblivion,” said John Bullard, the regional administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a member of the council, as he explained his support for the catch limits. “I do not deny the costs that are going to be paid by fishermen, families, communities. They are real. They will hurt.”

The problem, he said, is not government inflexibility, as fishermen have suggested, but the lack of fish. “It’s midnight and getting darker when it comes to how many cod there are,” he said. “There isn’t enough cod for people to make a decent living.”

Fishermen were shocked by the decision, seeing it as the end of an industry that sustained their communities for centuries.

“Right now what we’ve got is a plan that guarantees the fishermen’s extinction,” one told the Times.

“I’m leaving here in a coffin,” said another.

The reaction mirrored the trauma that hit Canada’s east coast 20 years ago, when federal authorities declared a moratorium on cod, warning that years of overfishing had reduced stocks by up to 97%. Despite hopes that stocks might revive if left alone,  a decade later the federal fisheries minister announced the outright closure of the fishery in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec.

In New England, optimism is in short supply.

“We are headed down the wrong course here, of exterminating the inshore fleet, for no good reason,” David Goethel, a New Hampshire fisherman and council member, told the Associated Press.

“I’m bankrupt. That’s it,” said 40-year-old Gloucester fishermen Paul Vitale, a father of three. “I’m all done. The boat’s going up for sale.”

National Post

Enough is enough.

28 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by in Commentary, Fish, History

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Twenty-one years ago, when the Canadian government enacted a moratorium to cease cod fishing, an entire industry and way of life was wiped out. 40,000 jobs gone, just like that. In that first ten year period of the moratorium which is still in effect eleven years later after the original cutoff date, 20% of the population left the island never to return.

17-1737-6JI3D00Z A way of life no more.

The catches had been getting smaller and then were legislated into nothingness. There were several theories as to why this decline had happened: natural predation by other species, pollution, climate change, and overfishing. It’s pretty clear now what has happened, with overfishing if you will, claiming the title of winner. Government mismanagement and greed literally took the livelihood of out of the Newfoundlander‘s hands. But it is now apparent that climate change has a contributing hand in this. A paper published a couple of months ago stated that fish all over the world are becoming smaller because of the warmer waters. This precludes them from reaching full maturity and breeding normally. That is now leading to a further decline in viable fish which will lead to a larger cascading effect on the rest of the global fish population, Newfoundland included. There’s a one-two punch that would be hard for anyone from which to recover.

Now, whatever little remains of Newfoundland’s fishing stocks is under further assault. And assault is the operable word. In 2007, the southern coast of Newfoundland was seeing infestations of a new species, heretofore unknown of in that province, called the green crab. It has since grown more serious. The introduction of them is not necessarily a problem introduced by man, but it is likely to be an element of it. Even unknowingly, we are adept at mucking things up.

The green crab is a voracious predator eating anything and everything, size be damned. Lobsters? Tasty. Shrimp? Oh, yeah. Cod? What do you think? And currently there is no known remedy for them. They affect the ecological biodiversity wherever they settle. Whatever small chance there might have been for a return of the cod is threatened by this non-native species. What is next? A land to live on which is as hard as its rocks once again is getting hammered. And it appears to be a helpless situation.

One has to believe there are Newfoundlanders saying to themselves and each other, “Enough is enough.” Yes. Yes, indeed.

Game on…

08 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Fish, Newfoundland, Photo-documentary

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Now that the holidays are mercifully behind us, we can get back to our everyday routines no matter how mundane they may be. If you’re lucky, and I believe I am, mundane is not a word you usually use to describe your days. With that in mind, my effort to get exposure for Arn? Narn. is gearing up again.

Simply put, I need your help in getting Jon Stewart of The Daily Show to talk about Arn? Narn. on his show. If you would participate in this grass-roots effort, then you can help spread the word about what is happening to all the wild, edible fish in our world. I’ve posted below an e-mail that if you would copy, paste and send to Jon, then maybe we can get his attention. I’ve already sent him a press kit, a copy of the book, and have enlisted your help to do this. Let’s not stop now. Here’s the message and here’s where to send it to:  guestpitch@thedailyshow.com .

Thanks for your help.

Hi Jon,

Just wanted to drop you a line saying how much I love your show. I’ve recently read a photo-documentary book that I think you’d be interested in. It’s called Arn? Narn. by Bruce Meisterman. It’s topical and important. I thought I’d also include a review of the book. Hope you enjoy it.

Arn? Narn. by Bruce Meisterman

“’Arn? Narn.” It is said to be
the shortest conversation
in Newfoundland.’”
 
While reading this book and looking through the photos, I had to wonder whether the author lived in Newfoundland, or had extreme interest and visited in order to document his story.
 
Arn? Narn is a photography novel filled with black and white photographs taken in Newfoundland. The supporting text tells the story of the struggling culture. They thrived off of fishing for cod. Without an abundance of cod, now, they are trying to make end meet however they can. It also expresses the culture of the people. Through the photos of citizens you get a hint as to what the people are like that live there.
 
While there is text surrounding the pictures telling the story of the suffering culture in Newfoundland, I feel like the photos are telling the real story. You can feel great emotion just looking at the photos. More than you would feel with just text alone. That is the beauty of these types of book. They incorporate two different ways of telling a story to make you truly understand their meaning. Without the text, the pictures would have no place. You wouldn’t know what you were looking at. Without the pictures, the story would be emotionless.
 
This book is a beautiful representation of how these types of book are supposed to be laid out — Beautifully written text to accompany the truly emotion-filled photos of the struggles in Newfoundland.
 
Not knowing much about Newfoundland, I found this book informational and well as a pleasing to the eyes. I feel like a have knowledge of a new culture that I never knew about before.
 
Arn? Narn is a beautiful story told through words and breathtaking photography.

5/5 stars for me – Courtney Bauman

Soon to be a major motion picture.

20 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in Fish, Movies, Newfoundland, Sea

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Throughout the process of getting Arn? Narn. ready to come to market, I joked about it becoming a film. Even casual acquaintances asked if it would be made into one. My joking reply was that I would have to have approval over who portrayed me. Brad Pitt is too young. Donald Sutherland too old. Maybe in a casting stroke of genius, it would be Tilda Swinton. After all, she did play a man in the Virgina Woolf movie, Orlando.

Tilda as Orlando.

But that is besides the point. Were this to happen, it would be a documentary and I would definitely not be in it. It is not about me. It would be about Newfoundland, government mismanagement, and greed and no fish. The larger story is global in scope. But for now, just a pipe dream.

Maybe not. Unbelievably, I have been approached by a film producer interested in doing a film based on Arn? Narn. At this point, I’m not getting too excited about it. Actually, I’m not excited at all over this. After the long gestation period for the book, I know the odds are stacked against this happening. I also don’t know what the producers cred is, so we’ll just wait and see. But it would be cool.

I can see it now. The opening scene, has fishing boats crashing against monstrously unforgiving waves, sort of like on the TV show Deadliest Catch. A Morgan Freeman, God-like voice (hey, he did play God in a couple of movies, he’s qualified!) intones, “Any fish? No fish.” Do a Ken Burns dissolve into present day Newfoundland and the disappearing outports. Oh yeah, I’m thinking Oscar!

Yeah, something like this.

Such is the stuff of which dreams are made. Arn? Narn. was a dream. It came true. But then again, so was one full year of Dallas a dream until Bobby Ewing stepped out of the shower. Stranger things have happened. I’m wondering whose clothing should I wear on the red carpet?

Exclusive, first time ever, interview… with me. Part 2.

21 Thursday Jun 2012

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Sponsor: And now we return to our regularly scheduled interview -

I. You mentioned that the cod, Newfoundland’s largest source of revenue, were gone and the affect it had on the island’s population.

B. Yes, that’s right. The fish stocks had fallen off before, but certainly not to the precipitous levels that they reached in 1992. At that point, it was sort of like the canary in a coal mine – if the bird in the cage is laying on its back, you better get out of that mine fast. A catastrophe is about to happen. And that is what happened in Newfoundland. It was the canary in a global coal mine, but nobody noticed until it was too late.

I. Is is an isolated case?

B. It was thought to be until 2006 when a paper, by Dr. Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia,  was published predicting a worldwide version of this disaster. The paper received worldwide attention as it should have as it stated that by the middle of this century, all stocks of wild, edible fish will be in total collapse. After that, lots of kids will not be taking tuna fish sandwiches to lunch any longer.

I. OK, that’s the problem. What’s the solution?

B. Well, as in so many things, identifying the problem is often far more easy that determining the solution. The quick, cheap, and dirty answer is stop fishing. Is that realistic? Probably not. Could we get an easy buy-in from fishing countries around the world – same answer. But, unfortunately, that is the only answer at this point.

I. How about fish farming as a replacement?(organicguide.com)

B. That becomes a whole political issue for which there is a lot of debate. The other part of that though is it does not return the fisherman to the sea. As I said earlier about another solution – it’s an answer. Maybe not the popular one though. Without the fishermen returning to their livelihood, rural Newfoundland will, and is, disappearing before us. That is what the book “Arn? Narn.” portrays.

I. So fish farming is not a viable answer?

B. Not for cod at least. They don’t seem to be very cooperative about it. Additionally, there are too many studies floating around discouraging wide consumption of farmed fish, particularly salmon. Catfish do well as a farmed species, perhaps Tilapia as well. But they can’t replace all the other species.

(fitsugar.com)

I. Last question, Bruce. When will the book be out?

B. It looks like now sometime in late September or the first week of October. We hope to start getting the word out in the next couple of months.

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Exclusive, first time ever, not seen on any cable networks, other blogs, or even tweeted about yet… imaginary interview. Part 1.

14 Thursday Jun 2012

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Interviewer: Hello and welcome to this exclusive interview with the author and photographer of the book “Arn? Narn.”, Bruce Meisterman. Thanks for coming here today Mr. Meisterman.

(ossipeevalley.org)

Bruce: Thank you. I’m very happy to be here with you and please, call me Bruce.

I: OK then,… uh – Bruce. How did you come up with the idea for “Arn? Narn.”? What was your inspiration? Who influenced you the most? Did you really go to Newfoundland? Where is Newfoundland?

B: Whoa, one question at a time. My mind can’t handle that many concepts all at once. Inspiration is a funny thing, sort of like Groucho Marx. He might have said one thing and on paper it would look like something else, but when it came out it was altogether different once again. And that’s how this book came about.

B: My first idea was really to explore the concept of isolation in a western culture. What’s it feel like to be in contact with the entire world but cut off geographically. Sort of like Delaware.

I: But you said this was about Newfoundland. Where does Delaware come into it?

B: Not actually; just figuratively. Initially, I thought I wanted to go to Nova Scotia. Shows you how much I know. Way too many tourists. Seriously, only after a week of thinking about this, I realized, and god only knows how I came to this, that I needed to go to Newfoundland. Really, that’s how it happened. I knew nothing of Newfoundland at the time, but upon doing my research, it became clear that was the right decision. What I needed to find at that time was a destination not a stop on one’s way elsewhere.

I: That is interesting, but that’s not what the book is about. What changed it?

B: That’s a great question. After my first trip, I saw that the photographs were pretty good but didn’t hold together as a story. So, unfortunately, I had to go back to that really wonderful place. These are the sacrifices an artist has to make! Right? It’s tough, but, hey!

I: So you did go back. What did you find?

B: I found the story – which I then realized I already had known, but not photographed with that in mind. Once I had gotten to that point, it became really easy now that I knew where I had to go.

I: You said the book was originally about isolation. But it turned out to be about the disappearance of the fish. Isn’t that so?

B: Oh, yes. Imagine a country dependent on mining or oil. And then suddenly the coal or oil is gone. What do the people do? That is exactly what has happened in Newfoundland, but in this case it’s the cod that have disappeared. That is almost always the outcome in an extraction society.

I: The fish have disappeared. Do they know what happened? They just didn’t swim off somewhere else. did they?

B: No, it wasn’t anything like that. It was something much more serious with an impact that is only starting to be felt around the world.

I: Can you describe for us what that is?

End of Interview – Part 1. To be continued on arnnarn.com shortly.

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Canary in the global coal mine.

05 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by in Discovery, Fish, Food, History, Newfoundland

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Currently indigenous to Newfoundland are moose, caribou, salmon, and some remaining cod. There are no naturally residing canaries on the island. However, in this case, the island itself was the canary.

Why is Newfoundland important? In much the same way the canary in a coal mine is important. That bird is an early warning of impending trouble. Ignore it at your own peril. In 1992, that is what happened in Newfoundland. Heard, seen, and ignored – just the opposite of the military phrase HUA(!) – Heard, Understood and Acknowledged. They (the government) heard the canary, saw it laying there, and essentially said, “Don’t pay that any attention” until it was too late. It was mismanagement writ large.

So, what was this canary? It was the disappearance of cod stocks. Stocks that had been fished for over 500 years and sustained Newfoundland throughout that time. Then in 1992, the government realized that the cod stocks had plummeted to perilously low levels and imposed a 10 year moratorium on cod fishing. Historically, they knew if left alone for 5-6 years, the stocks should return to previous levels. They didn’t. In actuality, they were in worse shape than before.

In those first 10 years, because there was no fishing, 20% of Newfoundland’s population left the island. It was an out-migration the likes of which had never been seen. And the lack of fishing created much hardship throughout the province. Newfoundlanders continue leaving the island in search of work returning occasionally for vacation. The Newfoundland musical group Ennis addresses this beautifully in their song, “Fortunate Ones.”

Now 20 years later, the moratorium is still in place. But then in 2006, 14 years after the original moratorium was put in place, Professor Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia published a paper that received world-wide notice. In this paper he predicted that by the middle of this century, the entire global stock of wild fish will be in total collapse. This is certainly the result of over-fishing; there is also growing evidence that ocean acidification may be contributing to this as well. Either way one looks at it, both of those causes are man-made.

The “canary” was laying there, gasping for breath and people essentially just walked on by. It has taken too long to realize what this means.

In the short term, forget about your seafood dinner, that isn’t going to happen unless you’ll be willing to take out a mortgage on it. Any fish we’ll have will come from farmed stocks and their purity is suspect.

In the long term, your guess is as good as anyone’s. No one knows what will happen to the seas themselves because of this shock to its eco-system.

So much for Red Lobster!

It’s hard out there for a…fisherman.

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Culture, Discovery, Fish, History, Observations

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OK, if I was to start a new career, I don’t think it would be as a fisherman. No, that requires real work, long hours, danger, a tremendous amount of uncertainty, harsh weather, roiling seas, low wages, and oh, did I mention danger?

In a line from the film “The Shipping News”, Billy Pretty explains to the film’s protagonist Quoyle, “…there’s more people down under these waters than are killed on the roads.” True that! The life of a fisherman is dangerous. There are monuments to those lost at sea and they number quite a few. And their families left behind are sometimes not mute testimony to this. But still, when they can, they fish. There’s very little in commercial cod fishing, but in appropriate season, crabbing, lobstering, and shrimping have filled some of the void.

Still, trying to make such a living is difficult. In an interview I conducted with a fishing fleet owner, he described the hardships faced each year, getting harder with every passing year. For him, that life was more in the past than in the future. He did not feel hopeful of the future in the least and wondered how his grandchildren would get along were they to stay.

Yet, their culture, their love for their home and the life that went before them, holds them in an almost magical way. Many people with whom I spoke, had left Newfoundland for work or school only to come back as soon as they could. All too often, wherever I’ve traveled, people talk about getting out, to somewhere else, somewhere better; no saying home for me, nossir! Grass is always greener I guess. Not in Newfoundland. they know just how green their grass is and they like it just fine, thank you very much.

But they know they’re coming back to a different land. One where the fish are gone and where their culture is disappearing if they don’t act to preserve it: that culture that has been so informed by fishing for over five centuries.

“Arn? Narn.” Any fish? No fish. It is hard out there for a fisherman.

In the rearview mirror…figuratively.

17 Tuesday Jan 2012

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A sportscaster once said of his departure from ESPN’s Bristol, Connecticut studio that the best thing about working there was seeing it in his rearview mirror. That is exactly the opposite of how I felt as I prepared to return home after two incredible weeks in Newfoundland. I wished it were still before me through the car’s windshield.

Those two weeks of traveling and photographing the people and the land had been an unbelievably transformative experience for me. As I got ready to leave, I was filled with joy, sadness, laughter, music, new knowledge and wisdom, cod and scrunchions, caribou, and the anticipation of seeing what I had photographed. Since this was shot on black and white film, I didn’t have the immediate luxury and instant gratification of digital photography. I had much work in front of me and several months in the darkroom before I knew what I had.

As I write this, looking at my notes, I see that I was already feeling a need to return…and I hadn’t even left yet. I was leaving new friends and a place that felt more like home than any other place I’d ever been. If I could, I would most definitely return. Maybe Thomas Wolfe had it wrong: maybe you can go home again.

Man Cave by the sea.

27 Tuesday Dec 2011

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New Year’s Eve in a shanty sounds a lot worse than it really is. Shanty doesn’t have the same connotation in rural Newfoundland as it does in the States. A shanty is the small building/house/cabin on the coast used by fishermen as a residence when going to and coming from the sea. It is for the most part a home-away-from-home. And oftentimes the subject of cute and quaint calendars and post cards of lands far-away.

But come the holidays and New Year’s Eve, all that changes. The shanty becomes the Newfoundland equivalent of a man-cave by the sea for the duration plus. And one can only speculate on behaviors conducted. The good news is that it’s usually far enough away from the children and pets.

Celebrations – oh, yes. Singing and dancing – yes b’y. Eating and drinking, why the hell not? Fishing – probably not much. But when it’s cold, windy, wet and/or snowy, and more, and the holidays to boot, why would you want to do anything but the aforementioned activities? Consequently, inebriation is often the result. A common comment then heard might be “Goin’ on a tear, me son?” translated as “partying with enthusiasm are we?” Count on it. After all, it is the new year.

There’s a fjord in your future.

19 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in Discovery, Fish, Geography, Newfoundland, Observations, Uncategorized

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There used to be only the Big Three automakers – Ford, GM, and Chrysler. That was it. None of the others that populate our driveways today were in sight back then. Life it seems was much simpler then.

This is a Ford.

So imagine my surprise when I heard about fjords. I was certain some under-educated person misspelled the ever-oh-so-easy name of Ford. Never mind that its usage in the sentence was peculiar, I figured they just spelled it wrong!

But noooo, I was the ignorant fool. Every Norwegian child worth their salt (and much salt is used to keep and preserve cod and other delicacies – don’t even mention Lutefisk to me!) knew what a fjord was. No Ragnar, a fjord doesn’t have four wheels! Yes, Bruce (the teacher said patiently), a fjord is a u-shaped valley carved out by glaciers a long, long time ago. Pay attention!

This is a fjord.

So, right about this time you’re asking yourself what does this have to do with Newfoundland? And my book “Arn? Narn.”? Good questions. As it turns out, a lot. On the western coast of the island is Gros Morne National Park. Gros Morne is French for the less than poetic sounding “large mountain standing alone.” And in this park is the Western Brook Pond fjord. It is your typical, everyday, run-of-the-mill, drop-dead, central casting beautiful fjord.

This is a fjord too. See the difference? – Western Brook Pond fjord.

The western coast is the final stretch of the Appalachian mountain range and it alone is worth the trip to Newfoundland. An area of unimaginable beauty, it is home to mountains, fjords, caribou (more on them at a later post), moose and the Tablelands. There was also very fine salmon fishing here, but it too like cod fishing is highly restricted. This is a problem that affects the entire island and it’s been learned a global one as well.

So if you go and I do recommend it, get yourself a Ford. It’ll give you a certain symmetry.

Lobsters and a screw cap.

15 Thursday Dec 2011

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On the western coast of Newfoundland, I drive through such towns as Cow Head, Sally’s Cove, Three Mile Rock, (not to be confused with the atomic town in Pennsylvania), and Spudgels Cove. (Who was Spudgels that he was important enough to have a cove named after him?) Each one of these has it’s own personality waiting to be discovered by an intrepid traveler such as me. But not now as I’m on a quest. I’ve learned fresh lobster can be had inexpensively here. I make a short stop to see The Arches Provincial Park. This is a natural rock arch formation acting as a gateway to the ocean. I think however, most people probably just go around it to get there. But it does form a wonderful backdrop for new photographs.

The sea is starting to kick up into what will develop on the next day into a pretty fierce storm. Unfortunately, most of the lobster traps on the western coast will be lost.

But for this day, the lobstermen are making the most of their efforts. No longer permitted to fish for cod, they’ve turned to lobstering and crabbing. The lobstering season is very short, lasting only 5-6 weeks. In this time, the lobstermen will catch enough to deliver to the fishery and also help feed their family throughout the year. However, according to the lobstermen, eating lobster all year long gets old fast. When asked what they do the rest of the year, his reply was, “Well, we just —- around.” OK, sounds good. But in the meantime, I’m told if I go down to the fishery which is conveniently located near the cabin in which I’m staying, they’ll cook me up some lobsters fresh and really cheap. This is getting better all the time.

Down to the fishery I go and place my gluttonous order of two(!) lobsters to be picked up at 7:00 PM. Back to the cabin, drop off my equipment, get a bottle of wine from the market, and then pick up my lobsters. I go to the counter and pick up my dinner and am charged the princely sum of $ 11.00! Cooked and ready to eat! And the wine has a screw cap! I’m in heaven.

Free Newfoundland!

02 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by in Culture, Fish, History, Newfoundland, Observations, Uncategorized

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from Living Planet, St. John’s, Nfld.

“Free Newfoundland” is not a coupon or a buy one, get one free deal. It was a light-hearted marketing piece that touched a few nerves. The “Free Newfoundland” (my quotation marks) movement isn’t a movement per se like the the very real separatist group in Quebec. Rather it is more of an attitude. Yes, there are those who still believe confederation should have never happened. And of course there are opposing views. The slogan itself was penned by Wallace Ryan in 1982 to promote and encourage Newfoundland nationalism. It is however currently seen on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and more around the island.

That the slogan has endured some thirty years is an indication of some still simmering dissatisfaction with confederation. It might just as well speak of a free Newfoundland or a freeing of Newfoundland from confederation.

In its history, Newfoundland has been an independent country and a colony of Great Britain. In 1949, Newfoundland voted to enter into confederation with Canada by a 51-49 vote. And culturally, it was probably closer than that. (Sort of like Gore-Bush.) Obviously, the suitors in this merger (not quite a blind date) hadn’t sought out the wisdom of a counselor – marriage or otherwise. This was the brainchild (hare-brained for some) of then Premier Joey Smallwood. Since then, it has been a source of friction between the parties – sometimes humorous, other times, ehhh, not so much.

Newfoundlanders believe that some of the source of their problems with the disappearance of fish is due to government meddling and mismanagement. Government is always an easy target and oftentimes correctly so. Being a fiercely independent people, there is an inherent skepticism about government and its efficacy. Funny how most people feel their country has a lock on those things. When things are beyond one’s control, it’s easy to see why the government is blamed – sometimes rightly, other times wrongly so.

But this is not really about government or blame, it’s about a Free Newfoundland.

Yes b’y!

Scrunchions and my new BFF.

12 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by in Culture, Fish, Food, Newfoundland, Observations, Uncategorized

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Pretty much every culture has a way of maximizing their foods and recycling heretofore inedible scraps of food detritus. And if it’s a fancy restaurant, they’ll give it a posh name and charge dearly for it. How else could one explain veal cheeks? Please do not confuse this with cod cheeks; the concept is the same, the cost is not.

This leads me to the ubiquitous Newfoundland delicacy know as the scrunchion. These are small pieces of pork fatback, that might normally be tossed away, but are fried until rendered and crispy. They’re often used as a flavoring or even a condiment over other foods such as fish or potatoes or the local favorite fish and brewis. For those out there with a theological or Quebecois bent, they are often called orielles de Christ or Christ ears. I’m not certain I want to know why.

 

And this, at my first lunch in Newfoundland, was when I was introduced to scrunchions. I was meeting for the first time the photographer who I had befriended by phone the year before when doing my research. I visited his studio and what I thought would be a cordial introduction turned into a 3.5 hour lunch and discussion. We photographers can talk! What a genuinely nice guy and a really good photographer. We went across the street to a local pub to have lunch. And there was my first encounter with scrunchions. They were sprinkled over my fish and chips. The F&C: good. Scrunchions: like fine scotch – an acquired taste. They were different. And that’s all I’m going to say on that at this time.

My new acquaintance was soon to become my new friend. His help and guidance was invaluable. I might still be up there now driving around, dodging moose, looking for who knows what (and I’m not saying that’s really a bad thing up there) if not for his direction. His wife was just plain charming. We got on so well, we met for drinks later that evening. I was experiencing the unbelievable but natural hospitality of Newfoundlanders. This was going to be great.

Cod almighty!

05 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by in Culture, Fish, Food, Newfoundland, Observations, Sea

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A one cent postal stamp.

This is the biggest fish story ever and it’s all true. Really. For over 500 years, cod reigned supreme in Newfoundland. Cod was so plentiful that it was thought that it would never run out. This fish was what the Newfoundland economy was based upon. It, as much as the sea, informed the culture.

And inform it, it did! Commerce for sure, music, comedy (the Codco comedy troupe), art, food (the number of things one can do with cod are staggering, see below, as are some of the ways it’s prepared!), the postal service, and currency (cod as actual currency, then as the coins and paper we’re used to. I’m not sure you would want to keep much of the original stuff in your wallet on a warm day though.). Coins were called by their value: a 25 cent coin was a 25 cent piece. Question: if a coin had a cod on it, could it be called a … oh, you fill in the blank. Postage denominations were varied as were the illustrations. There was of course the requisite cod as well as seals (the cute ones), dogs, various other now dead, possibly famous people, and naturally, the queen. Whether or not they all ate cod is up for debate, but one thing is certain: the cod had as respected a place in Newfoundland as the queen. If they did eat cod, the following may have been on their plates for Sunday dinner.

This could be called a tongue and cheek statement, but it’s really a recipe for cod tongues and cheeks. The cheeks and tongues are considered the most delicate part of the fish and simple to prepare after separating them from the cod proper. They are dragged through corn meal and then fried. Mmmm, good eating. Have them with a side of scrunchions too. Y’s b’y!