Author Joseph Gough

Pre-contact Indigenous communities across Canada used just about every form of fishing except motor-powered methods. They made great use of river and tidal weirs – obstructions in the water – to entrap near-shore fish such as herring. European settlers on Northwest Atlantic shores first gravitated to groundfish species such as cod, haddock, and pollock. For Campobello by the 19th century, the herring fishery was also notable.

An early technique was “torching” – fishermen scooped up the herring following their night-time torchlights. By the mid-1800s, many used weirs adapted from Indigenous techniques. Leader “fences” of wooden weir-brush guided herring into semicircular enclosures formed by bottom stakes, poles fastened to them, and twine netting. Fishermen also ran nets across coves to “shut off” herring. By 1851, Campobello had 21 weirs, 50 boats, and 11 decked vessels. Some sailed as far as Newfoundland to catch herring by various methods.

Groundfish remained important, especially pollock. To quote an account of fishing in the waters between Campobello, Deer Island, and Eastport, Maine: “It is a very gay scene on a fine day, to mingle with some two or three hundred boats fishing…lying so closely together as to leave little more than space between to pull up fish… All is life, bustle, and animation. The line is scarcely down, when the fisherman commences drawing up a fish.”

Small herring, plentiful in the Quoddy Region, became the biggest local fishery. In 1875, businessmen started canning them in Eastport as “sardines.” By 1900, the Eastport-Lubec area had 51 sardine factories. Most of their fish came from Canadian boats. On the Canadian side, Connors Brothers became a major operator, including a factory at Wilson’s Beach. Herring weirs would peak at about 500 in the Bay of Fundy. Many had colourful names such as, in Welshpool, the Shag and the Harbour Master. The lobster fishery was also strong from the later 1800s, thanks to the gas engine and canning technology. Over time, the live-lobster trade became dominant.

After First World War prosperity and Depression hard times, there came another great change. Stronger engines, better bottom-dragging and midwater trawl techniques, mechanical and hydraulic haulers, nylon nets and ropes, and electronic changes including radio, radar, and sonar created huge fishing power. New stocks of fish were found; the water seemed inexhaustible. Early sonar “fathometers” had pinged their signal straight down to show fish below the vessel. But herring live relatively close to the surface. Medford Matthews of Wilson’s Beach, together with researchers at the St. Andrews Biological Station, realized that wartime antisubmarine sonars scanned horizontally, and adapted them for detecting herring. This technique spread from Campobello around the world. It went well with “purse seining” – encircling the herring with a net, and closing it under them with a “purse line.” For Atlantic Canada, Campobello seiners were in the forefront.

With a herring resource and market crisis in the 1970s, innovation kicked in again – this time in fishery management. Purse seiners from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, together with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, worked out individual quotas each boat could count on. Rather than racing for catches that were often dumped into lower-value fish meal and fertilizer, they created a slower fishery with higher prices. Subsequently, individual quotas became common around the country.

But supply and demand factors have since worked against the herring industry. Today in North America, only one sardine factory remains (Connors Brothers at Blacks Harbour), and Fundy purse seiners and weirs are far fewer. Those herring that are caught often go for lobster bait.

Groundfish too have become scarcer, while lobster, long considered a lesser fishery, is enjoying a decades-long boom in catches. It is by far the leading fishery for Campobello’s more-than-50 vessels. Scallops too are important. On shore, the clam and periwinkle fisheries remain significant for harvesters. Salmon-cage aquaculture, now a major industry, got its North American start at Deer Island, and Campobello islanders were among the pioneers. But today, major new developments seem to have lapsed.

Compared with 60 or 70 years ago, fishermen tend to have better boats, more money, and more voice in fishery management. But abundance is down for many species. The 1851 account noted above spoke of “two or three hundred boats fishing” off Campobello for pollock; today you might see none. Even so, there seems to be a certain stability, mixed with anxiety from factors such as climate change. Whatever happens next, Campobello fishermen can always look back on a proud and resilient history.

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