- 6/12/2025
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#EastHarbourHeroes
#EastHarbourHeroes
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Short filmTranscript
00:00EAST HARBOR HEROES
00:07Previously on EAST HARBOR HEROES
00:09We're going 90 miles south to the St. Pierre Bank
00:12and we're going to see if we can get some well.
00:14It's peak season in Newfoundland and Labrador
00:17with hundreds of boats on the water,
00:19keeping harbors and rescue operators busy 24-7.
00:23Skipper Daniel Morgan hit a few hurdles
00:26and waves while trying a brand new fishery.
00:29This fleet is not going so good.
00:31Not as good as what we expected.
00:33If it don't get any better,
00:35we're going to call it off for the day,
00:37wait for the wind to drop off.
00:39And the community rallied to save seven fishermen
00:41on the North Atlantic.
00:45Never underestimate the ocean.
00:47Be careful, my boy.
00:48You always got to be watching that weight, right?
00:52You can always expect that there's something unexpected
00:55that's going to happen.
00:56We got to get a move on.
00:58Okay, we're getting to the ballpark now.
01:00A bit challenging on times, no doubt about that.
01:02The boats are there and crews are ready and whatever it takes.
01:04These are the East Harbor Heroes.
01:14Four hours north of St. John's in the small fishing village of Valleyfield.
01:18Good morning.
01:19I'm ready for the excitement.
01:24There's something about the water.
01:25I mean, when you go out sometimes you want a little break from it,
01:28but I find when I'm in on land for a while,
01:30I just need to get back out there.
01:32Watch the paint.
01:34Skipper Eugene Carter is heading back to sea
01:36as one of the first mates on his Uncle Glenn's boat.
01:40The perfect choice.
01:44We're putting ice and bait aboard and we're heading out for cad.
01:47Cad fishery was always a part of me and fishing was always a part of me growing up.
01:51I started fishing when I was about 14 years old.
01:55I was still in high school and during the summer I would take trips with my Uncle Glenn there
01:59and his other boat, Samantha Lynette,
02:01and I used to go out as a gutter and he would pay me a small wage of $100 a day.
02:07I thought I was making good money at that time.
02:09Would one tall bear be in the way?
02:12All right.
02:13All right.
02:14Take down off the credit.
02:15Lynn is actually married to my mom's sister, which is my aunt,
02:18so that's pretty much how I got into the fishery.
02:21Pretty much full swing was because of Lynn.
02:24Bust that one there, he can go out on chowder day.
02:26We can take it yet a bit.
02:29A little bit ice and bait and a couple of shoots,
02:32we've got to pick our patrol board and then we're ready to hit the water.
02:35Got all my bags, brought aboard.
02:37Get my coal straight away now before we leave.
02:40Survival suits, just in case something bad happens.
02:44As long as everybody knows where their suits is and let their suits fit, right?
02:48It takes something that never takes nothing for granted.
02:52This is the first long fishing trip for Toby and Eugene
02:55since the sinking of the Elite Navigator a few weeks ago.
02:58There was a fire in the locker where the exhaust comes up, sure.
03:02This fire was out of control and that's when I did make the call to abandon ship.
03:06It's my first big trip back since the whole incident with the Elite Navigator.
03:11Definitely some thoughts and feelings that I'm naturally going to think about,
03:17but I just need to get back out there and get back at it before it's too late.
03:21I think the worst thing you could probably do was wait later than now
03:25because it would probably play on my mind a lot more, like my girlfriend or whatnot.
03:30They all have thoughts in their mind and they're always nervous.
03:33Even before the trip with the Elite Navigator, if I was going out at sea,
03:36they were always nervous when I go out because they don't know what I can encounter.
03:41But after this incident happened, they're definitely a lot more nervous.
03:44Toby, the youngest of Eugene's crew on the Elite Navigator, is the opposite of nervous.
03:50It was definitely a bit of an eye-opener for sure, for sure,
03:53but I don't think I'll ever change my passion for fishing.
03:56I'm excited to get back.
03:59Let's go all the time, buddy.
04:01Nice to meet you.
04:02No, Lord Jesus.
04:05Well, we're eating out of Valleyfield Arm, no?
04:07It do take a special kind of person to go out there,
04:09and you've got lots of challenges.
04:10You've got to deal with the weather.
04:11You've got to deal with the mindset of you're offshore,
04:14you're on the Atlantic Ocean.
04:16If you know that, out of all those qualities,
04:18you're not going to do much good on the water, so.
04:24So right now, we're going to be heading over to a fleet,
04:27and you can see that this fleet here goes out over this deck,
04:30and I'm hoping that this here is where we're going to get to Welk.
04:34About 90 miles off the south coast of the island,
04:37skipper Daniel Morgan and his crew are on the hunt for Welk.
04:40So if we grind it out for the next couple of days and just howls,
04:43keeps howling, we should put our trip aboard,
04:46and then I'll be able to get home and see my girlfriend for her birthday.
04:49Basically, since I got to boat, in the past six months,
04:52I might have spent, like, three weeks home.
04:55After battling fierce wind and swells for 36 hours,
04:58Daniel and his crew found calmer seas, and the Welk.
05:02But they still have almost 30,000 pounds to catch
05:05before they can head back to port.
05:08Oh, I see them now.
05:13I can see the two buoys.
05:14I got them!
05:15Those two little buoys are pretty hard to see in the night.
05:19That tight on?
05:20Yeah.
05:21Oh, good.
05:22Thank you, son.
05:23Tries to get them as close as we can,
05:25so it's not so far of a patrol for the hook.
05:28Nice and clean.
05:41No barnacles.
05:42Lots of life into them.
05:44He's coming out there now for a look at you.
05:47Right now, this is good fishing.
05:49Oh, yeah!
05:51Yeah!
05:52Yeah!
05:53Building a modern fishing enterprise means taking risks
05:57on new species and strategies to stay afloat.
06:00We're trying to stay as busy as we can
06:02doing different fisheries,
06:03because the more stuff we get at,
06:04the better it is for the boat and the company.
06:07There's a lot of money coming in,
06:08but there's also a lot going out.
06:09I like when I've got to help Danny
06:13haul the patch in over the rail.
06:14He knows he's doing fishing then.
06:15I can't really describe this film.
06:17Smells like money to me.
06:18Oh, yeah!
06:19Good job.
06:20Basically, what fishing it is,
06:21all trial and error.
06:22You're always trying different bait.
06:23You're changing your gear around.
06:25Different fish hangs out in different places,
06:27and you just got to be there at the right time
06:29and have the right gear.
06:30You're always trying different baits.
06:31You're changing your gear around.
06:32Different fish hangs out in different places,
06:34and you just got to be there at the right time
06:36and have the right gear.
06:38and fill the boat, hopefully.
06:46400 miles northeast of Daniel,
06:48the perfect choice has arrived at their fishing grounds.
06:51We're going to need more magazines, right?
06:53We're going to need more magazines.
06:55Yeah.
06:56How many is there now so far?
06:57That's three racks.
06:58Three racks?
06:59The moron's gone out.
07:00The gravel just went,
07:01so following the gravel now,
07:03our hooks are going, right?
07:04The boat is going to be feeding the baiter.
07:06It's going to be automatically
07:07baiting our hooks.
07:08It's going out.
07:09Each one of those racks sold,
07:11about 200 up.
07:14The auto line system Glenn installed
07:16on the perfect choice
07:17can bait thousands of hooks,
07:18and after a few hours of soaking,
07:20the machine hauls the fish up.
07:22And fish caught on hooks fetch over double the price of net caught product.
07:37Get it over and get some fish.
07:38Like every time those hooks,
07:39or those nets,
07:40or whatever it is,
07:41is going over that boat,
07:42it's just like Christmas Eve to me.
07:43Red sky at morning mean Tony.
07:44I know what it means.
07:45I know what it means.
07:46When we get this one out now,
07:47we'll turn it around and go back
07:48and hope the first one was at.
07:49I know what it means.
07:50I know what it means.
07:51I know what it means.
07:52I know what it means.
07:53I know what it means.
07:59Well, we'll get this one out now.
08:00We'll turn it around and go back and hope the first one was at.
08:02and hope it was worth it when we shot it.
08:13Woo-hoo!
08:14Thousands of Islanders moved away
08:16when the cod fishery shut down in 1993.
08:19But for a lot of them, the dream was always to fish.
08:22I went and studied the gum electrician
08:24and got my journeyman tonight.
08:26I worked at that for almost ten years.
08:28Met the skipper's daughter.
08:30Moved back home.
08:32And here I am now.
08:34Yeah.
08:35Yeah.
08:36Finally doing what I wanted to do.
08:38But here and now, I actually wake up in the morning
08:40and enjoy going to work.
08:42Well, first thing is the job is staying up.
08:44Boom, it makes everything difficult.
08:47You've got to hold on.
08:54Despite their good start,
08:55the wind and currents remind them
08:57who's in charge out here.
08:59Turn off the water now!
09:01Well, now a tangle is stalking the bike, I think.
09:05We've got a tangle off real bad.
09:07No way there.
09:08We're not going there.
09:09About 80 miles off the northeast coast of Newfoundland,
09:11the crew of the perfect choice are in a race to catch cod,
09:13and their gear is not cooperating.
09:15Adds extra times here today.
09:16Days are long enough actually out there, but even longer now.
09:19But that's it.
09:20You don't want anything to stop with the system.
09:23The worst thing that can happen is that hauler stop,
09:25because then you're losing time.
09:27The northern ends now so far today seems like they've been the worst.
09:28Usually, I've got to calm down.
09:29You don't want anything to stop with the system.
09:30The worst thing that can happen is that hauler stop,
09:31because then you're losing time.
09:32Northern ends now so far today seems like they've been the worst.
09:33But usually, on a calm day, most of the time just wouldn't happen.
09:39A bad day on the water is better than 100 good days on land.
09:42So, you know, you're losing time.
09:43I don't want anything to stop with the system.
09:45The worst thing that can happen is that hauler stop,
09:47because then you're losing time.
09:48The northern ends now so far today seems like they've been the worst.
09:51But usually, on a calm day, most of the time just wouldn't happen.
09:54A bad day on the water is better than 100 good days on land.
10:01While the perfect choice chased their cod quota,
10:03about 100 miles from St. John's on Trinity Bay,
10:06scientist Emily Novacek is chasing data on the same species.
10:09Beauty.
10:10So, we're measuring the size of the size of the species.
10:13We're measuring the size of the species.
10:16Beauty.
10:17So, we're measuring the fish.
10:18We're getting a length.
10:19I'm checking their gills for a parasite.
10:21And we're taking down their unique tag number.
10:24We've also got the depth, the water temperature,
10:26and the location that we're fishing at.
10:27I'm an aquatic science biologist with Fisheries and Ocean's Newfoundland.
10:30About 61 centimeters.
10:33She's going to get a pink tag.
10:35Settled.
10:36Settled.
10:37And when those tags get caught,
10:39they get sent into DFO for a reward.
10:41The pink ones are a $100 reward.
10:43When you get a fish that's just wearing one yellow tag,
10:46they'll be a $25 reward.
10:48I started school in philosophy,
10:49which was really interesting but really different.
10:51And then I started scuba diving and just loved being under the water.
10:54And then one thing led to another,
10:55and I came out to Newfoundland to do a master's degree.
10:58Now I've been here for 10 years.
11:00All of these data will be used in the Northern Codstock Assessment Model.
11:04The tagging data is one of the key inputs into that model,
11:07and that model is the main tool used in the assessment of the Northern Codstock.
11:11So by tagging fish year over year over year,
11:15we get to know how many are caught in the fishery,
11:17how many live, you know, five years after or are caught 10 years after.
11:20That sometimes happens.
11:21It's really cool.
11:22In any given year,
11:23between the work by the DFO technicians and our partners at FFAW,
11:27will tag between 5,000 and 10,000 fish with those pink and yellow tags.
11:31So then you can track the same fish for years and years and years.
11:34And that gives you a little bit of finer detailed information
11:37about their behavior and their migration patterns.
11:39I know.
11:42What a bad day.
11:47400 miles south of Emily and her research team in Garnish,
11:51Fishers Tanya and Preston Grandy are busy, as always.
11:54But today, it's not with fishing.
11:57Oh!
11:59Do the business!
12:01Beautiful!
12:03We're going to Brunet Island.
12:07Brunet is where my father was born.
12:09He was one of the last few people who were actually born on Brunet
12:12before there was settlement.
12:15It's always been a place that's very near and dear to my heart.
12:17My grandfather owned a shop out there.
12:19The family still owns the family land on Brunet Island.
12:22So, it's a place I've been going to ever since I was a little kid.
12:25And I'll probably continue going there as long as I can.
12:28A couple of families have stuck around for as long as they could,
12:31but eventually everybody had to leave the island,
12:33and some people left their houses and homes and everything.
12:37That was the main wharf.
12:38Yeah, that was the big government wharf.
12:39Mother Nature reclaims it all.
12:42It's just in over here.
12:43It's not a very fair laugh.
12:44It was really rough back in those days, like so.
12:47I mean, you're stuck out here on the island and anything happens like the day.
12:51They had no access to doctors or anything.
12:54It was pretty much just trying to deal with whatever you could on your own.
12:57Oh, I guess all of our families is buried here.
13:00Now you can't even find them.
13:01It gets harder every time you come out and see that what was here disappears more and more.
13:06That's the sad part.
13:09There used to be a couple of cabins.
13:12And then Pat owned another big piece of land over here, over where that buckwheat land is too.
13:16See, I could live here with no internet.
13:19Just bring me back to Puzzles, that's all.
13:21I'm going to head back now, walk over, and I'll cook up some food.
13:31Wait what, let go?
13:33While cod is part of the island's DNA,
13:35so is making money.
13:37And there are other fish out here worth a lot more than cod.
13:40We're hoping to see if we could strike a few alibut to bump up the trip.
13:44We're 100 miles east of Bonavista Bay.
13:47It seemed like we just got to move further east.
13:49The boats outside of us to the east getting a few alibut.
13:52So, same depth of water, but I guess just a different bottom.
13:56Those fish are pretty big.
13:57Once you get aboard, and you get a couple aboard,
13:59you know that the value of your catch is adding up a lot quicker
14:03and the excitement just rises and everybody loves to get that fish on board.
14:08A little breeze of wind there, 325 knots.
14:12It's slowly starting to peen down a little bit.
14:17When there's a breeze of wind, it makes it a little more difficult to get the alibut aboard.
14:21Fingers crossed to more alibut.
14:24That's it.
14:26Living the dream.
14:31The crew's first two lines fished well on the cod.
14:34But catching halibut means the difference between a good trip and a great one.
14:38Alibut!
14:39Whoa!
14:40You're looking out near there, Jeffrey.
14:42Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
14:43You got to come in now.
14:44I am.
14:45There you go, Jeffrey.
14:46There we go.
14:47There we go.
14:48There we go.
14:49There we go.
14:50There we go.
14:51There we go.
14:52There we go.
14:53We finally got it, buddy.
14:54Oh, yeah.
14:55You get the few there, yeah?
14:56There we go.
14:57There we go.
14:58There we go.
14:59There we go.
15:00There we go.
15:01Oh, yeah.
15:02That's fine, that is.
15:03A bit of excitement, anyway.
15:05There we go.
15:06There we go.
15:11Holy.
15:12That's the biggest path.
15:14The work with Daniel's pretty good by, uh...
15:17Oh, we're always on the go.
15:20Off the south coast, skipper Daniel Morgan and his crew are worn out, but close to hitting
15:25their target.
15:26We don't stop very much, so I always want to come in, which is good.
15:29There's no point to having a boat if you don't have a good crew.
15:32Wow.
15:33That's what makes the boat, for sure.
15:35I just got to try not to wear them out too much.
15:39If you asked me a million things last year what I'd be doing, fishing sails would not
15:45be one of them.
15:47Danny and the boys will drop a couple of strings to fish while they steam back home to offload
15:52the whelk.
15:53Yeah, here I am.
15:54I'm loving it.
15:55Go!
15:56When the whelk started this year, I had to take 20 grand basically to throw down on
16:05whelk pots and gear, rope and whatnot for whelk fishing.
16:08Then I didn't know if I was going to make a dollar at it, so in the end it did work out.
16:12But if it never could have been bad, it was a gamble that I took and paid off.
16:16We're on the way home.
16:17423 AM and we're leaving now to head in.
16:23So we got 998 bags, 35 pounds in the bag that I weighed.
16:29That gives us 34,930 pounds.
16:32So we're pretty close to our 35,000.
16:35So that'll be good enough.
16:37We're headed to Grand Bank to offload.
16:39Feels good to be going home, especially with a full load.
16:50Over a hundred miles offshore in the North Atlantic, the crew of The Perfect Choice are
16:55starting their morning with a favor.
16:57One of my buddies there ran short on bait, so we came up alongside to get a bit of bait.
17:05We got lots, so we're going to give them an extra few packs of bait.
17:08And now that's when they can finish their trip.
17:10Good friend of mine.
17:11We do what we can to help each other out.
17:13Like, we wouldn't want to see anybody lose their trip and have the steam 200 miles
17:17and burn up fuel to fix something that's very simple that we can fix on the ocean.
17:21When we're out there, we're all pretty close.
17:23Boys, guys!
17:26One, two, three!
17:29Watch your fingers and blend it, too!
17:35That's-that's gonna fall, is it?
17:37Ha!
17:38Ha!
17:39Ha!
17:40Ha!
17:41Ha!
17:42Ha!
17:43Ha!
17:44Ha!
17:45Ha!
17:46Ha!
17:47Ha!
17:48Ha!
17:49Ha!
17:50Ha!
17:51Ha!
17:52Ha!
17:53Ha!
17:55Ha!
17:56Ha!
17:57Ha!
17:58Ha!
17:59Ha!
18:00Ha!
18:01Ha!
18:02Ha!
18:03Ha!
18:04On the west coast of the island, the Brake family is hitting the water with their crab pots,
18:08but they're not going fishing.
18:09Can I back up?
18:11Yeah.
18:12We're off to, uh, do a survey for the union and DFO for snow crab.
18:17for snow crab.
18:18Yeah.
18:19Being a part of this industry
18:21is about more than landing catch.
18:24Okay, you guys.
18:25A lot of the island's fishers also take part
18:27in scientific surveys to determine the health
18:30of various stocks.
18:31It's a prospect is what it is.
18:32Our crab area is not a very plentiful one.
18:35We were lying on the crab for, I guess,
18:36probably 15 years, I guess.
18:38And then the dust wanted to collapse,
18:39we resigned the crab and went.
18:41When we first got it in 93,
18:42we had 33,000 pound of water catch.
18:45And now it's down to where we're at at 4750,
18:47because that's a big drop right in crab, Florida.
18:51Snow crab saved many fishing families
18:53like the Breaks when cod collapsed.
18:56There's that one up there.
18:57But nothing out here is easy.
19:00Before they got that crab,
19:01we left and went to Ontario
19:02because we couldn't survive here.
19:05And we had two small kids.
19:06He worked at a butcher shop.
19:08And I went as a temp, as a secretary,
19:11and luck should have it.
19:13Like I said, they got the crab,
19:14and it got us back up again, so.
19:18We're coming off Troop River, Woody Point.
19:21It's about 50 or 60 miles from home.
19:23Is he going to throw it?
19:24Not yet.
19:25I took the stick out of the body, so.
19:26Not yet.
19:28Throw it.
19:29Yeah.
19:30Yeah.
19:33Done.
19:34He's done.
19:36You got to be careful that you don't get no rope
19:37around your legs.
19:38Therefore get told over with the pots.
19:40Well, we're careful.
19:41Most of the time, anyway.
19:43I don't think there's any crab here,
19:45because we've had pots here before,
19:46and we never got no crab.
19:48But where the temperature has changed,
19:50and now you don't know.
19:51The crab could be moving over the ground,
19:52so we don't know.
19:53So we're just hoping for the best there, no?
19:55Daniel and his crew have arrived back in port,
20:06worn out and happy to have a helping hand.
20:10They got an offloading company here.
20:11As soon as we tie us on the boat,
20:12the offloader comes aboard the boat,
20:14and they offload the full boat for us.
20:15They cleans out the boat.
20:16We don't have to touch the thing.
20:17It's actually amazing.
20:20We're 30 pounds short of 35,000,
20:23so I'll definitely be good with that.
20:26Welk is a harder fishery.
20:27I'll give it that, because everything's heavier.
20:30Hopefully we can stay on them for a little bit.
20:32They're always moving.
20:33You've got to keep jumping your gear around
20:34and try to stay with them.
20:36You wouldn't think they could crawl so fast, but they do.
20:39At the current price of Welk is $1 a pound,
20:41so that was around a $35,000 trip.
20:51A few miles north of Daniel and Garnish,
20:53Tanya and Preston are busy prepping
20:55for their next fishing trip.
20:57We'll do a bit of cod and hollibut,
20:59and we'll do some local sales there
21:00and get orders for some of the restaurants and stuff.
21:03Cod fishing I've been at for a long time.
21:06I started when I was 16 or 17.
21:09I started going out with my uncle.
21:11And then after that, I was fishing with my father,
21:13so I got a very extensive history with the cod.
21:17Like other island fishers,
21:18the Grandies have to constantly adapt
21:21to survive in this industry.
21:22We've got scallop, Welk, shrimp, ground fish, lobster,
21:28Mackerel, squid, herring.
21:32Get the gear out just as daylight breaks,
21:35so that way once it's all out, after daylight,
21:37we can start hauling it back.
21:38We don't relax.
21:40We'll always be changing.
21:42There will always be new boats we'll want to get,
21:45new species we'll want to fish.
21:47Because I mean, as long as we've been in this business,
21:49like there's always been changes,
21:52and you can't get just comfortable with one fishery.
21:54So you kind of got to keep moving on and keep looking
21:58at new things and keep growing.
22:00We've always done a little bit of ground fish after lobsters.
22:05We'd always sell a bit local.
22:07It's just a way to keep a bit more product around.
22:10It's strange because you think it would be easier in Newfoundland
22:12for local products to be found,
22:14but it's not as easy as you would think sometimes.
22:17Neither is staying on top of a fishing enterprise.
22:20You get one species have a downfall or have something catastrophic happen to it.
22:25Like if lobsters happen to die off completely,
22:28then you need to have another fishery to be able to rely on.
22:30If not, you're done.
22:33Your enterprise is over if you've got nothing to turn back to.
22:36That's why it keeps on buying more license.
22:38If one fishery turns down, we can always switch off to another fishery
22:42or fish multiple species to help supplement the income from lower value species.
22:47600 hooks, 100 hooks to a tub.
22:49Each one of these tubs is 200 feet of line.
22:53The hooks are three feet of line.
22:551,200 feet of line, so it's more likely to attract a strike.
23:01It can be a boring fishery and it can be an exciting fishery.
23:04You could haul all this and not see his eyeballs,
23:06or you could haul it and come back with more than what our quote is like.
23:12I'm looking at them on deck now.
23:18They're getting ready to set their second string.
23:21About 700 miles northwest of the Grandies,
23:23the Brake family are still dropping pots for the DFO's inshore crab survey.
23:28Leave it for overnight, come back tomorrow,
23:30and we'll have an observer bore with us for him to check each pot and see what's in it.
23:37For their efforts, the Brakes get a 10,000 pound increase
23:40for their offshore snow crab quota next year.
23:43We only got 40, 47.50 offshore right now,
23:47so we get an extra 10,000 pound, that'd be a bonus for us.
23:50Like one fellow called me, said crab got lagged,
23:53so they'd crawl around, so I don't know.
23:54We're hoping they're crawling on this side of the line,
23:57that way we can, our quota might increase a little bit each year,
24:01so it gets back to what we had, but that's the waiting game to see.
24:07Fishing is a gamble. You don't know what's going to be there next year,
24:10you don't know if the price is going to be on the air down here,
24:13so, and you don't know if you're going to catch it, or, it's, it's all a gamble.
24:21Back out on the perfect choice, the cod catch has been solid.
24:37They've caught a little over half their target of 40,000 pounds,
24:42but they've only landed two halibut so far.
24:44It was a whole dragon hit, probably from a dragger.
24:53God knows how long it's been there.
24:57It definitely took a good hour of our day, because the time we hauled it up,
25:01and we had to choke it off, and all, all so much bore with the boom.
25:04By Jesus, what is it?
25:06Ah, I look her. Down now.
25:09Down?
25:10Yeah.
25:11All right.
25:12All on in, Dick.
25:13All on in down, up there now.
25:16Good God damn well done.
25:18A whole piece of trawled it, thought it was halibut.
25:24Known as ghost gear, lost and discarded nets and traps
25:27kill untold numbers of ocean species every year.
25:30We took it aboard because we didn't want any farther or troubles, so just keep it aboard.
25:53Back over on the Lady Geneva,
25:55the Brake family are launching the last of their 121 pots for their snow crab survey.
26:00Hot gun!
26:01Yep.
26:02Last string here now, yep.
26:03Ready to go.
26:05Almost done.
26:06Next, just it for sure.
26:09And get a few hours sleep, and then back at it again tomorrow morning.
26:12Yeah.
26:15This last one, was it?
26:16Last one, yep.
26:20Hot gun!
26:21Yeah, I got it.
26:22Don't know if you've seen it or not.
26:23Yeah, I saw it.
26:24We're taking the fish up now where the weather's died out, so we can make better speed to get
26:29on them earlier.
26:30That's our stabilizers that goes outside of our boat for keeping her a little bit more steady.
26:36She'll roll a bit more?
26:38Yeah, she'll roll a bit more.
26:39Yeah, she'll roll a bit more.
26:39Yeah, roll, like right now.
26:44Up!
26:47Now!
26:47400 miles east of the brakes, biologist Emily Novacek is back on the water.
26:59Today we're out here picking up receivers to collect data on cod that we've checked.
27:03Using the latest technology to track cod.
27:06I'm really interested in spatial analysis, so the way maps inform the way we think about
27:10the world around us. If something isn't mapped, it's almost not real to us because we can't track
27:13it. We can't look at it year over year. And so that aspect of how we capture spatial information,
27:18how we consider it, and then how it informs policy, I think is really fascinating.
27:23It's a little lumpy. Yeah, this is not ideal, but it is workable.
27:28Jamie in with the deck box has sent a signal down to our receiver that's moored on the
27:35sea floor, and she sent a signal to let go of the anchor. It's popped up to the service,
27:39working perfect, and the guys are now just going to grab it off the surface. We're going to haul it
27:43in, download the data, change the batteries, and we'll set it right back out. My favorite part is the
27:46movement. So with cod, they have a fairly predictable inshore, offshore, seasonal migration that we can
27:51track with acoustic telemetries. We're putting an acoustic transmitter inside of the fish, and that's the
27:56program that we're working on right this second. We're pulling up acoustic receivers that hold
28:00the data from those fish that have acoustic transmitters implanted inside of them. Kind
28:04of irreplaceable. There's no other way for us to study the movement of wild fish. It's really exciting
28:09to work on. So this is our receiver. This collects all the data from the fish we have tagged. Any fish
28:13that swims within range of the receiver will get a detection, so that time, date, and the unique
28:18identity of that fish. I'll use this receiver. We had a few fish detected between August and
28:26October of last year. Then it's quiet over the winter. Here, I'll reset this guy, and then I'll
28:30reset that guy. You can get that guy re-pinned if you want. Yeah, I'll get the... Perfect. Okay, she's
28:35perfect. She's beautiful. She's Linda Evangelista. She's ready to go. Okay. We got to get her on our
28:40anchor, and then we'll be all set. Yeah. It's not a bad way to spend the day.
28:52It's right 4.30 in the morning. Today, we got my father, Gordon, and Rick. Today, it's supposed
28:58to be a slicker. There's only supposed to be three to five kilometers of wind, so it's supposed to be a
29:02beautiful day. About 200 miles west of St. John's, skipper Preston Grandy and his crew are hitting the
29:08water for cod. Just headed here. A couple miles off garnish. We're just setting the first top of
29:13gear. Yeah, we'll do it with these ones. One on each other. We're tying on the buoy lines for that.
29:20Now, get them ready to...getting her to the set. Here. There's that one ready. All right, there you're
29:26ready to shoot her up. Ah, she's going to get her up. Hmm, first one. That's five more left to go.
29:33The hooks will soak for as long as it takes Preston to drop his other lines. If he leaves them too
29:38long, predators will pluck the lines clean. Because I'll just add extra money to the
29:43income for the year. So every little bit helps.
29:55Back out on the perfect choice, the crew are wrapping up breakfast and gearing up for another
30:00day of fishing. We're going up alongside the buoys now. So this is kind of a longer string we got
30:07here. Now we're 5,000 hooks. So hopefully we'll get four or five thousand pounds off of this one and a few
30:13more alibuts. That's fine. Go back in the wrecks and you'll get them when he comes over the row.
30:17They got him. They got him. They got him.
30:28Oh yeah, we get the fuel now, yeah. The boat is closing in on their target of 40,000 pounds of cod
30:34and the halibut is adding up too. Right now we've probably got around 32,000 pounds of cod aboard.
30:39So we ended up with nine halibut. Atlantic halibut is the largest flatfish in the world growing up to
30:4415 feet in length. They are tricky to catch and their numbers are low. So they can fetch almost
30:49$20 per pound at peak times. That's why it's called a money fish. Tomorrow morning we're going to wake
30:55up at daylight and sit right just before daylight, sit our trawls back in the water and just continue on
31:01fishing until we get our quota. Yeah, there's rope float. Yeah, grab it.
31:14Over near Trout River, the Brake family are back on the water after a few hours sleep.
31:20Pull in, pull all the slack roping. Don't worry about the balloon, pull the slack roping.
31:24I ain't got my clothes on yet. On board with the family is Sea Watch Observer, Terry Hart,
31:31who will collect data about their catch for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
31:34Oh, there. Oh, we got one crab. Woo-hoo. You got crab. There's leaf.
31:41One crab. There's some leaf there. Not much, but...
31:45Oh, they're gone. Yep.
31:47None in blank. Okay. Blank, blank, blank.
31:52Had the crab migrated somewhere else or there was no crab there? It's important to get a lot of data.
31:58Very important for the fishermen because their livelihood is spending on this. They have this big money.
32:02If our lobster crashed and burned, we'd have to do like we did years ago, go away to work.
32:08Yeah. And that's not something we would want to have to do now at almost 60 years old.
32:13You'd have no other choice because we got too much at stake now. Like, we got so much money invested
32:19in this now to have to turn around and give it all back to the bank or lose it all. I don't think
32:24I'd be able to... I wouldn't be able to do it. Two toads. We got a couple of toad crabs in that one.
32:32Not the kind of crab we're looking for.
32:33It went pretty good. No snarrows. No one went overboard. So everything's good.
32:46I like doing it by hand. That way I can feel if there's any fish on there.
32:50We got a codfish and a skate so far. Something on there. Cod, I think. Nice fish coming out.
32:58When I first started out, we used to land anywhere from 600 to 700,000 pound a cod a year. And then
33:07they cut us back to 20,000 pound a year in quotas. So it was major, major changes.
33:13If you're selling to the plant, price for the cod is anywhere from 30 to 30 cents to a dollar a pound.
33:20That's why most of ours goes local. I can get a higher dollar value for selling local.
33:26Oh, okay. We got one. I can't see him yet. I just feel.
33:30That's a hole up there. Wasn't coming there. Oh, he's a keeper.
33:43Oh yeah, he's pretty. He's good.
33:48He's not going to stay upside down.
33:50I could tell him a long ways away. He's legal size, but he's a keeper.
33:54While the cod haul has been decent, like the crew on the perfect choice,
33:58Preston would have loved to land a few more money fish.
34:00Howl are very finicky. They don't like to see hooks. They don't like rust on hooks and stuff like
34:06that. So little variances means a big difference. For a cod, a touch of rusty hook, it won't matter.
34:12Oh yeah, at least we got one.
34:27Two snow crab this time.
34:29That me?
34:30Two.
34:31Throw them in a pan for me.
34:32Yep.
34:32About 50 miles from their home in Trout River, the Brake family are still hauling crab pots on their survey.
34:39They're not very big, but they're deer.
34:41And they're still coming up empty.
34:42I used to be a hairstylist by trade, but money-wise was just not enough to support my family.
34:49So I tried fishing and well, here we are.
34:52What motivates me as well is my children, my family. It's hard work. It's hard being away from them.
34:58We got a snow crab in this one. One snow crab, two toed.
35:02A bit challenging on times, no doubt about that, but if you want to do it, you'll get it done.
35:06And if you love your job, you'll stick to it.
35:11About 500 miles southeast in Garnish, Preston, his dad, and Rick are arriving in port to offload.
35:17They're done pretty good with the cod, but we didn't do so good with the hollow.
35:20Oh yeah, we've managed to catch one. That's better than nothing.
35:24Now I can get ready to go fill up the codfish.
35:28Not the best at it, but a soft tap there. Soft tap.
35:30We actually work really good together, because usually the things that I'm a bit weaker in,
35:34Kristen's better at. So it pretty much comes down to whatever works best for us.
35:40If he's better at doing something, then he'll take the lead in that. And if I'm better at it,
35:43then I'll take the lead. So I'll take some of this cod and we'll vacuum seal it and freeze it for a
35:49boat tour that I've got coming up. And I've got some more local orders too, so they're supposed to
35:55pick up now later on in the week. So I guess I'll freeze it for them and they can pick it up later on
36:00when they're ready. So when we're not out there fishing at something, we'll do take the
36:04boat tours and sometimes we'll take people out car jigging. So I went and done my food handling
36:10course. And now I prepare food and do fish fries and boil ups on the beaches when we do the tours.
36:17This is not just a job, it's a wild life. It's your whole life is consumed by it.
36:21Everything you do revolves around it and it's just, like I say, it's just your wild life. It's no
36:25longer a job. I even went and got us all, I can marry people on the tour.
36:37Coming up on the balloon! Over on the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
36:41the Brake family are wrapping up their snow crab survey.
36:44The handful of crab they've caught are all old and there's no sign of new ones being born.
37:10That's a wild crab. Yeah, they're all wild crabs. They're all wild.
37:13Meaning no fishing here for the foreseeable future.
37:17Watery hauls are not fun for anyone.
37:22No, it'd be nice to be able to go and see that there is crab there and that's another
37:26spot that we can set to get our extra quota we got. Unfortunately, that wasn't the outcome.
37:32No. Blank, blank, blank.
37:34Like as it moves, it goes off, it comes back and it's like all fish trees. And this is why you need
37:41multiple species because one year it might be here, next year it might be gone. So you bank on the next
37:46species to be up. There was a little bit of sign in one string. We had 11 strings set. We're on to our
37:54last string now. I'm thinking it's going to be the same thing, another watery haul.
37:57Oh, whoa. That was my fingers. Almost done. Almost done. Almost done. Yep. Last one. We want,
38:06yeah, we want it all next spring. We don't want none now. Last pot coming. One crab and 11 pots.
38:16We got pretty much what I was expecting. Yep. Zero, pretty much. A lot of blanks. All blanks, really.
38:22It's not a complete story or a complete picture you're getting, you know. Yes, there's no crab
38:28here right now. That don't mean there can't be crab here in the future, right? While the result of this
38:32survey was not great, the 10,000 pound quota increase they earned will go towards an area
38:37that is still loaded with snow crab. We'll give us a little bit of extra crab to catch next spring.
38:43We should do very well with the extra crab we're going to get. If the price stays like it was this year,
38:47so we should do our eat. Out on the North Atlantic, the crew of the perfect choice is setting their
39:04last trawl of their three-day trip. Probably a little over halfway on the last trawl for the night.
39:10Oh, I feel good. Going home. Ready for a good meal and the bunk. Yeah, hot dogs and cheesecake for dessert.
39:20They're pretty popular, I must say. Our estimate is 42,000 pound of cod and 2,000 pound of halibut.
39:28It was three days fishing. Three hard days fishing. That's a good trip. Puts them all on everybody's face.
39:33When I get in and I know I'm going in with a good kit, everybody's cleaned off board the boat and excited
39:37to get in and see their families. We're not making a lot of speed, so hopefully as we get in a bit
39:43further and toy to slack, we'll pick up speed.
39:53It's a new day over in Garnish and Preston is selling his recently caught halibut locally.
39:58I just found like a lot of Newfoundlanders and stuff were saying that they couldn't get local
40:02fresh food. That they had to go with my stuff like kind of imported from China or scallops from like
40:06somewhere else and to me they just don't make sense. I mean it's best to keep as much of our
40:11product whatever is made here. Here it's got a lot less of a carbon footprint that way and then people
40:16get good quality fish fruit from the water here at home if it just makes sense overall to me.
40:21There's a folly here now to pick up the halibut. My uncle. He called there last week and wondered if I
40:26could catch one for him. So he's up now today to pick it up. No, he's going to eat it. When he gets down to his
40:33house there now he cut it up the way that he likes cutting it up. Some people like stir fish done
40:39different. Some like steak, some likes fillets and the ones that do like steaks like different thickness
40:45of steak so this way here he can get the exact size that he wants. You got dirty hands? Yeah, she got clean hands.
40:53Where's she now? She's over here. Yeah, he weighed 15 pounds. How's that? Good. Oh, you take the money and put it in the sack.
41:10Always nice when you come back to land after uh after you got your kitsch. Cod is king. Cod is king, yeah.
41:18Yeah, I don't know. It's not where the money is too but for some reason uh a lot of us loves it at the
41:23Cod. Can't wait to get out. Can't wait to get up in the morning.
41:28For Eugene and Toby their first long trip was successful and turned over a new page of their
41:33North Atlantic journeys. Trip was excellent. We had great fishing. We got our trip of stuff pretty quick.
41:38We had fairly good weather throughout the trip so it worked out perfect. Work was was easy but the hours
41:43were long but that's fishing right? No other job I'd rather be doing. Make sure this
41:47comes off it'll go safely. Land to the warp. I am going to continue fishing long term. Hopefully
41:54now our fishery stays strong and we can actually you know support our families and support ourselves
42:00with the money that we're making and that kitsch rates keep up and sustainable for everybody.
42:11This morning we're going to take the storm there to New Dock. Worst case scenario is that
42:16they're going to have to redo our steering and redo the fins and then they're going to have us off
42:19for all winter. Hey! Seen any kuna? Pioneer if you could lay up on the fourth quarter and prepare to push.
42:26Sometimes it's too busy. Oh geez he's changing directions huh. Give it to her!
42:30Today we're going out diving. Nothing like fresh scallops. Going off deeper water. He's not supposed to be down here.
42:37The big boy! The big boy!
43:07the big boy! The big boy! The big boy! GD Ñ‚Ñ€osel!
43:11Hold up and pray for all theliche
43:11decisions you do!
43:12the unplugged all the serious joys from the
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