Still Fishin' The BC Fishing Industry Revisited

by Haig-Brown, Alan

• ISBN13: 9781550174670
• ISBN10: 1550174673
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-15
• Publisher: Harbour

Summary

It is generally known that the West Coast's once-great commercial fishing industry has fallen on hard times, but as Alan Haig-Brown demonstrates in this new book, reports of its demise are exaggerated. A veteran of the industry himself, Haig-Brown here offers a "state of the industry" report, discovering pockets of surprising activity among the vistas of closed processing plants, downsized fleets and corporate concentration. The Ray Phillips family of Pender Harbour continue to support a second generation by fishing halibut and black cod. Albert Radil and his two brothers have found success trawling hake in Queen Charlotte Sound. Seiner John Lenic is taking advantage of the miraculous reappearance in BC waters of the pilchard, once thought extinct. Former Vietnamese "boat person" Lon Truong hopes to finance a triumphant return to the Mekong Delta by trawling BC shrimp. The Assu brothers of Campbell River still seine chum salmon in the same Johnstone Strait tide rip their father used to fish, as did many generations of Assu ancestors before them, but they have to work fast to get their work done in the near-impossible 12-hour time limit set by the DFO. In Haig-Brown's story of the west coast fishery, boats get equal time with people and fish. He laments the destruction of some historic old seiners, just as he relishes the preservation of an old Finn Slough gillnetter named the Eva and approves the activities of fishboat superfan Randy Reifel, who uses his considerable wealth to buy up endangered boats and keep them in working order. Is the whole fishing industry now on life support? It seems to be headed that way, but this book offers many practical and persuasive reasons why it doesn't have to be.

Author Biography

Alan Haig-Brown seined salmon and herring through the 1960s and early '70s. He became editor of The Westcoast Fisherman in 1986 and later founded The Westcoast Mariner and The Westcoast Logger, and is a regular contributor to Professional Mariner magazine and several other publications. His award-winning books for Harbour Publishing include Fishing for a Living and The Fraser River.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 11
Kamchatka
End of an Era	p. 13
BCP 45
Heritage Boat and Heritage Skills	p. 27
New Venture
Returning to the Coast	p. 43
Marsons
What to Do When the Licence Is Gone	p. 52
Randy Reifel
Patron of the Fleet	p. 63
Sleep-Robber
Not Ready to Be Counted Out	p. 71
Dan Nomura
Still in the Business	p. 81
"Sisu"
Gus Jacobson and the Evas of Finn Slough	p. 89
Kynoc
From Father to Son	p. 102
The Phillips Family
From Salmon to Black Cod	p. 113
Mark Lundsten
The Political Halibut Fisherman	p. 128
John Lenic
The Pilchard Cycle	p. 142
John Radil
On Hake Trawling and Ocean Ranching	p. 156
Truong
The Immigrant's Story	p. 168
The Assu Family
Sustainable Fishing	p. 179
The Arnets
Three Generations of Changes	p. 202
Billy Griffith and the Kaislas
Still Fishing Prawns	p. 217
Russell Sanderson
Youth and Optimism	p. 233
Hutch Hunt
"It's Still There If You Want It"	p. 245
Index	p. 259
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.