Photo courtesy of PANL NA2702

I'm from over by Marystown, a place called Creston South, which is not a long distance from Garnish, but it's two totally different communities. My great-grandfather used to fish in Mortier Bay, but my dad never fished - he used to be in the lumber woods. The only time we used the boat was to fool around. When I quit the plant and got into the boat, the first day we had a big wind. When we were coming up there were big waves and the boat used to go up and down, and up and down, and you had to just hold on for dear life. When I came in, Gerald's father looked at me and said, "Did you get sick?"

I said, "Sick, what for?"

"Well," he said, "you never got sick today, you'll be all right."

A friend of mine, she's fishing from Point Rosie, which is three miles down from us. Her husband was fishing with his father, so when his father gave it up, she went with him. And she used to work in the bank. Seems like most of the wives goes out now in Garnish. Most all the boats, women is out on them. It was a shift for the better 'cause we weren't recognized. You were always on land, like Gerald's mother and them - they tended the flakes, but they've never been recognized in the fishery. The women had to can the salmon, can lobster, or dry the fish, and look after the children besides, and the men went out on the water.

In '93 his brother decided he would sell the longliner, he was getting out of the partnership. Of course, Gerald bought his share. And then that fall, I think, we got a lobster licence. That was a big turning point financially Here you were with four people and now we're doing much the same thing with two. We don't have to split the money, it's only one household.