Along the Southern Coast of the Gaspe Peninsular; Aug 19, 2009; Paspebiac, Quebec

Yesterday we made our way several miles up the southern coast of the Gaspe Peninsular. We made one stop to visit a museum devoted to history of the Arcadians in Quebec. This story has been told in Longfellow’s poem Evangeline (I wonder of kids still read Longfellow’s poem in school?). The Arcadians were emigrants from France and originally lived in New Brunswick. The British fearing the loyalty of these French speaking people, probably also disliking their fierce Catholic religious beliefs, forced a Diaspora of the Arcadians. The Arcadians eventually immigrated to various parts of the world, including the Gaspe peninsular as well as southern Louisiana, where they became the Cajuns. It is interesting to reflect that forced expulsion and attempts to destroy a culture have been going on for centuries.

Our next visit to a museum devoted to the drying of cod fish --- an important industry in this area in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Codfish was most important fishery up until recent times. The process of drying fish was quite primitive. The fish were “headed” and filleted at dock-side. Then the fillets were salted down in tubs for several days. Following this the fillets were placed outdoors on racks for drying in the sun. In some cases a shelter was fashioned over the racks to protect from rain. Every evening the fish were taken of the racks and stored overnight skin side up, and then placed on the racks for drying again the next day. Three or four days were required for drying. Once the fish were dried they were placed in hogshead barrels. A press was applied to maximize the fish in each barrel. The barrels of dried salted fish then were ready to be shipped. The dried salted fish was exported to various markets all over the world, including the Basque region in Spain, Brazil, and curiously enough was the Caribbean, were it was fed to slaves.

The cod fishery, as impossible as it might seem, was essentially fished out in the twentieth century --- ruining the economy of many places including Newfoundland. There is a lesson to be learned -- that a resource – be it fish, timber, oil, or even climate -- can be destroyed. Claims that the economic costs of regulation would be destructive of jobs, etc, etc, prove to be short-sighted --- as an industry disappeared the jobs are lost forever.