Day tripping in Canso

Today I had one official and one unofficial reason for traveling to Canso. The unofficial one was the weather; a bright sunny day would be great to get a photo journal around town. The official reason was to interview the Health Minister who is in Canso today at Eastern Memorial Hospital to discuss the John Ross report and the future of the emergency room at this hospital-or so I assume.

On the 50 minute drive down to Canso from Guysborough I saw lots of interesting things that I could have taken pictures of but as usual there was a car behind me and I did not want to get rear ended.

Once in town I headed to the new fish plant to see what sea-cucumbers would look like in production. Outside of the plant I saw a truck with pink ice hanging off the tailgate and a spreading pink ooze on the gravel and ice in the parking lot. I walked up to some fish boxes and saw … a couple hundred pounds of frozen gelatinous cucumbers.

I have seen sea-cucumbers before, in their live state, and was a little disconcerted to see them bleeding in boxes on a freezing day in Canso.

Inside the plant I asked for the plant manager hoping to get a picture for the paper but she didn't consent saying there was nothing anyone would want to see in the paper happening there today.

The floor in the processing plant was full of an oozing slime with occasional surreal pink blood that was not exactly blood; not in the terrestrial sense. There were about 6 lines of workers with 4 or so to a line with what looked like clipboards mounted on a drafting table. Clipped to the boards were the sea-cucumbers which were being flayed; IE processed. It looked so much like something out of a 1960's industrial promotion film that I almost laughed.

The workers wore bright blue aprons and one of the men complained that although the apron was fresh on Tuesday, there was no amount of washing that could get the pink blood stain out of it now on Friday.

The smell was fiercely obtrusive as well. All I could think about was a comment a co-worker once made to me about the smell of the fish plant wafting over our archaeological dig site on Grassy Island, just offshore from the town of Canso, “That, my dear, is the smell of money.”

From the plant I went on a little drive and took some pictures.

Up to the camp road where I used to depart for work each day over to Grassy Island,

to the town office,

out behind the museum

and down a few streets to capture some local flavour.

Anchors and boats weighted in snow.

I stopped in at the newest restaurant in town, The Dockside Grill,and found what I was looking for- chocolate cheesecake. The Dockside always has great cakes. There I chatted with the manager and got the gossip on the local celebrity, J.P.Courmier. None of which I will write here as I hope he'll grant me an interview at some future date.

Then I headed out to the hospital where I am now siting waiting to interview the health minister; although I don't really know about what and I would rather be out taking more photos.

Here is a nicely arranged 'boy, we were caught off guard by swine flu' station.

I have never been in this hospital before. Just in past the front desk they have a trophy case with all the trophy's they have won over the years in the Canso Regatta. There are also some newspaper clippings and a telegram detailing the closing of the outpost hospital station here in Canso by the Red Cross in 1951. There are pictures of the old hospital too. The building- I think- now houses the local daycare centre next to the inevitably closing high school. There are several clippings from the former incarnation of the local paper called, The Guysborough County Advocate, from 1948.

Just past the trophy case and down the hall to the left is a large painting done in a style reminiscent of Alan Siliboy.

A very nice piece. And there is a plaque commemorating the service of a former doctor.

They should be out of meeting in 10 minutes. Let's hope the minister has time for me after all the time I have invested in her today.

Saw the minister for all of 8 minutes but that is how it goes. Listening to her discuss how hospital budgets will be frozen this year, I wonder if this will be enough; probably not.

After that I stopped in at the MLAs office which is in the old Post Office. It's a great building like our old Post Office in Guysborough. It has had many incarnations since it's postal days and some nice art work on the Bell Aliant building next door.

Then back to Guysborough with a few photo pit stops.

My favorite derelict house in Hazel Hill; I always envision it as a writers retreat.

My favourite road; also in Hazel Hill (for those out of the loop; it is the community just outside of Canso).

The Queensport light. My uncle once kept the light here, now no one does.

A splash of RED on the way home.

One of my American uncles bought this house years ago with dreams of a summer home but other projects closer to home caught his attention and he has been renovating my great- grandparents house in Templeton for years. You can see that her bones are still beautiful.

And yes, I am indeed a Dort from Dorts Cove.

And it is still winter.


I stop at my dad's to pick up H-Bean.

The brook at my father's house.

Dad's wood, tractor and barn.

Then it is off to the store to buy a birthday present for a party tomorrow. Home for the fiddle and music. To the babysitters to pick up S-girl. And the Guysborough Intervale to Eddie's for fiddle. Long day.

Front Page News

What follows is my first front page story for our local paper:
The Guysborough Journal.

Billy Bond and crew land the big one

By Lois Ann Dort

CANSO- Living by the sea, we’ve all heard the story about the big one that got away, but have you ever heard a tale like this?

Bill Bond of Canso, skipper of the Melissa and Poppa III left last week for the giant blue fin tuna fishing grounds for the two-day season open off the shores of Ballantyne Cove, Antigonish County. He and mate Kenny Snow of Fox Island, set out at 6 am on Tuesday morning, September 28, not knowing the drama that would soon unfold.

About an hour after steaming out of Ballantyne’s Cove, the fisherman were baiting their hook with herring. The baited hook lying across the side of the boat was just too tempting for one fish. It pulled up alongside the boat and swiped the bait and the battle began.

Ken Snow manned the rod and played out the line to let the giant tire himself out, while Bill Bond commanded the wheel. “You have to be sure not to get the line nicked by the boat when you have a fish on; the tension on the line is so great that it will easily break and then you’ve lost your fish and a $300 spool of line,” comments Bill as he describes the one hour and 45 minute ordeal.

Although, the fisherman had seen the fish as it grabbed the bait, it wasn’t until they hauled it up alongside the boat that they knew the size of their catch. Bill Bond explains:

“It didn’t feel any different than any other fish we’d caught in the past. Sometimes a young fish will give you as much fight or more. We were surprised when we saw it.” And well you might be surprised to haul up a fish that weighed in at 1,110 pounds, the largest fish landed in the Gulf to date.

Bill Bond has been a fisherman all his life and has been fishing the giant blue fin tuna for the past eight years. He’s caught fish every season, most of them weighing, on average, between 500 to 600 pounds.

He’s seen some big fish before and heard of some fantastic payouts but things have changed in the industry in the past decade and he doesn’t expect to be buying a new truck on the back of this catch. “Years ago, in the heyday of the fishery, there was a father and son team that got 50 and 55 dollars a pound for their catch. Iexpect Imight get between seven and eight, it all depends on thequality of the fish and the quantity on the market,” says Bond. And the market is volatile.

Blue fin tuna caught in Atlantic Canada is sold by auction to buyers in Japan, where the fresh flesh of the big fish is a prized item on the menu of many sushi bars. This past spring, the market received a shock when the United States proposed a ban on Atlantic blue fin tuna exports to the United Nations wildlife meeting. The proposed ban was quashed but the threat to the fishery in Atlantic Canada has not disappeared. Fishing practices in the Mediterranean, where boats use nets that scoop up entire schools of blue fin tuna, have caused concern about the depletion of stocks globally.

Bill Bond describes the difference between the European fishing model and what happens in Atlantic Canada: Tuna fisherman in Nova Scotia pursue these gigantic fish with rod and reel alone, no wenches or other mechanical devices are used to haul in the catch, just pure sweat and blood manpower. The season in the Gulf is open for two days. In that time, the quota of 50,000 tons is met. We only fish mature tuna, although there appears to be more juveniles year upon year. As for the last of the giant blue fin-Ican’t see it. Everybody should be fishing rod and reel.

Atlantic Canadian fisherman can only hope that the rest of the world will adopt their fishing practices and conserve the giant blue fin while still prospering from it’s tasty flesh. This path will ensure that this is not the last big fish tale you read.