Yarmouth and area

My first two days in Yarmouth were low key and very enjoyable. Yesterday I went into 'town' in time for the Living Wharves presentation. This is unique the Yarmouth-Acadian region of Nova Scotia tourism. 

At a different wharf on each day of the week a local fisherman presents an informal 30 minute, or until all the questions have been answered, talk about fishing. That means you could get seven different perspectives in seven different locations in one week. It isn't scripted and in other areas it may be about another type of fishing. Yarmouth has the most diverse fishing in the province.

The lobster fishing season in Yarmouth is November 1 until May and just like in PEI it varies in different areas so that there are lobster year round for restaurants and tourists.

The local presenter is Richard Woods who has been a lobster fisherman for 40 years.  "I don't know nothin else, my dad did it and now I do." Well he does know how to 'spin a tale' he told us and 'has the gift of gab' and I must add that he was patient, funny and informative. 

In the picture above Richard is demonstrating one of the uses of the "lobster" tool. The tool is placed just behind the eye of the lobster and the other end goes along the body to measure the length. If it is too short ithe lobster must go back. This same tool is also used to apply bands over the claws before placing it with other lobsters in the holding tank. The lobster uses its larger claw to crack open food and the smaller claw cracks it further. The lobster actually feeds itself using the little claws on each leg to transport smaller pieces to its mouth. I did not know that!

Below is the measured and half banded demo lobster. Richard then let one of the audience band the other claw while he held the lobster. 

Next Richard explained that he places 15 traps on each line that he sets out. The green coloured rope is the really long line that he will set out. The orange rope is used to attach the lobster pot to the main line. But first 15 lengths of the orange must be permanentlly attached  to the green and this is done by slicing them together using a slicing tool. The splicing tool is slipped under a green strand and then one strand of the orange rope is slid into the tool and pulled tightly. Next you rotate the rope and attach a second orange strand.  This is done until you have good looking splice. (The third picture)

 

Then the orange ends are cut off and you roll the join under your foot several times to tighten it.

Then each trap is tied to one of the spliced orange ropes.

When the season opens on the last Monday in November, also known as dumping day, you go out and dump all of your traps. For the first two weeks you go back daily, pull  up each line, empty all the traps and place the lobsters in a transport crate filled with sea water for transport to the lobster pound. With 15 traps on each line and a total of 375 traps... well you can do the math, that's a lot of work to do for seven months! The first few weeks are the most intense as that is when the pota are the fullest.

The big boats shown above are lobster boats, and there is far more open deck than covered shelter which makes me shiver when I think about the winter weather in Nova Scotia.

Formy next stop I set my GPS to find the world's smallest operating drawbridge and I found it!

 

The drawbridge is raised when a boat from the inner harbour, like the white one above, wants to get outto the open sea. When the drawbridge is closed people use it to get from one side of the outer harbour to the other. I the last picture you can just see the hand winch that is used to raise thebridgethere is a matching winch on the other side. The winch is at the bottom of the large brown pole on the left side of the red pole at the edge of the picture.

Next I went to the Cape Forchu lighthouse. Although the tourist info claims it is the most photographed lighthouse in Atlantic Canada it is certainly not the prettiest. It was a damp and misty day and no one was sitting in the lawn chairs.

 

This lighthouse is unique in design in order to withstand the very strong winds at this location. The traditional lighthouse design was built and broken so eventually something different was tried.

It's called an apple core design and it worked. The separate house beside it was built for the light keeper and as with so many lighthouses when they were converted to electricity the light keeper was no longer needed. The grounds are lovely and the house is now a museum and a gift store. 

Then I spent a little bit of time trying to figure out why it was considered the most photographed lighthouse on Atlantic Canada. The tourist info also states that Peggy's Cove is the most photographed lighthouse so when I get there I will post pictures of it and you, the readers, can decide which you would rather photograph!