So….how does a flatlander from Alberta end up on a lobster boat in Nova Scotia you ask?….well…here’s the story.
The fall and winter brought an unfortunate slowdown of my Family Photography sessions mostly due to COVID and peoples reluctance to gather indoors for studio sessions. Mother Nature didn’t help much either as we experienced almost weekly weather systems also on the weekends making session booking way to challenging.
To keep my mental health in a good place I chose to find another avenue to keep attached to my camera. I belong to a great community of like-minded individuals called Offbeat. The group is run by two of Canada’s best known photographers, Dave Brosha from PEI and Paul Zizka from Alberta. From time to time we are given challenges to help keep our skills fresh and evolve our story telling. This quarter…we were tasked to shoot a genre that we haven’t shot before. I chose wildlife as there are a great deal of four legged and winged inhabitants in my area. The problem for me was that I did not have the appropriate lens but I was able to borrow a Sigma 150-600 lens from a fellow photographer and I was off and running. Deer, mink, quail, gulls and other winged creatures slowly started to help me build a collection of wildlife images.
One morning I woke up to see three lobster boats dumping their traps in the waters directly in front of where we live. I quickly grabbed my camera and started capturing the process unfolding in front of me. Over the next few weeks I built a collection of images using the long length of the lens I had borrowed and started to wonder how I could get these images to the owners of the boats I have photographed.
At this point in time I had no idea of how I could locate the boat owners but I did recognize the Early Day and thought I had seen it moored in a cove nearby the house. So for a couple days I went in search of the boats scouring the many coves and docks along the Lighthouse Route but to no avail. I was unsure of when the boats would depart or return so I was not sure when I might see one. As fate would have it I pulled into Boutilliers Cove at the same time as the Early Day was entering the small harbour. I quickly parked and waited for the boat to get docked. I noticed another man waiting on the dock and approached him to ask if he knew the boat to which he replied that he did and he was there to help him dock. I told him of the collection of images and suggested that today would be a bad day to speak to Kevin as he was racing to beat some bad weather and had a lot to do. I left my card and asked the gentleman to pass it on to Kevin and headed home. I had no idea if he would respond but i wasn’t in the door more than 20 minutes and the phone rang. Kevin expressed an interest in seeing the images so I gave him access to the collection and asked him to let me know if he enjoyed them.
The next morning the phone rang again and it was Kevin thanking me for the images and he expressed that he had plenty of images of the boat docked but few if any of it working. I felt like I was onto something. We discussed meeting up in person and discussing me shooting more of the other fishermen from the area which he felt would be a great idea and our new found friendship was formed.
We met at dockside after a day on the water and discussed more ideas on shooting other fishermen and their boats from on the water. Kevin asked me if I would be interested in coming out with him one day to see things up close…..uh….hell yeah!
We decided on a date and weather permitting I was going to get to see things from a perspective I had never thought of.
A proud fisherman and his workhorse….
As the day came closer my anxiety of being on a boat this size on the water grew some but the opportunity out weighed the anxiety. As it turned out…my fears of being sea sick were totally forgotten by the “weather sensitive” approach Kevin has to his job.
The day had arrived and when my feet hit the floor at 5am I was totally focussed on my task…made some coffee for my thermos and headed to the dock to meet up with Kevin.
The day starts early for Kevin. Long before most of us have even thought about having our morning coffee, Kevin would be on the water heading out to check and re-bait his traps. The Tantallon resident docks his vessel in Boutilliers Cove along with a collection of other small boat lobster fishermen.
The cool March air has the temperature hovering around 0C when I meet up with Kevin and he hands me a coffee and tells me he still had a few things to do before we leave. Before departure, I watched as Kevin prepped the boat for a day on the water, making sure his bait bags and extra trays were all positioned meticulously in the correct spots. After a quick safety orientation and a re-fill of his hot tea from an old trusted thermos, we set out.
The cabin of the Early Day….still dark out just before we left the dock.
Kevin Mitchell - Owner Operator of the “Early Day” lobster boat.
The first part of the trip was in near total darkness and with it being overcast, daylight was not arriving as quickly as it would under clearer conditions. I listened intently as Kevin described the islands we were passing in a way only expressed by someone who has spent the better part of his life on the bay with great local knowledge.
It was evident very quickly after leaving the dock that Kevin loved being on the water. His smile and demeanour led me to all but forget my anxiety of this being my first ever trip on a lobster boat.
As daylight breaks a light rain interrupted our travels…
The life of a lobster fisherman can be a solitary one. Kevin is very much at peace with it…here having a quiet moment as we look for the next buoy.
As the Early Day approached the buoy marking the first of 75 traps, I positioned myself to start photographing the process but it was still a little dark so I chose to simply observe the methodical approach he took to his work. From the skillful maneuvering of his boat to get adjacent to the buoy, adjusting the throttle, grabbing the grapple and hooking the line, to the feeding of the line onto the hauler and then manhandling the steel trap onto the boat…it was clear to see that this was a process he had completed thousands of times before. There is no wasted effort in this process. It is efficient and created in such a way to reduce the strain on his body. Next he quickly checked the trap, measured the lobsters to insure they were of legal size, re-baited the trap and with a gentle shove, sent the trap back to the bottom, all while ensuring the line and buoy safely make it back into the water.
Moving in on the buoy…
Snagging the line…
The hauler does most of the heavy lifting….
The hard part…
Not all traps come up with lobster…only three in this one…
Checking for legal size…
Trap is checked and re-baited and now back into the water…
Kevin has to be safety conscience. He generally works alone on his boat as most fishermen do with boats of this size. He can ill afford to get a foot or arm entangled in the line as the trap sinks to the ocean floor as it would obviously lead to a severe injury or at the worst eminent death from drowning.
Moving traps to a hopefully more productive location.
The remainder of the day was spent checking, re-baiting and re-positioning his traps. The winds were still calm and the skies overcast so the water remained smooth as glass. Even some rain at the mid point of the day did nothing to damper my enthusiasm for what the day offered. The perfect redundancy of his effort was impressive. Not every trap came to the surface with lobster in it but every trap needed to be re-baited and reset. It illustrated the reality of just how difficult this job can be. Some days the effort out weighs the result.
Some of the locals having a nap. Seals can be a real nuisance to lobster fishermen as they can get quite creative in stealing the bait out of the traps.
A gull glides through the rain…
The trip back to the Cove allowed me to shoot some of the ocean landscape as I was very focussed on Kevin and his work. shooting from the boat gave me a totally different perspective than shooting fro land and the calm waters just enhanced the experience.
From this perspective the three islands - Strawberry, Wood and Crouchers appear as one.
Wedge Island from an angle I can’t get from the shoreline.
The calm wind and overcast skies gave a metallic feel to the water…
So Calm….
The welcoming view upon returning to Boutilliers Cove after a long day on the water.
We arrived back at the dock in Boutilliers Cove just after 1pm and although my day was over, Kevin still had to clean the boat and deliver his catch to a local distributor before he could call it a day.
My take away from the experience was simple. This is hard work and at this time of year when the traps are seldom full, it becomes a struggle to keep working for such a low yield. The price per pound may be elevated this year (at time of writing approx.17.50/lb) but low yields can’t take advantage of the higher pricing. The next time I choose lobster on the menu, I will have a much clearer understanding of just how much effort it takes to put it on my plate.
So my quest to improve my wildlife photography skills took me down a totally unexpected path but thats life for you….you really never know where the road will take you. This flatlander was meant to be by the ocean…it has always called to me and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to move here.
My extreme thanks to Kevin for making it a near perfect first time out.