(PHOQ)Ils ne tuent pas pour l'argent mais pour le plaisir !

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Seal boats coping with ice crisis

In a sudden squall, `they'd all go down, including the icebreakers,' sealer says

Apr 21, 2007 04:30 AM
Bill Taylor
Feature Writer

JOE BATT'S ARM, Nfld.-Born and bred in this remote outport on Fogo Island off
the northern coast of Newfoundland, Desmond Adams has the seal hunt in his
blood.

So his bright-green boat, the Angela Chantell, was one of the first out last
week when the annual hunt began. And one of the first back.

"We had a day out there," Adams said yesterday on the windswept dock where his
boat was safely moored. "We saw the way the weather was going and the ice was
moving and we beat a hasty retreat. We were on the western edge of the ice and
the wind died for a little bit at exactly the right time so we were able to get
back. We were the only one that did."

Between 300 and 400 other seal hunters on more than 100 "longliner" boats were
not so lucky. Most of them remain stuck in a freak build-up of pack ice - the
worst anyone here can remember - that trapped them a week ago as they headed
home.

There was a little light at the end of the frigid tunnel as a persistent
northeasterly gale veered slowly to the southwesterly wind that will move the
ice floes away. The temperature rose a few degrees, too, which will help.

Two of the Coast Guard's three icebreakers also got stuck earlier this week
trying to carve a path for some of the stricken longliners to follow them to
open water. But they were back in action yesterday, joined by a fourth
icebreaker from Quebec. Two sealers' boats were helped into open water in
Bonavista Bay and were on their way back to safety, said Coast Guard Captain
Brian Penney.

"It's a little bit of relief," he said. "But I think it'll be Tuesday at the
earliest before most of the longliners are out."

Penney said that before the rescue, several of the boats had radio-telephoned
food orders to a general store in Bonavista and the Coast Guard had delivered
the groceries by helicopter. Et nos gouvernements qui continuent de nier qu'ils subventionnent cette chasse (avec l'argent de nos taxes bien entendu)

While the freeze-up has made headlines around the world, Newfoundlanders are
treating it almost casually. Some radio stations didn't even make it their top
news story yesterday, going instead with a new strategic plan for Labrador. One
Gander station put it ahead of a blood donor recruitment story but didn't give
it as much time.

The general feeling is that the situation is annoying - some stranded sealers
reached by satellite phone say their biggest problem is boredom - but more a
threat to livelihood than life. It's a sentiment that makes Adams angry.

"Very few will admit it, but what's happening is extremely dangerous," he said.
"They act like clowns about it; they just shrug it off. And I think they'll get
away with it this time. But if there were sustained very strong winds, which can
happen with very little warning here, then you'd have a major catastrophe.
They'd all go down, including the icebreakers, with all hands lost."

Though he admits that he's as bad as anyone, "and we all go out for the love of
it rather than the money, which isn't there anymore," Adams would like to see
the hunt in its current form stopped. First, bigger boats go out and take their
share of annual quota and then small boats go to cull the rest of the harp seal
pups. Frank Pinhorn estimates there are about 60,000 of this year's quota of
270,000 still to be killed.


"So the big boats are out now trying to get themselves free of the ice and the
hunt is at a standstill," Adams said.

"But once this mess is cleared up, then they'll let the small boats go out. And
this ice could come back. It could happen again.

"None of these boats, big or small, is registered for ice and some insurance
companies won't cover you for the seal hunt. Others, the ice-damage deductible
is so high, no one ever reports damage. We just fix it ourselves. But these
little boats are eggshells; they're that fragile. You could crush them like
that."

Adams held up his clenched fist. Coast Guard helicopters have taken the crews
off about 10 of the bigger boats, mostly near the Grey Islands off Labrador
because the pressure of the ice was threatening to crush them.

"No one's going to stop hunting if they don't have to. We need someone to tell
us, `No, this is too dangerous. You can't do it.' Newfoundlanders are good at
following orders. They've told us we can't fish and we can't do this or that.
And we don't." Plus con que ça, tu meurts !


No one's getting rich from the seal hunt, he said, "at least not among the
hunters. The price of pelts is down to about $55, about half what it used to
be."

Not only that, the ice crisis means the sealers will be delayed in getting back
to their main livelihood - crab fishing and shrimping. "The later you take a
crab, the worse the quality. We're getting hurt."

Coast Guard helicopters continued to fly food and water to longliners that are
running short of supplies. There's also a fuel crisis as they keep their engines
running to power generators for food and warmth. (Et c'est nous qui payons pour ça... )

Not all the boats are being threatened by ice pressure. Some are in open water,
surrounded by floes.

One or two are tantalizingly close to the shore. There was a report yesterday
that a snowmobile managed to get out across the ice to one longliner to deliver
food.

Adams said on a clear night, lights can be seen from Joe Batt's Arm, a community
of about 800 with white "saltbox" houses straggling along the shoreline of the
ice-clogged bay.


http://www.thestar.com/News/article/205683

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Citation :

"No one's going to stop hunting if they don't have to. We need someone to tell
us, `No, this is too dangerous. You can't do it.' Newfoundlanders are good at
following orders. They've told us we can't fish and we can't do this or that.
And we don't." Plus con que ça, tu meurts !

A quoi s'attendre de Newfies ?