Acknowledgements

Working in the fishing industry in Atlantic Canada is different from any other job.

Fishermen and fisherwomen have their seasons dictated by open and closing dates set by government. Their livelihoods are governed by a multitude of policies ranging from quotas to bycatch rules to working within boundaries of imaginary lines on the ocean surface. They have no regular work hours—in fact, for many of them, especially the captains, sleep comes in short naps whenever they can as they work around the clock on trips that last for several days. Even those who return home every evening are usually on the way back to sea again soon after unloading their catch.

Onshore workers, especially those in small processing plants, often have to wait for word that their plant is going to be opened or closed that day. Determining factors include when vessels are scheduled back from fishing and what loads they are bringing. Weather also dictates vessel activity, and there is nothing as unpredictable as Atlantic Canadian marine weather.

A different kind of work creates a different kind of people. And that difference makes fishing people among the most interesting folk in the world.

In The Call of the Ocean, we introduced you to some of those fascinating people.

I am eternally grateful to all of them for graciously sharing their precious spare time with me to tell their stories.

I’m also grateful once again to the publishers of the Navigator magazine for their continued support in getting those stories published across Atlantic Canada in their publication. And thanks to the folks at Flanker Press for their tremendous support in publishing those stories in book form.

And heartfelt thanks to you, the thousands of loyal readers who have supported me for the past eighteen years. Nine books and more than 220 magazines later, you are still making it possible to continue telling the stories of those terrific fisher people.

Thank you!