Week #12 – Salmon Fishing Betty’s Beach – Part 2

The long days spent watching the sea are well rewarded when a dark mass is seen moving along the coast close to Betty’s Beach.  Boats scramble to shoot the net out and around the fish.  “‘The adrenaline starts pumping, you’re full of anticipation, a little bit of excitement…” says Paul at the sight of a large school of salmon.  “…you’ve gotta keep a cool head, you all get together, you watch, you work out a bit of a strategy because different size patches and different schools behave differently.”

With the net securely around the fish, old motors slowly pull on ropes to bring the catch to shore.  On this occasion, Paul, Nathan, Aiden and Ted were fortunate.  Friends were nearby to help haul the 20 plus ton of fish, by hand, from the sea to the transport bins.  It’s very physical work and no one slacks off.

When asked about this years salmon season, Paul says, “There is certainly a lot of salmon around here at the moment, its probably the best I’ve seen for ten years for sightings of fish.”   The outlook for the salmon market isn’t so good though.  Stiff foreign competition and rising costs are taking their toll.  Speaking of the days catch, Paul says that there was near on 30 ton of fish in the nets, “…we managed to sell a little over 20 ton, we had to release the rest unharmed, they were happy to go”.

Fishing at Betty’s Beach is a significant part of Paul’s life but the future is uncertain  “…I just wish the outlook was better for the fishery.  The market just seems to decline, and we don’t seem to be able to compete with imported fish, the price has just dropped.  We are still getting the price we were getting in 1980 and costs have gone sky high from there.” Paul forecasts, “this year we will do ok, but some years we just cut costs.  We do it because we love it more than the money really.”