From Lower North Shore
The Seal Fishery: An early industry on the Lower North Shore
People have been coming to the rugged north shore of the St. Lawrence Gulf for nearly 9,000 years because of its exceptionally rich marine resources. One of the unique aspects of local heritage on the Lower North Shore centers around the historic practice of a seal fishery (as opposed to a seal hunt). This seal fishery involved complex systems of nets for the seals and infrastructure for rendering seal blubber into oil. Sealing was a main part of the basis for Aboriginal presence and European settlement on the Lower North Shore.
During their annual migration from the Arctic, thousands of harp seals pass by the Lower North Shore. In the 18th century, officials from New France began fishing seals commercially along the coast. Permanent settlers arrived in the 19th century and a string of isolated villages sprang up alongside a large-scale seal fishing industry. These settlers devised increasingly complex systems of nets to capture seals. Seals had many uses for the people living along the coast. They sold seal skins and oil to commercial firms, ate the meat or fed it to their dog teams, and made water resistant sealskin clothing.
The seal fishery reached unprecedented heights in the village of La Tabatière, where legendary Scottish pioneer Samuel Robertson established the most productive seal fishing post in the region. Gros Mecatina is therefore considered to be the ‘epicentre’ of this historic seal fishery and local residents feel that their identity is closely linked to its history.
The seal fishery ended in the 1980s, and with it, an important part of the region’s culture. Seal fishing was once central to the economy of the Lower North Shore. Today, few Canadians even know of the existence of this historic industry. Despite the controversy surrounding the capture of seals, this story has a place alongside the cod fishery and fur trade as a significant part of Canadian history. Negative media attention to the harvesting of seals during the spring seal hunt in the region has made residents determined to tell their story, distinguish it from the seal hunt, and preserve and celebrate it.
Since 2008, the Quebec-Labrador Foundation (www.qlf.org) has partnered with local organisations to develop interpretation and education tools related to the history of the seal fishery of La Tabatière and Mutton Bay. The initiative aims to help transmit and preserve this heritage, provide meaningful interpretation for tourists, involve youth in the research process, and counter negative associated images of the seal hunt. QLF’s main community partners are the Gros Mecatina Tourism Association and Mecatina School.
Photo: Robert Bryan. Fishermen hauling a seal into their boat in 1964, near Harrington Harbour.
Collection of Sharon Chubbs-Ransom. Samuel Robertson V. and Thomas Gallichon at the Robertson foundry in La Tabatière in the 1940s. The large iron pot in the middle contains seal blubber being boiled down into oil.
Collection of Sharon Chubbs-Ransom. The Robertsons with seal oil from their foundry, La Tabatière, in the 1920s.
