Marine Conservation Camp
30 July 2010
We continued to make final changes to the camp schedule and purchase last minute supplies on Thursday and Friday in preparation for camp. On Friday morning, Stefan and I woke up at 2:30 to head out cod fishing with Riley Lavallee, (photo) a local commercial fisherman. Throughout our conversations with cod fishermen, we have learned that there are two ways to catch cod: on a baited hook and line, also known as “jigging”, or by setting gill nets, lengths of mesh netting, in the water. The premise of a gill net is that a fish will try to swim through the fish-sized holes in the mesh, hooking its gills as it tries to escape.
We departed the Blanc Sablon wharf around 3 o’clock, heading up to L’Anse au Claire, the first town over the Labrador border. On the way out, we talked with Riley’s two crew members and learned about the fishing gear onboard. As the three men pulled in the nets, they had to remove not only the cod, but also equal numbers of sculpin and crabs, taking three hours to harvest the fish and disentangle the other animals from four nets. We were able to take a herring home and tried, mostly successfully, to fillet it (photo).
On Monday, our first day of camp, we got to know our fourteen campers and began by splitting into three groups, each choosing a different Marine Species at Risk to focus on (photo). After learning about beluga whales, great white sharks, and killer whales, we reconvened to paint a camp banner. In the afternoon, we headed down to the beach to work on sand sculptures of our team animals and to pick up trash along the shore. While collecting trash, we explained biodegradation, the length of time it takes different sorts of materials in the ocean to break down, and how this affects marine life. For instance, plastic bags, which can take four hundred years to biodegrade, are often mistaken by turtles to be jellyfish. When turtles’ stomachs fill up with this indigestible material, they are no longer able to pass food through their system and end up starving to death.
Tuesday started off with a visit to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) office, just across the road at the base of Mont Parent. Mark Lavallee, one of the officers, gave us a tour of his Zodiac patrol boat and showed a movie explaining the role of DFO in fishing communities such as Blanc Sablon. Upon returning to QLF, the campers went through the trash from the beach and sorted it by type, noticing a high number of plastic bottles and aluminum cans. After lunch, we went down to the river for a scavenger hunt and swimming. All but two of the kids went in the water on this 55 degree and windy day, a testament to their toughness and love of the outdoors.
Camp began on Wednesday with tie dye and a discussion of how our consumer culture is linked to global warming. Later on, we pulled out our recycling bin and let the kids use their imaginations to create crafts out of yogurt containers, soup cans, plastic bottles, and the like. The campers loved this craft, producing everything from life size puffins and replicas of Greenly Island to toy airplanes and pencil cups. It was hard to pull them away for our walk up Mont Parent, but eventually, we were on our way up the hill (photo). Once on top, overlooking the Blanc Sablon and its wharf, we talked about fishing and transportation with regard to its effect on the marine environment. Despite the dry sounding topics of our daily group discussions, the kids were genuinely interested in the conversations, sharing stories of grandparents who were lighthouse keepers or whales they had seen while out fishing with their fathers, and allowing us to show them the relevance of these larger ideas to their everyday lives.
While we had hoped to leave for our overnight trip to Greenly Island on Thursday morning, the fisherman who was to bring us out deemed the wind and waves too dangerous for the crossing. Instead, we hosted the campers at QLF for a sleepover. With the weather being uncooperative, we kept most of our activities indoors, playing ocean themed Pictionary and watching Sharkwater, an incredible documentary chronicling the career of Rob Stewart, an underwater photographer and the world’s foremost advocate for shark protection. The film served to show how gentle and unthreatening sharks are to humans as well as how necessary these animals to the marine ecosystem. My own fear of being bitten by a shark was quickly allayed by the statistic that more people are killed by falling vending machines every year than the ten that are killed by sharks! After dinner, we managed to build a fire behind the house, despite the wet weather, and were able to continue the annual camp tradition of telling ghost stories. Some of them were right out of local history, while others were written by campers specifically for this event.
On Friday morning, the campers spent time playing games in the backyard (photo) before coming inside to work on displays about their group mascot. Everyone was able to contribute to their team’s effort, whether through researching facts, decorating the posterboard, or organizing the layout. The projects all came together nicely and will hopefully be displayed in the airport or another community building.
This weekend we are taking a final trip over to Newfoundland to do some hiking and visit Gros Morne. Then, on Monday, I’ll be flying home. Of course, I’m excited to see my family and enjoy the warm weather, but Blanc Sablon and Newfoundland have been fantastic places to spend my summer and I couldn’t have asked for better people to work with!
We continued to make final changes to the camp schedule and purchase last minute supplies on Thursday and Friday in preparation for camp. On Friday morning, Stefan and I woke up at 2:30 to head out cod fishing with Riley Lavallee, (photo) a local commercial fisherman. Throughout our conversations with cod fishermen, we have learned that there are two ways to catch cod: on a baited hook and line, also known as “jigging”, or by setting gill nets, lengths of mesh netting, in the water. The premise of a gill net is that a fish will try to swim through the fish-sized holes in the mesh, hooking its gills as it tries to escape.
We departed the Blanc Sablon wharf around 3 o’clock, heading up to L’Anse au Claire, the first town over the Labrador border. On the way out, we talked with Riley’s two crew members and learned about the fishing gear onboard. As the three men pulled in the nets, they had to remove not only the cod, but also equal numbers of sculpin and crabs, taking three hours to harvest the fish and disentangle the other animals from four nets. We were able to take a herring home and tried, mostly successfully, to fillet it (photo). 
On Monday, our first day of camp, we got to know our fourteen campers and began by splitting into three groups, each choosing a different Marine Species at Risk to focus on (photo). After learning about beluga whales, great white sharks, and killer whales, we reconvened to paint a camp banner. In the afternoon, we headed down to the beach to work on sand sculptures of our team animals and to pick up trash along the shore. While collecting trash, we explained biodegradation, the length of time it takes different sorts of materials in the ocean to break down, and how this affects marine life. For instance, plastic bags, which can take four hundred years to biodegrade, are often mistaken by turtles to be jellyfish. When turtles’ stomachs fill up with this indigestible material, they are no longer able to pass food through their system and end up starving to death. Tuesday started off with a visit to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) office, just across the road at the base of Mont Parent. Mark Lavallee, one of the officers, gave us a tour of his Zodiac patrol boat and showed a movie explaining the role of DFO in fishing communities such as Blanc Sablon. Upon returning to QLF, the campers went through the trash from the beach and sorted it by type, noticing a high number of plastic bottles and aluminum cans. After lunch, we went down to the river for a scavenger hunt and swimming. All but two of the kids went in the water on this 55 degree and windy day, a testament to their toughness and love of the outdoors.
Camp began on Wednesday with tie dye and a discussion of how our consumer culture is linked to global warming. Later on, we pulled out our recycling bin and let the kids use their imaginations to create crafts out of yogurt containers, soup cans, plastic bottles, and the like. The campers loved this craft, producing everything from life size puffins and replicas of Greenly Island to toy airplanes and pencil cups. It was hard to pull them away for our walk up Mont Parent, but eventually, we were on our way up the hill (photo). Once on top, overlooking the Blanc Sablon and its wharf, we talked about fishing and transportation with regard to its effect on the marine environment. Despite the dry sounding topics of our daily group discussions, the kids were genuinely interested in the conversations, sharing stories of grandparents who were lighthouse keepers or whales they had seen while out fishing with their fathers, and allowing us to show them the relevance of these larger ideas to their everyday lives. While we had hoped to leave for our overnight trip to Greenly Island on Thursday morning, the fisherman who was to bring us out deemed the wind and waves too dangerous for the crossing. Instead, we hosted the campers at QLF for a sleepover. With the weather being uncooperative, we kept most of our activities indoors, playing ocean themed Pictionary and watching Sharkwater, an incredible documentary chronicling the career of Rob Stewart, an underwater photographer and the world’s foremost advocate for shark protection. The film served to show how gentle and unthreatening sharks are to humans as well as how necessary these animals to the marine ecosystem. My own fear of being bitten by a shark was quickly allayed by the statistic that more people are killed by falling vending machines every year than the ten that are killed by sharks! After dinner, we managed to build a fire behind the house, despite the wet weather, and were able to continue the annual camp tradition of telling ghost stories. Some of them were right out of local history, while others were written by campers specifically for this event.
On Friday morning, the campers spent time playing games in the backyard (photo) before coming inside to work on displays about their group mascot. Everyone was able to contribute to their team’s effort, whether through researching facts, decorating the posterboard, or organizing the layout. The projects all came together nicely and will hopefully be displayed in the airport or another community building. This weekend we are taking a final trip over to Newfoundland to do some hiking and visit Gros Morne. Then, on Monday, I’ll be flying home. Of course, I’m excited to see my family and enjoy the warm weather, but Blanc Sablon and Newfoundland have been fantastic places to spend my summer and I couldn’t have asked for better people to work with!
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