The Shrimpiest Story
Aquarius X
Every year around spring time, the Aquarius X and her crew leave port to do one thing and one thing only: catching shrimp. As soon as the ice clears the surface of the St-Lawrence River, in the general vicinity of the small city of Matane, the operation starts. While they will be fishing until the end of August, the first six weeks are crucial and hectic enough to hire additional hands.
Shrimp like cold water. Very cold water. They are at their happiest when the ice has just retreated from the river and they tend to follow this movement. Starting around Matane, the shoals then progressively moves Eastwards and the Aquarius X crew follows. Due to a narrower passage between the Anticosti Island and the North Shore, the ice only retreats completely from the St Lawrence Gulf mouth around July. This predictable journey makes for much easier captures.
But life on a shrimp boat is not easy. The constant fight against seasickness, short bursts of sleep, an insanely intense schedule and the disconnect with one’s life can take its toll; this is truly for dedicated individuals! At any time of the day and night, shrimp are there and the crew must not miss the shoals or else the next boat will get them.
Suprisingly, it is the capturing process itself that gives the crew some of its much needed rest. After dropping the net in the cold waters, they have between 2 to 4 hours before it becomes full and must be brought back on board. During that time, the workers make sure to catch some sleep, eat something, get cleaned up a bit.
Once on board, the net is opened and its content is brought to the triage area. While the net is conceived to only catch shrimp, some fish do get stuck from time to time and those have to be thrown back into the sea. The shrimp are then stored in the ship’s hold under a thick layer of ice to keep them fresh for a maximum of 5 days. During the busiest weeks, the boat usually returns to the transformation plant when the hold is full, but afterwards the crew needs to take into account this very short window.
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- Net in the waters
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- Bringing back the net
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- The crew works day and night
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- The net is full of shrimps
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- Shrimp triage
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- Machine Room
The following map shows the four shrimp transformation plants available to shrimp boats.
A- Matane B- Rivière-aux-Renards C- La Tabatière D- Magdalen Islands
The money obtained from the transormation plants varies from year to year but also during the season itself. And different plants pay differently! This means the captain needs to constantly reevaluate where he will get the best price based on the boat’s location. Sometimes it makes sense to travel a bit further to get a better price, even though the St Lawrence River and Gulf are so vast. While travelling from Matane to Rivière-aux-Renards takes about 3 hours by car, the same trip is about 12 hours long on a boat!
For security measures, the machine room is accessible to one crewman only. This individual will have received proper training and is the only one that can work and maintain the engines. As for the food, most items purchased are ready to eat as there too little time for cooking meals during the first six weeks. The crew still has to eat constantly in order to fight seasickness. But as the season advances, supply runs will bring more and more ingredients to be prepared in the tiny kitchen area and life gradually goes back to a more normal pace.
Thank you very much to the crew of the Aquarius X for the pictures. Another huge MERCI! to my sister for the incredible amount of information and her patience.
Hope you enjoyed that one.
Beautifully written and fascinating to read. I even learned a new usage of the word “shoals”. ) (They’ve always been sandbars to me.) Keep ‘em coming!
JG.
La «sister» est très fière de lire ce superbe résumé ! Très intéressant ! Je fais suivre au Captain Hubert ! Ça m’a fait plaisir xxx
Mitch
Rivière-au-Renard, au singulier.