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The Coastal Fishery and Dried Cod
     The coastal fishery was identical to the migratory fishery, in almost every respect : the coast - on an island- served as a refuge for the fishermen rather than a schooner tossed on the ocean. Each morning, very early, skipper and sailor climbed into their dorys and left to fish not far from the place which had sheltered them during the night.

    Fishing practices varied little. Here, as on the Banks, the lines were anchored. On the east coast of the French Shore, they fished with seines and also with handlines, a line equipped with a single hook, which fishermen operated, as its name indicates by hand, over the side of the dory.

    The preparation of the fish, once landed, was always the same: ébrayeurs, décolleurs, trancheurs et énocteurs set to work in an échafaud, a sort of long quai covered by a roof of prélarts (large pieces of sail cloth waterproofed with layers of paint or coal tar) or boughs built on a openwork floor over the water. It was there, sheltered from wind and rain that they dressed the cod, kept the salt and housed the foissières which were used to make cod liver oil.

    It was only once the cod was washed and ready for salting that the method changed. The object was to produce dried cod, combining the actions of salt and sun- and above all the wind - to obtain cod which was completely desiccated, rigid as a piece of cardboard and much easier to keep.