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Toward
the Loss of the French Shore and of Red Island
Toward
the end of the second half of the nineteenth century, the French
fishery off the French Shore began to decline. The reasons for
this were many: ships of the time were large enough and sturdy
enough to be technically capable of pursuing a campaign on the
Grand Banks without having to land their fish. Whelk caught
on the banks replaced the traditional bait - herring, capelin
or squid - thus avoiding the potentially devastating effects of
the Bait Bill, a law passed by the parliament
of Newfoundland which prohibitted the sale of bait to French fishing
boats. The boats no longer needed to put-in to Saint-Pierre to
buy herring, capelin or squid, nor to travel to St. Georges Bay
to fish for their own bait. Green cod (that is
to say washed and salted) had become more popular than dried cod.
There was much progress in fishing methods.
In
Newfoundland, relations between English and French festered. Increasingly,
English fishermen established themselves on the coast. The two
groups bickered about every aspect of the fishing - above all
about the lobster- troubles were daily, losses of equipment significant...
in short, co-existence became increasingly difficult.
Consider
an example reported by Daniel Prowse in his book A History
of Newfoundland: in 1888, a Mr. James Baird, of St. John's,
Newfoundland, had a lobster pound at Black Duck Brook on the Port
au Port Peninsula. The men there fished in the bay but this was
not to the liking of the fishermen of Red Island, 18 miles away,
who insisted that the lobster traps interfered in their seining
for the herring which served them as bait. According to Prowse,
the French fishermen went to Black Duck Brook and destroyed equipment.
"Their complaint was proved to be ridiculous", adds Prowse, "and
I am informed they were punished for the outrage committed. The
manager, Mr. John Halliburton, informed me he would move further
north next season."
Weary
of this hostile environment and, no doubt because the bays proved
less abundant, the ship-outfitters of metropolitan France lost
interest little by little in this coast which nonetheless had
assured prosperity for many among them. "In 1894, fifteen ships
only prepared for the coast fishery, in 1904 that number was reduced
to six". The loss of the French Shore was imminent.
There
remained, however, several years reprieve: in embassies and consulates,
the English and French governments tried to implement the modus
vivendi while seeking a solution to the question of fishing
rights. In Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon they decided to fill the void
left by the fishermen of France. In 1983, the Regional Council
of Saint-Pierre decided to hand out a bonus of fifty francs to
any fisherman who wanted to go to the French Shore.