Weather and Tides
The Tides
The tides on Deer Island are anywhere between 15 feet and 22 feet rise and fall depending on the time of the month. The moon controls the tides and does a complete cycle every two weeks. The moon's gravity pulls all water on the earth towards it into tidal bulges. When the earth spins on its axis it in fact goes in and out of the tidal bulges. Many think that the tides come in and out, but in reality, the earth goes in and out of the tides. The Bay of Fundy, because of it's wedge shape, has the highest tides in the world (56 feet at the head of the Bay). Every cycle there is a time when the tides are high, and a time when the tides are low. There are 2 highs and 2 lows every day. They move ahead about 45 minutes every 24 hours. Our life as fishermen revolves around the tides, the moon, and our tide calendars.
When we have a full tide (the time of the month when we are closest to the moon and it has the strongest gravitational pull), it brings more fish into the bay. We don't really know for sure why this is, but it sure seems like it brings in more circulation of feed and predators for herring. The full tides in July always bring a lot of jelly fish, which can tear a weir apart in one night that you spent months getting ready to fish. So, you just start over again and hope that you don't catch a whale looking for herring just like we are. Many times we have caught whales or sharks - much to the enjoyment of my grandkids - but not to the fishermen. The good thing about tides is they are predictable, unlike the weather.
Weather
We certainly can't predict or control the weather. Hurricanes and high winds are our worst enemy. If a hurricane comes up the shore we have to rush out and strip the twine from the weir. It doesn't matter if the weir is full of fish or empty; we can't chance it and have to remove all of that hard work. For example, a NorthEast wind on Labour Day of 1994 blew all of the weirs down in the Bay of Fundy with no notice at all. Back in the day when there was no weather forecasts, wind would creep up and destroy our livelihood in one day. Keeping a close eye on the weather is part of the lifestyle.
Sometimes a thick of vapour will come and freeze all of the twine and blow the weir down. I have taken out herring in short sleeves in the evening and then have the weir be taken down by thick vapour and NorthWest winds before daylight. One night in 1977 the weir blew down on top of us as we were seining, but we got the fish out. A high wind could cost a weir a year's work and a lot of extra expense.
The best nights for fish are those foggy SouthWest winds in the summer time. I love to see the fog roll in. The fog makes darker nights and the SouthWest wind blows the feed onto the shore.
Usually after a hurricane the fish leave and don't come back. It just seems to stir everything up! Sometimes a hurricane will blow down certain weirs and leave yours standing. If this happens and the fish come to you, you have lots of market. However, as a fisherman, I would never hope for anyone else to have trouble, and if they do, we will all help out. A good weir season is when everyone is catching fish. It's no fun to get to back to the wharf when you have just caught lots of fish and others haven't caught a single fish all season; it takes the joy out of catching them.
The tides on Deer Island are anywhere between 15 feet and 22 feet rise and fall depending on the time of the month. The moon controls the tides and does a complete cycle every two weeks. The moon's gravity pulls all water on the earth towards it into tidal bulges. When the earth spins on its axis it in fact goes in and out of the tidal bulges. Many think that the tides come in and out, but in reality, the earth goes in and out of the tides. The Bay of Fundy, because of it's wedge shape, has the highest tides in the world (56 feet at the head of the Bay). Every cycle there is a time when the tides are high, and a time when the tides are low. There are 2 highs and 2 lows every day. They move ahead about 45 minutes every 24 hours. Our life as fishermen revolves around the tides, the moon, and our tide calendars.
When we have a full tide (the time of the month when we are closest to the moon and it has the strongest gravitational pull), it brings more fish into the bay. We don't really know for sure why this is, but it sure seems like it brings in more circulation of feed and predators for herring. The full tides in July always bring a lot of jelly fish, which can tear a weir apart in one night that you spent months getting ready to fish. So, you just start over again and hope that you don't catch a whale looking for herring just like we are. Many times we have caught whales or sharks - much to the enjoyment of my grandkids - but not to the fishermen. The good thing about tides is they are predictable, unlike the weather.
Weather
We certainly can't predict or control the weather. Hurricanes and high winds are our worst enemy. If a hurricane comes up the shore we have to rush out and strip the twine from the weir. It doesn't matter if the weir is full of fish or empty; we can't chance it and have to remove all of that hard work. For example, a NorthEast wind on Labour Day of 1994 blew all of the weirs down in the Bay of Fundy with no notice at all. Back in the day when there was no weather forecasts, wind would creep up and destroy our livelihood in one day. Keeping a close eye on the weather is part of the lifestyle.
Sometimes a thick of vapour will come and freeze all of the twine and blow the weir down. I have taken out herring in short sleeves in the evening and then have the weir be taken down by thick vapour and NorthWest winds before daylight. One night in 1977 the weir blew down on top of us as we were seining, but we got the fish out. A high wind could cost a weir a year's work and a lot of extra expense.
The best nights for fish are those foggy SouthWest winds in the summer time. I love to see the fog roll in. The fog makes darker nights and the SouthWest wind blows the feed onto the shore.
Usually after a hurricane the fish leave and don't come back. It just seems to stir everything up! Sometimes a hurricane will blow down certain weirs and leave yours standing. If this happens and the fish come to you, you have lots of market. However, as a fisherman, I would never hope for anyone else to have trouble, and if they do, we will all help out. A good weir season is when everyone is catching fish. It's no fun to get to back to the wharf when you have just caught lots of fish and others haven't caught a single fish all season; it takes the joy out of catching them.
