Blogger: Wally Hayes

It's commonly called dumping day because at precisely 6 a.m. on the last Monday in November, thousands of lobster boats big and small fan out from hundreds of fishing villages to race each other for the prime spots to dump to set their traps. 

I visited Pubnico's Dennis Point wharf a couple of days before dumping day and no matter in which direction I pointed my camera, I was greeted with a profusion and confusion of colour; boats and buoys; ropes and traps. Even many of the fisherman were dressed in fluorescent orange and yellow foul-weather gear.

I thought I was seeing the result of a explosion of a hundred Christmas trees with colourful ornaments - (floats, ropes and traps) scattered in all directions. . . some in confusing heaps and others lined up in military precision.

Spread over three docks were more than 80 lobster boats each with an allotment of 375 traps and an almost equal number of  coloured ropes and floats. Some boats were large enough to carry a full complement of traps, but for smaller ones, their excess traps and gear was piled on the wharf to be loaded for a second trip to the lobster grounds, all on the same day.

As I looked out at the widespread, colourful scene I thought of a Hollywood movie with the credits: "Filmed in Panavision . . . Color by Technicolor"

I did my unofficial math and figured I was looking at as many as 30,000 traps and enough rope to stretch the 700 kilometers from one end of Nova Scotia to the other, with a float or buoy every 1/10 of a kilometer along the way. 

And that's just from Lower West Pubnico. Admittedly, this Acadian villages probably has the largest concentration of lobster boats of any other fishing village in the western part of the province, but the amount of gear from all the ports that went into the water in the space of a few hours Monday morning staggers the imagination.

In just an hour's time, this lobster boat (above), shown during the final loading stages at 4am, will race out of Yarmouth Harbour past Cape Forchu lighthouse (below) along with dozens of others all heading to the prime locations to set or 'dump' their traps