Page 32 - Robin Stuart, Salmon Farmer

ISSUE : Issue 41

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1986/1/1

place." The way they stocked the ice in the hold. Oh, it was literally on its side. It was frightening, a big boat like that. Just lucky it wasn't a really windy day. It didn't surprise me when I heard that it. sunk a few months afterwards. I was just thankful I wasn't on it when it did. 'Cause it was in the middle of the winter, and you wouldn't have a hope in zero de? gree water, you know. I was only out there for the summertime. On my way in one time I happened to pick up a paper and I noticed an ad, looking for an assistant manager of an oyster farm up in Cape Breton. And I had my Dalhousie degree and oyster farming experience, so I Will they Still be your friends if you say no? Jerry's a good driver. But this time he's had one too many and the thought of him behind the wheel makes you nervous. Can the gang persuade you to get in the car anyhow or will you stick by your guns and say no? Nobody who's had too much to drink should ever be on the road. So speak up. Suggest that you or one of the others drive Seagram We believe in moderation and we've been saying so since 1934. Do you know how much alcohol you can safely handle? Write to us and we' II send you a valuable free chart on drinking limits. P.O. Box 847, Station H, Montreal, Quebec. H3G 2M8 thought I'd send an application. It was the only application I put in for anything. On my next trip in, I had a message for an interview. (Had you ever been in Cape Bret? on before?) No. The interesting thing is that I was taking it as a very short term. I still had this awfully migratory spirit at the time. What I wanted to do when I came here was to save enough money to buy a large motorcy? cle and drive down to the tip of Tierra del Fuego! I had the real spirit in me to do some travelling, being frustrated not making it to Australia. But once I got here, it seemed that I was going to like it a little more than I expected to, real? ly. Especially Cape Breton. Devco not per se, really, I could have done with? out that. Although the job itself had its challenges. The job was official? ly called Assistant Manager of Cape Bret? on Primary Produc? tion Limited, which was then Cape Breton Marine Farming, So I was in the oyster farming business, and I was in that for 7 years. Going all around the is? land and trying all sorts of technologi? cal ways of growing the oysters. We real? ly got it refine3"'' knowing exactly when to put collectors in the water by looking at larval samples and knowing when the larvae are at just the right setting time. The only thing that wasn't demon- strated by Marine Farming was the last phase of fishing the oysters off the bot? tom in a profitable way. But--at the very end of it, Dev? co decided, "You've spent so many years at this, and we've decided to quit it." And that was in the final stage of try? ing to come up with a technology of tak? ing them off the bot? tom effectively. It just seemed like it wAs cut right off at the most ridiculous time, because there are methods that can be applied. But it costs money to demon? strate those type of instead. Better still, Jerry should leave the car parked then everyone could share a cab home. If your friends are really your friends they'll thank you, not put you down, for pointing out the dangers of drinking and driv? ing. What you're really doing is caring about their safety as well as your own. And isn't that what a friend is for? (33)

Cape Breton's Magazine