This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
It’s been a good ten years since the project germinated in the head of journalist and author Hélène Raymond. This idea that we had to restore the nobility of the St. Lawrence River and all the species that live there. The result is the signing of the book Portraits of the Saint Lawrence. Fishing stories and maritime stories by journalist and author Hélène Raymond. A book, almost encyclopedic, which paints a portrait of our marine pantry and the different players who revolve around the fishing industry. A beautiful work of more than 200 pages which allows us to reflect on our relationship to this river that we perhaps often take for granted.
What is your connection with the St. Lawrence River? Why did you want to dedicate a book to him?
I have a special relationship with the river. I was born in La Pocatière, in Bas-Saint-Laurent, and I spent my childhood and teenage summers by the river in Rivière-Ouelle, facing this immensity. I also come from a family where summer vacations were not spent in Toronto or Montreal. We tended to go towards the Maritimes, the Gaspésie, the North Shore… My mother has Gaspésie origins; his father comes from Gaspésie. There were no fishermen in my family, but there was this interest in them, in the river, then in the fish.
Afterwards, it is certain that it was my work at Radio-Canada which continued to make this link grow. The fact of being able to go anywhere in the territory, of following the opening of the zone 17 crab fishery, of having been on the docks in Newfoundland after the moratorium [sur la pêche de la morue]it marked me.
Over the years, with your work on Radio-Canada radio, where for many years you hosted “D’un soleil à l’autre”, a daily show devoted to agriculture and food, I imagine that you have witnessed the awakening of Quebecers for local marine products.
Yes, I noticed it and I see that it is not over. There are bridges that are being built thanks to initiatives like Fourchette Bleue or Mange ton Saint-Laurent! I think people are more and more proud and aware of the wealth they have in Quebec.
For years, we turned our backs on the river. We didn’t learn to love fish because it was the Friday food, on lean days, it was the punishment. But that’s changing.
We often have the impression, when we hear about St. Lawrence products, that it is complicated, between quotas, exports, prices, rarities, accessibility… Is it an industry? Who is a little bogged down by all these constraints?
I don’t know if I can go so far as to say “bogged down”, but I think it’s complex, indeed. What is special is that we are dealing with wild species, we are in an environment in which they interact. Faced with this immensity and complexity, it is difficult to quickly gauge the state of populations. We are seeing this at the moment with the decline of the northern shrimp. I believe that the contribution of science is essential to have a macro vision of the situation.
For the rest, it may be complicated, but the important thing is to give fishermen a voice again. There are people who open breaches. But it remains a system which is extremely complex and which has always been globalized. We are in this model everywhere and resisting it is possible, but it takes nerve and patience.
After 10 years of being immersed in this subject, what is the most surprising thing you have learned?
I discovered a kind of common determination among pretty much everyone: from the scientific community, from the fishing community and from the main players in the industry. The idea that from the moment we listen to a microphone, we hear people who are strangely concerned, alert, who want us to talk about them.
Otherwise, what surprised me the most was the immensity of the fishing territory, it’s gigantic. From Tadoussac to Blanc-Sablon… it’s incredible excess, this Quebec! That so many people still practice this activity everywhere fascinates me. That doesn’t make for a high density of fishermen per square kilometer, but these are people who continue to enliven the river, to live around it.
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