Not so long ago, many of our waterways were teeming with freshwater pearls. To pick them, patient men, installed upright in flat-bottomed wooden boats, went up the rivers, along gravelly and sandy beds, where life slowly awakens. With the help of a long pole on which a nigog was stuck, these valiant with cracked hands tracked, from dawn until dusk, the pearl shells.
At Baie Saint-Paul, in the meanders of the Rivière du Gouffre, subject from all eternity to the comings and goings of the lunar tides, the pearl fishermen managed to harvest enough pearls, on the beautiful days of summer, to soften the forced enclosures of their long winters. Between thirty-six professions and thirty-six miseries, this work was one of those exercised by Alvérez Bouchard, a rich witness of those ancient times.
Along the water, fishermen like him brought up the shells one by one. They opened them with the force of the wrist, manhandling the blade of their knife. Once the locks of the mollusk were forced open, these very special fishermen sought, through the soft flesh, between thumb and index finger, the softness of the pearl with ever shimmering colors. In the great sun of their eyes, each pearl shone with an ever new freshness.
To begin with, such fishermen had to be “good on the oar”, as Alvérez Bouchard explained. Then they had to know how to stand for hours, at the front of a boat, without flinching. Working on your knees, said the same, it’s not good, it’s never good…
At the end of the 1960s, this bearded man from another time had agreed, in front of Michel Audy’s camera, to revive the fishing he practiced in the great momentum of his youth while telling his story. Alvérez Bouchard was then over 80 years old. The result of this encounter is a unique film, in which there is, from time to time, a little of the flavor of Pierre Perrault’s masterpieces. Among the dozens of films that Michel Audy shot, this one, baptized Very sweet peachwas completed in 1970. It is certainly one of his most touching.
The eastern pearl mussel, the name of this pearl shell, had already become rarer by the time the film was shot. It now unearths less than ever. And it’s not because pearl divers scour the bottom of rivers. All the Alvérez Bouchards of this world have been dead and buried for a long time.
Present in the waters of Quebec, this mussel is also found in northwestern Europe. The pearl mussel uses salmon to grow. At the time of reproduction, its larvae attach themselves to the gills of the salmonid to complete their development and migrate in the river.
However, salmon today are in great danger. So this mussel too. Less salmon, therefore less mussels. Fewer mussels, fewer pearls…
According to the muffled language of the indicators offered by “Environment and Climate Change Canada”, salmon populations “are not showing progress”. In other words, the fate that awaits them is hardly a happy one.
Salmon, however, abounded in many rivers in eastern America. It spawned as far as New York. In Maine, now, it is only found in a few rare rivers. In Quebec, several rivers in the Eastern Townships have been named after this fish, which attests to its presence. Still in the 19the century, he fished just in front of Bishop’s University, in Lennoxville, in the waters that the Abenakis called Alsigôntekw, “the river of the empty cabin”, the Saint-François.
To find a few rare salmon, it is now necessary to fall back on rivers located much further north. There, wealthy fishermen continue to hook them without being allowed to eat them, for the sole pleasure of taking a picture of themselves next to a fish, as if the injuries and stress inflicted on the salmonids were completely inconsequential.
Salmonids have disappeared from North American rivers because of dams, log floating, diversion of riverbeds, pollution and other environmental disturbances, including warming waters, resulting from the frenzied pursuit of profits for the captains of industry.
As a result of the private grabbing of all the pearls of our societies, we are paying an ever greater collective price to keep the happy people of the world going easy.
Take the case of a pearl among others: Mount Glen. This ski mountain in the Eastern Townships has just been bought for 6 million dollars for strictly private purposes. Neil Rossy, the boss of this symbol of impoverishment that is the Dollarama chain, bought the mountain to, according to what he indicated, “benefit from it for private purposes, in particular to walk, hunt, fish, rest and produce maple syrup, while hoping to create unforgettable memories with family and friends”. Mr. Rossy needs to recharge his batteries. He needs to rest. Are his needs not shared? Tired people, there are plenty of them. They are the ones who finance all the pashas of the world so that they can continue to string pearls throughout their lives.
In the midst of a pandemic, over the past three years, the salary of the boss of Dollarama has more than doubled. In 2021, Neil Rossy’s base salary was $1.27 million, plus bonuses, for a total of $7.83 million. How many ramen noodles and instant soups that taste like cardboard must be eaten for a man to taste the delights offered by so much money?
The mayor of the neighboring municipality of Mount Glen, Denis Vaillancourt, considers that the community should have acquired the ski center a long time ago to transform it into a park for the benefit of all. In other words, one more lost pearl.