By Craig Westcott
There may not be as many people interested in its operations as some past years, but the Cape Broyle Harbour is chugging on quietly serving harvesters and other mariners who use its facilities.
The group held its annual general meeting last month and elected a board to carry on with operations for the coming year.
"Everything went fine," said Harbour Master Kelvin Hayden. "We had enough people to do it (fill the board). Some people don't seem very interested, and you have to force their hand (sometimes), because you need to have a Harbour Authority."
Membership is open to everyone.
"You don't have to be a fisherman and you don't (even) have to be from the harbour, really," Hayden said. “A few fishermen joined up, and a few fellows with small boats, speed boats and stuff.”
About 20 craft of varying sizes – everything from longliners to speed boats – depend on the facilities.
The kayakers who were often seen around the wharf some years ago now mostly launch from the south side of the harbour instead.
That leaves the federal wharf to mostly commercial fishermen and the operators of smaller craft. Hayden said the nearby crab plant is busy in the summer and it's sometimes difficult to provide enough berths for harvesters who want to use the Harbour Authority's wharf.
Hayden, who is a commercial fisherman, said the facilities are good to go for the coming crab season. There are a couple of small issues that need fixing, and he has been talking to someone in the Small Craft Harbours Division of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to see what it can do to help. The federal department oversees the province's harbour authorities and provides capital funding for major projects.
"We’re looking for a breakwater for a nice few years now, and we need another extension on the wharf," said Hayden. "There's money there, but there are so many harbour authorities on the go, and they only have enough money for five or six jobs in one given year."
Wharf work almost by its nature is expensive, and Ottawa's budget can only stretch so far.
With one of the prettiest harbours on the island, Hayden admitted he "drools" when he sees the facilities in some other harbours and thinks about what Cape Broyle could have. A couple of extensions on the wharf would accommodate more boats, and a breakwater would protect the facility. "Cape Broyle harbour is a big harbour, but once you get an easterly wind, it's a job to park a boat there," he noted.
Besides the four or five local fishermen who keep berths at the federal wharf, skippers from other communities who steam into Cape Broyle to offload crab at the Royal Greenland plant often look to tie up their 65-footers at the Harbour Authority's premises too, especially if there is a bit of wind on the go. The Harbour Authority charges a small fee for the space.
"It's no big fee," Hayden admitted. "How much can you charge them, right?... They're not there very long."
Hayden said it’s the dues from the local inshore fishermen mostly that pays for the upkeep of the wharf.
With the boondoggle over prices that spun the crab fishery into a conniption of delays, recriminations, and financial worry last year, nobody is sure when the season will open this year, or how it will go. The crab fishery usually opens the first Monday after Easter. Hayden, like all harvesters, is hoping for the best.
Whatever happens at the bargaining table between the union and the processors, the wharf will be ready. And so will the harvesters.
"I'm at this probably 44 years now and I'm too old to give it up," said Hayden, laughing.
