The Hungry Ocean

The Hungry Ocean
by Linda Greenlaw

For anyone who doesn’t know Greenlaw was the female swordboat captain played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in the movie The Perfect Storm who made the impassioned plea by radio-phone to Billy Tyne to get out of the region just south of Sable Island because he was sailing into hell. She has been in the news most recently due to her court appearance in St John’s Newfoundland because, as she explained it, her 40-mile long-line was pulled into Canada’s 200-mile limit by a boat that crossed it and dragged it there. She was found guilty and heavily fined; an experience she’d obviously like to put behind her. It was in the wake of the publicity that followed upon the movie and the novelty attached to her being a female captain and a successful one that she wrote and published this book in 1999.

Fishing is not an exact science else, as Greenlaw writes, it would be called catching. In my native Nova Scotia it has been said that a good sea captain could “smell” his way into harbour even in fog so dense he couldn’t see past his nose. In the days of sail good fishing boat captains had a sense of where the fish were, in much the same way a water-witcher finds an underground spring on dry land. Certainly their knowledge of the sea and their observation of bait fish and seabird activity gave them clues but they possessed an instinctual ability to find the best plot of ocean to set their long lines. Today nylon mono-filament has replaced twisted hemp fibre and navigational beacons have made finding that line again easier but the principle of bait attracting fish to a hook hasn’t changed. You can’t fish if the fish aren’t there and the sea remains a harsh mistress.

Anyone who has ridiculed the weatherman in the Maritimes can understand the limitations of modern science when it comes to ocean currents, hurricanes, and weather. Superstitions tend to attach themselves to that which is unknowable and uncontrollable. When it comes to the sea and fishing few endeavours in life attract more superstitions. Therefore a woman aboard a fishing boat, forget that she’s captain, goes way beyond novelty.

Fishing by lunar cycle reminds me of neighbours at home in Lunenburg County who planted their potatoes by the full of the moon. Modern fishing boats may be marvels of technology and science but successful boat captains still use their instincts and intuition alongside all that fancy equipment. Greenlaw attempts, without overwhelming her reader with too much detail, to explain both sides of her trade. In an appendix she outlines the costs involved in one voyage along with the crew dispensations. But she does not own the boat she commands hence the capital costs involved are not explained; her figures do not include value of the boat, depreciation, and maintenance.