Lobster boats leave Port Medway Harbour early Tuesday morning on Dumping Day. (Rick Conrad)
More than 1,400 fishing boats left wharves early this morning along the South Shore as lobster season got underway in southwestern Nova Scotia.
Known as Dumping Day, it’s the day that fishermen set their traps in some of North America’s most lucrative lobster grounds. Nova Scotia exported more than $1.3 billion of lobster last year.
Dumping Day was delayed by a day this year because of weather.
Catches were down overall last year, but still accounted for about $318 million.
Some 680 vessels from Queens County motored out at 7 a.m.
Dozens of family and community members were at the wharf in Port Medway to wish fishermen a safe season, which wraps up at the end of May.
Here are some of the people and sounds from the morning.
Susan Letson is on the committee organizing the Medway Head Lighthouse Art and Craft Show and Sale, beginning Friday (Aug. 16) in Port Medway. (Rick Conrad)
Region of Queens Coun. David Brown says he’s not seeking re-election in October partly because he’s frustrated by some of the abusive comments he’s received in the past four years. This photo was taken when he launched his first election campaign in 2020. (David Brown councillor Facebook page)
When David Brown ran for Region of Queens council for the first time in 2020, he wanted to try to make things better for the people in his district.
Brown represents District 6, the areas around Port Medway, Mill Village, Greenfield and Labelle.
He was ready to work hard and bring his constituents’ issues to the council table. What he wasn’t prepared for, though, were some of the abusive comments he would receive after he was elected.
“It’s online, it’s in person, it’s all the way across the spectrum in dealings with people,” Brown told QCCR.
“It just seems like after Covid, everybody was angry and they found people that thought the same way as them online and it became an echo chamber, that they feel they can say whatever they want because you’re a public figure. And really, that’s not the way to treat your friends, your family, your neighbours, people in your community that have just put their name out and step up and try to do the best for people.”
Brown has had enough and has decided not to reoffer in October’s municipal election. Some other council members have said privately that they’re also frustrated by some of the online abuse.
“I think people have legitimate concerns and they should absolutely voice those concerns. But when people start voicing those concerns is that politicans are corrupt because they didn’t decide the way they wanted to or they’re lining their pockets or we’re criminals and we should be thrown in jail. That’s not voicing your opinion, that’s anger and those are attacks. If somebody disagrees, I’m wholeheartedly in favour of people voicing their disagreements. It’s the tone of the disagreements and the way they voice them now, I’m just not interested in putting up with for another four years.”
It’s a familiar story for politicians around the province and at all levels of government. Amanda McDougall-Merrill, the mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality, has said that she won’t seek re-election partly because of threats she received as mayor.
And RCMP announced this week charges against two Alberta men for posting threats on YouTube and X or Twitter about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
Brown says he hasn’t been threatened. But he’s still frustrated by the tone of some of the disparaging feedback he’s received.
“Maybe others don’t find the same thing but I found that it seems the harder you try to work, it seems like you’re upsetting people. As councillors we have to try to do the most good for the most people. But that means that some people are going to be unhappy but those people are very vocal and will attack now just because they didn’t get their way. And that’s really just not the way it should be.”
Robert Huish, an associate professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, has studied civic and political engagement.
He says abusive and threatening comments rose exponentially after Donald Trump was elected U.S. president in 2016. And because the U.S. has such an influence on political and popular culture, Huish says that flavour of political vitriol has bled to other countries.
But he says toxicity has been a fixture in political discourse dating back to the 19th century.
“It’s something that is like a crescendo that we’re seeing right now,” Huish says.
“It’s coming to this big climax of political culture that seems to be producing and reproducing hatred through discourse and engagement rather than try to find something about a rules-based order and listening and those compromises that are so important in governance.
“The more that we’ve normalized the ability to describe and caricature people through derogatory or offensive names and stereotypes and the more that becomes common, the more it’s ultimately reproduced.”
He said social media is a great tool for politicians to engage with voters. But it’s also made it easier for people to attack politicians personally.
“Any sort of politics, especially municipal, it’s about engagement. And engagement is fostered on the ability to listen, respond, debate, discuss. And if we’re seeing the only feedback that’s getting the attention of politicians at the municipal level is this really heated vitriol then it really puts any politician in a position to not respond effectively to the issue at hand but try to deflect from whatever character attack is coming in.
“And now it begins to unfold into what can be called a democracy deficit, because it’s as if those who are holding the seeds o governance are just going to be attacked for being there, rather being pressured for change or to hear community concerns.”
Huish said putting pressure on politicians is a good thing. But personal attacks actually work against making our politics better. And he says they may be losing their effectiveness as people get tired of the lashing out.
“You can’t make people do something, but you can certainly put certain behaviour out of fashion quickly. And this might be getting to be too tired because it’s ineffective to try to have political engagement along these terms.”
For now, though, it’s pushing people like David Brown out of politics.
Canadian shot put thrower Sarah Mitton throws during the group A qualification round during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in July 2021. (Photo by Mark Blinch/COC)
With the Summer Olympics just over a month away, anticipation is building for fans of Queens County Olympian and world champion Sarah Mitton.
And to show support for Brooklyn’s best-known athlete, the Region of Queens is organizing a video tribute to send to Mitton to cheer her on as she goes for shotput gold in Paris.
The municipality is calling on people to record a video that’s 10 seconds or less. They’ll edit all the videos into one and send it to Mitton as she prepares for the Olympics.
The region’s mayor Darlene Norman is organizing her own video tribute on Saturday morning near her home in Port Medway.
“I’m hopeful that many people will show up from Port, neighbouring communities and perhaps some other places,” Norman said Thursday.
Norman’s video will be recorded at the village’s lighthouse park near the wharf at 9 a.m..
“I’d encourage people if they have any of the Sarah signs left from the last Olympics to bring them along. If they want to bring a big poster, if they want to wear bright clothing, just bring your happy spirit to send Sarah some great words.”
She won Canada’s first-ever world medal in women’s shot put with her silver at the Budapest games in 2023. And she is a Commonwealth Games champion and Pan American Games champion.
She recently won gold at the USATF New York City Grand Prix.
Mitton, who turned 28 on Thursday, is getting ready for the Canadian track and field trials coming up at the end of June in Montreal.
“I’ve had my eye on Paris for two years at least,” Mitton said. “And everything we’ve been doing in the last two years is a part of our preparation.”
Norman says Mitton is an inspiration to many people.
“I’ve always admired her. She’s so well spoken and she’s such a good representative for Queens County and Nova Scotia and Canada. And she’s from Brooklyn. Think about it. We had no fancy track facilities, we just had volunteer teachers who coached, and Sarah stood out and shone, found what she loves and pursued it. And I think that’s such an excellent role model for anyone in any walk of life.”
Even if they can’t make it to Port Medway on Saturday morning, Norman encourages people to make their own videos.
“Get together in your own community, get together with your family, your friends, send a solo video. Just take part and send Sarah Mitton a cheer, a hello, a good luck, a ‘we’re so proud of you’, whatever message people like to make.”
The region is accepting videos by email until July 2. You can send them to cheersfromhome@regionofqueens.com. All videos must be no longer than 10 seconds.
Scot Slessor at his stained glass studio SAS Glass, just off Main Street in Liverpool. Slessor is one of the organizers of the Queens Coast Art Tour on June 22 and 23. (Rick Conrad)
Liverpool stained glass artist Scot Slessor wants the Queens Coast Art Tour to be memorable.
But he also wants the map for the tour to be just as unforgettable, and useful. Last year, he recruited Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman to help him with a video explaining how to make a paper airplane out of the map.
Obviously making a paper airplane isn’t the map’s most important function. In fact, Slessor wants people to unfold it to reveal the many Queens County artisans listed there and pay them a visit during the Queens Coast Art Tour.
The map plots all participating artisans and businesses, with QR codes that link to their websites or social media accounts.
Slessor owns SAS Glass in downtown Liverpool. He and some other local artisans got together last year to form the Queens County Arts and Crafts Society, taking over from the Queens Arts Council.
One of their first projects was to create an art map and studio tour. That happened last October, and it included almost 25 artisans from Liverpool to Western Head to Port Medway.
This year, it’s expanded to more than 40 artists, shops and popups all over Queens County. And there will be two chances to participate, in June and October.
The first one is coming up on June 22 and 23. The tour runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.
Slessor says it’s all about promoting Queens County as an arts destination, and about artisans opening up their studios or demonstrating their craft to local residents and visitors.
“I’ve been on a ton of these studio tours,” Slessor said in a recent interview.
“What I’ve told everybody, you’re just not another sale. Just don’t put stuff on a table. If you’re painting, paint. I’m glass, I’ll be doing something with glass those days. People can come in, I can show them what I do, what the materials are, how I play with them. That has to be there, because people do find that interesting. … We need to be different. Everybody does craft sales up and down the shore. So what’s the difference? I think the difference should be come on down, we’re throwing some pottery, we’re making some jewelry, you can see what we’re doing.”
Slessor says last October’s art tour was a success for many of the artists, some of whom were surprised by how many people dropped by to see them in action.
“I had 30 people each day in here. All I did was gab all day to people. And then I talked to other people who never really opened their studio and they said, ‘I can’t believe all these people showed up to my studio.’ So, it was kind of cool.
“You might show one person your studio and have a cup of coffee, but when you have 20 people rolling through in a day, it is kind of neat.”
In addition to visiting artisans at their studios or work spaces, art lovers can also meet them at three popup locations: the Astor Theatre, White Point Beach Resort and Coastal Queens Place in Port Mouton.
“Some artists are very quiet and unassuming. And suddenly you find there’s a guy on the street here who’s a fantastic portrait painter. You didn’t even know he was there. And locally, I think it’s important. Last October, when we did this, a lot of folks who came around were local.
“One of the wider goals of something like this is you feel like you have a sense of community and that you’re not working totally in isolation. Doing art can be a very isolating thing. To let them know that they have a community to be part of.”
Aside from the obvious goal of giving artisans more chances to sell their work, another objective of the tour is to bring art lovers to the area from all over the province and beyond.
“In the perfect world, I’d love to see artisans selling stuff and making some money,” Slessor says.
“I think if we bring people to the county, whether they buy from one of us or just spend some time in a restaurant or going to the Astor or doing whatever, that’s all positive. So we (hope to) increase the number of people coming into the county.”
Slessor says the Queens County Arts and Crafts Society has also applied for provincial funding to help them work on their online marketing and promotion.
And he says he’d like to see international artists come to Liverpool for four-week residencies.
The former diplomat has reached out to some of his contacts overseas.
“It would be great to have, I don’t know, a Taiwanese artist here for four or five weeks. They’d be at the Astor. We would introduce them to other artisans. It would be fun and informative and something totally different.”
People can pick up a Queens Coast art tour map in Liverpool at the Visitor Information Centre, the Astor Theatre, Main and Mersey coffee bar, Shore Thing Studio and Emporium or at SAS Glass just across from the Astor.
Ronnie Conrad on the West Berlin Wharf on Friday, on the last day of lobster fishing season. (Rick Conrad)
Friday was the last day of lobster fishing season on Nova Scotia’s South Shore.
And fishermen at wharves in Queens County say it was a good one.
Ronnie Conrad of West Berlin has been fishing for 44 years. He said conditions on the water were rougher than last year, with more wind, but catches were up.
“(It’s) been a real good season. It started off good, but it didn’t sound like it was going to be a real good season all over, but I call it a real good season.
“We were up probably stock-wise another 25, 30 per cent.”
Almost 1,700 licensed vessels fish along Nova Scotia’s southwestern shore, from Cow Bay near Halifax, around the southwestern end of the province to the Bay of Fundy.
The season opened in lobster fishing area 33 on Nov. 26. That’s the area from Cow Bay to Shelburne. And it began a couple of days later in LFA 34, which takes in the rest of southwestern Nova Scotia to Digby County.
Conrad said he thinks most fishermen in both districts did well.
“Overall, I think everybody came out pretty good. Southwest, District 34, was down all fall and all winter, but they had a real good spring. So that was a plus for them.”
He said he usually fishes about 25 kilometres off shore in the winter time, leaving at 3 in the morning and getting back about 12 hours later. And for the first few days of the season, if catches are good, he and his crew will be out for up to 20 hours, hauling as many as 500 traps total, double what they would do on a normal day.
This year, though, he decided to stick closer to the coast.
“Normally, I go out there probably about 16, 17 miles in the wintertime. But this year, I didn’t venture out that far because there weren’t any lobsters offshore.
“It got cold quick. It started off colder than last year too. It keeps the catch down. Lobster won’t crawl in cold water. This spring it warmed up quick and we had an excellent spring. Everywhere along the coast we had a real good spring.”
Lobster fisherman Mike Mattatall unloaded his last catch of the season at the wharf in Port Medway on Friday. (Rick Conrad)
38-year-old Mike Mattatall from Sable River has been fishing most of his life. For the past three years, he’s had his own boat out of Port Medway.
“Every season is so different. Last year was probably a little more in catch, but the average price through the winter helped sell some more lobsters through (last) winter because the water was warmer. Colder water made the winter pretty slow this year.”
Mattatall said prices started out around $9 a pound this season, went up as high as $20 in the winter when the catch was scarce and settled around $7 a pound this spring.
Just because the season’s over, though, it doesn’t mean the work stops. Fishermen will spend the summer and fall fixing up their boats, building new traps and spending some time with their families.
But you won’t hear people like Mattatall and Conrad complain.
“It’s a lifestyle, though. I don’t really know what it is, comparable to other kind of work. You’d probably have to come do it and tell me how much different it is than your job. It depends on who you are. We don’t find it hard. We like it.”
Conrad says he’s not going to retire yet.
“My wife wants me to be done now, but the money’s just too good yet, so I’m gonna hang in for another year or two anyway.”
The Port Medway Readers Festival has announced its 2024 lineup.
The Port Medway Readers Festival has announced its lineup of guest authors for their 2024 season.
The annual literary event began in 2002 and allows literature lovers to meet writers in an intimate, friendly setting in the village of Port Medway.
Past festivals have featured Margaret Atwood, Tomson Highway, Jane Urquhart and many other renowned and best-selling writers, poets and playwrights.
This year, the festival will welcome Rosemary Sullivan, author of the memoir Where the World Was, on July 20; Michael Crummey, with his new novel The Adversary, on Aug. 17; Holly Hogan with her non-fiction work, Message in a Bottle: Ocean Dispatches from a Seabird Biologist, on Aug. 18, and Alexander MacLeod, reading from his new book of short stories, Animal Person, on Aug. 31.
Tickets go on sale Mon., May 13 at 6 p.m. You can find more information about the Port Medway Readers Festival on their Facebook page or at portmedwayreadersfestival.com.
Cathie Pincombe and Ray Leger of the Medway Head Lighthouse Society. The group is looking for volunteers to help preserve the iconic light near the end of Long Cove Road in Port Medway. (Rick Conrad)
A local community group is hoping to recruit more people to help preserve a historic lighthouse in what some refer to as the Peggys Cove of Queens County.
The Medway Head Lighthouse Society took possession of the lighthouse in 2014.
Near the end of the picturesque Long Cove Road in Port Medway, the current light has been standing since 1983. But there has been a lighthouse of some kind at the site since 1851, when I.K. Perry was the inaugural keeper.
Cathie Pincombe is secretary of the Medway Head Lighthouse Society and is an organizer of the Medway Head Lighthouse Art and Craft Show. Both are run entirely by volunteers. She says they need more to make sure this piece of Nova Scotia’s heritage survives.
“We are a dedicated hard-working group of people that want to save our iconic Medway Head Lighthouse just like all the other iconic lighthouses in this province. And if not for societies like ours, we would not have lighthouses in this province.”
Like all Nova Scotia lighthouses, the Medway Head Lighthouse was automated in 1983. But it still opens in the summer to tourists, who can learn about the vital part these structures and their hardy, brave keepers and their families played in seaside communities like Port Medway.
The society maintains the lighthouse, doing necessary repairs and upkeep.
Some of the art from last year’s Medway Head Lighthouse Art and Craft Show in Port Medway. (Medway Head Lighthouse Society Facebook page)
To do that, they hold a major fundraiser every summer in the village of Port Medway. The society will hold its 11th annual art and craft Show in August.
“We are the largest art show on the South Shore. And it’s a pretty impressive show. We have anywhere between 70 and 80 artists that are part of the show every year.”
To run the lighthouse and the art show, however, Pincombe says they need more volunteers. The lighthouse is open three days a week from late June to early September. And the art show goes from Aug. 17 to 25.
The show alone requires eight volunteers daily for nine days. And the lighthouse needs enough volunteers to cover 36 shifts through the summer.
Sales at the art show are vital to pay for lighthouse repairs and maintenance. Last September’s Hurricane Lee blew much of the siding from one side of the structure.
“It still is going to require some specialized equipment and we’re hopeful we can get it done in the $10,000 range. So it’s not inexpensive to maintain a lighthouse.”
Pincombe says it’s getting more difficult to find volunteers, even as it becomes more important to replenish their ranks.
The society hopes to hire a student for the summer to help with tours and administration. And she says they’re also on the lookout for a treasurer.
“I think it’s getting tougher because even though there are a lot of people moving into the area, and we try to get to know our new community members and hope that they will get involved, it doesn’t seem to be quite as easy to get volunteers as it has been. And we’ve expanded the locations (of the art show) and the number of days. So we’re giving ourselves a bigger number of shifts to cover. So it’s not as easy.
“We volunteers are getting older, so we need younger people to get involved.”
Pincombe says the lighthouse and the art show draw people from across Canada and around the world. Her partner Ray Leger looks after the building and its volunteers and leads many of the tours at the lighthouse in the summer.
“I think we had something like 800 visitors to the lighthouse last year. And Ray … tracks where everybody comes from. And it’s a wide range of people from all over the place. And you’d be amazed how many local people like to come out to the lighthouse.
“So it’s a great cause. The art show is a fun thing to volunteer with, because it’s busy. You meet lots of people. And the lighthouse is a fabulous place to volunteer because you meet people from all over the world with stories and why they came here. It’s really an exciting thing to do.”
Planting eel grass. Photo courtesy of Ecology Action Centre. Credit: Nicolas Winkler
A pilot project to protect eel grass along part of the coastline in Port Medway got underway this summer.
While the process is established in other parts of the world it is relatively new to Nova Scotia.
Eel grass conservation technician with the Ecology Action Centre Aaron Clausen says eel grass is vitally important as part of a healthy marine ecosystem.
“It’s kind of hard not to overstate the importance of eel grass… kind of hard not to overstate the importance and the benefits that eel grass meadows provide both to the environment and just humans. First and foremost, they provide a great deal of support to our fish populations and commercial fisheries. They create tons of structural habitat for a lot of these species and an area for kind of juveniles as a nursery ground, things like lobster, eel, salmon, and some shellfish,” said Clausen. “Additionally, they improve water quality, oxygenates the water column, remove toxins, excess nutrients and increases clarity and eel grass meadows also protect our Coastline it can dampen strong waves, buffers the shoreline from storm surges and this all helps to slow coastal erosion.”
Clausen says the small aquatic plant could also be part of a solution to a global problem.
“And the last thing that we still don’t really have a great concept of the extent that eel grass can help at least in Nova Scotia, but it captures and stores carbon from the atmosphere in these sediments so it’s potentially a nature based solution.”
The site was selected after a local property owner notified the Ecology Action Centre of dead eel grass washing up on their shore.
Teams from the Ecology Action Centre and Dalhousie University’s Future of Marine Ecosystems Lab partnered to determine which methods work best to restore eel grass in Nova Scotia.
Over 6,000 seed, 250 shoots and 25 sods were transplanted from a donation site to the Port Medway location.
Clausen says they’re hopeful the techniques used in Port Medway can be applied to restore eel grass at other locations in Nova Scotia and beyond.
“One of the main goals of this project is to find a, if there is a way that works and b, if it’s a scalable method,” said Clausen. “Obviously, you want to do as much of this as possible especially with all of the great benefits that eel grass provides. You want to upscale it quickly.”
The Ecology Action Centre has set up a site where citizen scientists can help track the location of eel grass across the province.
Input from everyday Nova Scotians will be added to a map of eel grass meadows that will help government, academic researchers and other non-profit and community groups monitor the location and conditions of the meadows.
Follow this link to participate in the eelgrass mapping project:
The owner of the Port Grocer hopes whoever buys the establishment understands they’re taking responsibility for the heart of the seaside community.
Over the past seven years the Port Grocer has served Port Medway as café, local grocery store, post office, live music venue, yoga studio, community garden and showcase for local artisans.
Owner Annabelle Singleton says what’s most important is that whoever takes this on recognizes its connection to the community.
“We have had incredible support from this community. There’s such an eclectic, diverse group of people here and everyone’s got something different to add or offer.”
Singleton began the business seven years ago with her two friends Deb Melanson and Sparrow Lyndsey.
Lyndsey returned to Ontario because of family obligations seven months after launching the business, leaving Singleton and Melanson to run the show with help from Singleton’s husband Robie Sagar.
For Singleton, running the Port Grocer to provide locally-sourced food aligned with some of her core values.
“If you have healthy, small communities, rural communities where people can work and get their food, it means a lot less travel. It’s a lot lighter living on the Earth.”
Singleton says they are looking for a buyer who will understand the Port Grocer is more than just a business.
“There are elders here in the community who, basically, some days, the Port Grocer staff would be the only people they might communicate with. That sort of stuff is really important to us.”
Singleton says they’re selling after some family health issues and the pandemic have given them pause to reflect on what they want to be doing over the next few years.
“It comes down to a quality of life decision. As much as we love getting up early and staying late at the Port Grocer and being on call seven days a week, you know, there are other things that we want to do.”
Annabelle Singleton relaxing behind the soon to be for sale, Port Grocer. Photo Ed Halverson
Singleton says she and husband, Sagar will remain living in Port Medway. Singleton will continue working her day job as an environmental regulatory consultant and the two have plans to move their tiny home from behind the Port Grocer to their home and establish a small retreat.
The final preparations are being made with their real estate agent and Singelton expects the Port Grocer will hit the market in the next few weeks.
She’s grateful to everyone who has worked, volunteered or even just come in to eat over the years to help make the Port Grocer what it is.
“It’s been such an honour to be part of this and to get to know both the very local, and the summer residents and the people who are touring Nova Scotia and who found us by accident. People are blown away when they come to Port Medway. There’s something in the water here, I think. It’s magical.”
