Harry Hinks

Harry Hinks’s Interview

Harry Hinks is a retired fisherman from De Grau. He has been retired now five years, after fishing forty-three years. He began fishing when he was fifteen years old and stopped fishing when he was fifty-eight years old. The reason why he stopped fishing was because he took early retirement.

Harry fished in De Grau. He mainly fished lobster, cod, herring, lumpfish, and mackerel. He first fished in a row dory but after a few years, he began to fish in a flat bottom boat with a motor. There was a lot of fish at times to catch, especially in the spring.

Harry missed fishing at first because he was so used to doing it, that it was a part of him. But now, he does not miss fishing because it's been too long since he's been out on the water. Fishing was an occupation that Harry enjoyed but either way you still had to do it whether you enjoyed it or not. Fishing was a main source of income for people in the community, but it was not something that was kept up from generation to generation in Harry's family. People only fished on his mother's side, not on his father's. The struggles Harry faced when fishing on the water was wind and bad weather. When Harry started fishing, people fished when they wanted. Rules for fishing only came out in the last twenty-five to thirty years. There was about five or six fishermen where Harry fished because fishermen were scattered all over the place in De Grau.

Harry does not have any fishing stories to tell but he did have a few things to say about the fishery in general. Fish was always dried. Dry fish was ten cents a pound. Bulk fish was six cents a pound. A cull was dried fish that was either ripped or torn; either way they were sold for the same price as the good fish.