Newfoundland's Idle Fishermen Wait for the Cod to Come Back
Sesk and his crew were so carried away winching a catch up from underwater that they filled his 35-foot skiff to the gunwales with cod and sea water. The vessel sank so low it nearly went under.</br></br>Sesk tells the story as he shows a visitor the skiff, now propped on blocks in a shed near his house for the winter. The wooden vessel, wearing a coat of fresh paint, looks ready to haul in another big catch any time.</br></br>It hasn't landed so much as a guppy, however, since September 1991. The fishing grounds Sesk plied for 30 years are closed by government order, because there are not enough fish to catch. Sesk and thousands of others like him are idle, waiting for the day when the haddock, pollock, redfish and, especially, the cod return to the waters of Newfoundland.</br></br>They will have to wait a long time - five to seven years, according to a report issued last week that called the plight of the Newfoundland fishery "a disaster of biblical proportions." In the meantime, some 40,000 fishermen and fish-plant workers twiddle their thumbs and collect benefit checks that drain the treasury of Canada.</br></br>"It's hard to get used to not working," Sesk, 47, said in a lilt common to the tiny seaside communities in Newfoundland. "You only can occupy some of your time, right? There's nothing as bad as not having anything to do."