In coastal villages such as Oyster Pond, inshore fishing not only provided food for a family’s table, but also served as a way to earn a small livelihood. Unlike fishermen who travelled far and wide in large schooners, inshore fishermen always remained in sight of land; rowing out in small one or two-man dories.

The inshore fishing season would begin every April and would continue until the end of October. During the winter off season, inshore fishermen like Ervine Myers would work in the woods; cutting firewood for his family’s needs, or cutting pulp for resale in a lumber camp.

Every spring, inshore fishermen would spend a great deal of time preparing for their season. One of their main priorities was to make sure that their dories were seaworthy and ready to face the Atlantic Ocean’s frigid, saltwater. The Myers had a slip next to the property’s fish house where Ervine would haul up his boats for inspection.

In addition to preparing their vessels, fishermen had to make sure their equipment was ready for the long season. Many of these men would fashion their own nets and traps by hand. Nets were needed to catch fish like herring, cod, halibut, haddock and smelts, while traps were built to catch lobsters and pots were constructed to catch eels.

Most inshore fishermen left home at sunrise, fished through the day and then returned home at night, but along the Eastern Shore, it was not unusual for men in the Myers, Mitchell and Daye families to rise at 4 a.m., row their dories to the mouth of the harbour, fish for the rest of the day, then land the catch on one of the nearby islands. Ervine had a fish house on Roger Barren Island where he kept his gear and would land his catch. Inside this fish house, a plain bed, table, chair and small stove offered some shelter and comfort during long fishing trips.

Fish were processed on the island by the men and at the wharf at home in Oyster Pond by the Myers daughters. The fish (herring) might be salted, gutted, split and placed between layers of salt in a barrel. Perhaps the cod were cleaned split and dried in the sun on flakes make of poles. The family would keep as much as they needed for their own use and would then sell the rest.

Almost a hundred years later, we consider the lifestyle of the inshore fisherman both difficult and dangerous. For the inshore fishing family, it took ingenuity to survive. Although no one was rich in terms of money, there was richness in these families’ lives that came from the land, the sea and the incredible beauty of the coastline.