From August 17 to 21, the LFA27 Management Board crew (aka Cape Breton Lobster) manned a booth at the Cape Breton Exhibition in North Sydney. The goal of the exhibit was to promote our local seafood industry (small, coastal owner-operators). Fishermen and lobster technicians were on hand to chat with visitors and answer questions.
Our display included:
- live animals (when we could get them): Lobster Larvae (our little babies), an eel, a moon snail, a clam and a rock crab; and a non-live tuna tail.
- Posters explaining the lobster fishery, our research, and other species important to this area; and one displaying our lobster measures over the years.
- Gear (traps, nets, buoys, harpoon, long line, tote box, banding pliers…)
- Contests (guess the weight of the lobster trap; a seafood recipe contest and fishing for children)
- Photos and video presentations
We interacted with over 700 visitors to the exhibit. How do we know? We had a 684 ballots entered for our “guess the weight of the trap” contest! The weight of the trap was 67lbs. Guesses ranged from 19 lbs to 550lbs with 240 guesses under 67lbs; and 434 over. 10 people guessed the right weight and one name was drawn from the hat to win — Lisa MacKinnon of Neil’s Harbour!
Jimmy Marsh, builder of the trap weighed, hands the hat over to Lois Higgins, soccer coach of Northside Storms U16 girls.
Our seafood recipe contest already received some entries. This contest will run until October 31, 2015 — please send your favourite seafood recipe to capebretonlobster@gmail.com. And our fishing game for children was a hit with people of all ages.
Our special memories of the event:
- As some children played a fishing game (to win a lollipop), their eyes wandered over all the fishing gear displayed and asked interesting questions.
- Learning about people’s connections to the fishery, through friends and relatives; fathers and grandfathers, and their stories.
- People’s reaction to the lobster larvae: WOW! It was such a surprise for all!
- Interacting with fellow fishermen: Fishermen from our region as well as from as far as PEI and NB visited and exchanged information. We were proud to know that our region does more research than others and our fishermen are well informed.
- Catching up with people — CB Exhibition draws everyone from the island so there’s bound to be familiar faces!
- The mutual learning: everyone, especially those manning the booth, felt they learned a lot from interactions.
We are all looking forward to our next social event on October 10: The Farm & Food Show during Celtic Colours at Centre 200. We are planning more surprises!