Fishermen

This is the best time to be a West Coast fishermen...seeing we have the largest run of Sockeye Salmon in a 100 years. The Department of Fisheries estimate that a total of 30 million fish are returning to spawn this season.

You should have seen the crowds that turned up on Sunday at Steveston Wharf! At one point in the day, the line-ups to purchase these huge salmon were two hours long.
I decided to purchase a fish on a quieter Monday morning and it turned into a new experience for me. What I didn’t realize was that hundreds of fishing boats were poised along the Fraser River getting ready for another haul of fish. As I stood on a fishing pier with my camera, I noticed hundreds of fishing vessels lined up on either side of the River. At 10 am sharp, they took off into the middle of the river, lying down their gill nets. As they did so, salmon could be seen jumping out of the water, trying their best to elude the hundreds of nets that blocked their passage to the spawning grounds.

You could also see the occasional seal, opportunistic and sneaky, taking their easy pickings. I came back that afternoon to see if I could catch some shots of these hardworking fishermen pulling in their nets.

I was not disappointed as they pulled in their prized catch. What a sight to behold!

What a reminder for me concerning the words of Jesus, when he called out;
“Come follow me...I will make you fishers of men!”