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    CoastalSafari@
    CoastalSafari.com

    Telephone
    1-877-888-3020 (Toll free) or
    709-579-3977 

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    Coastal Safari.com
    50 Monkstown Rd. St. John's, Nfld. Canada. A1C 3T3
     
     
     

     
    MAY 2001


    On the South Coast of Newfoundland this Spring everything from Whales to Bald Eagles are feasting on the abundant herring stocks. South Coast herring were almost fished to extinction in the 1960's by a fleet of purse seiners but with a ban on purse seining in Fortune Bay the stocks have rebounded to the benefit of everybody including fisherman Russ Winsor who has his gillnet a few hundred yards from home in Harbour Mille . Russ also fishes lobster and cod.    


    Atlantic Herring (Clupea harengus harengus) Linnaeus, 1758.
     

      At the Coastal Safari Camp in Long Harbour,  whales are driving the herring into the beach in front of the tents. Long Harbour has been renowned for centuries as a great spot for herring fishing and fishing schooners bound for the Grand Banks cod fishery used to stop here for bait. Like the schooner fishermen of old the  Humpback whales just back from their winter sojourn in the Caribbean know that Fortune Bay is a great spot for a meal of herring. Besides Humpbacks we've also seen a lot of  Minkes, Porpoises and Dolphins over the past two weeks. It's amazing to stand on the beach and see whales circling offshore driving the herring in toward the land and then to have thousands of desperate herring thrashing around at your feet as they try to escape the approaching predators. The water boiling with herring and the sound of the blowing whales makes a spectacular sight!





    Meanwhile the Black Back Gulls and Bald Eagles that have fattened up on herring have built their nests and are sitting on their eggs.

     
       
     
     
     
     

    " Hope to see you this summer !"
     

    Anna Buffinga
    President,
    CoastalSafari.com


    Copyright © 2002 by Newfoundland Eco Adventure Tours Ltd. Any reproduction of the material in these web site documents is forbidden without express written consent from the owners. Images on this site by: Leona Ottenheimer, Bill Montevecchi, Allie Cumming, Henny Buffinga, Anna Buffinga, Mona Shahwan El-Tahan and Bob Warren