Shrimp Tug ASHAWAY

In this series of photos by René Beauchamp of Montreal, the 31.5' shrimper ASHAWAY motors into the well protected harbour at Rivière-au-Renaud to unload her catch on June 18th.

The quaint harbour of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia - September 1994

Owned by Pierre English of L'Anse-au-Griffon, the 180 hp ASHAWAY was built in 1987 at Sea Pride Boat Works of Clarks Harbour, NS, a small community located along the province's southern shoreline and famous world-wide for the building of the "Cape Islander" which is a familiar sight all over Nova Scotia, especially that familiar scene at Peggy's Cove.
Though she has a similar wheelhouse and a fibreglass hull, ASHAWAY is longer and has a different hull design than the "Cape Islander" which is primarily used for lobster trapping.

Pandalus borealis (also known as, Northern Shrimp or in French, Crevette nordique) can be found throughout the northwest Atlantic Ocean and the cold deep waters of the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River Estuary primarily at depths of 500 to 1,000 feet. Of the approximately 28,000 metric tonnes of shrimp that are caught yearly in this region by fish tugs like the ASHAWAY, 60% is exported to European markets and the remaining 40% is distributed in Canada and the United States. Though based a little further east along the Gaspé Peninsula  shoreline in L'Anse-au-Griffon, processing and packaging for La Crevette du Nord Atlantique is actually done at Rivière-au-Renaud, and their Marinard plant can seen in the background of René's picturesque flat-water harbour photo, above.

Shrimp fishing runs from April to October so when René Beauchamp snapped his photos in June of this year, the season would have been almost at its mid-peak. Howver when Janice and I visited Rivière-au-Renaud during our tour to the Gaspésie region and Percé Rock in late September of 2010, many shrimp tugs had already been taken out of the water in preparation for old man winter's imminent arrival. To read more about that Fish'n Ships feature, click this link: http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/07/shrimp-boats-jocelyne-b-maree-haute-1.html