Tradition.

Last week, my Dad called Mark and I to see if we wanted to go look at squarenets...

Neither of us had any idea what squarenets were but our curiosity kicked in and we hit the open road to the picturesque Gaspereau Valley!

We ran into someone that my father knows through a family connections - really, there is no one that he doesn't know around here - and Mark and I were given a demonstration of how the squarenets work.

We were told that squarenets are a form of fishing that started in the late 1800s to gather a large amount of fish at once and involve (somewhat) less attention than that of with a fishing rod. There is a platform built about 15 feet from the ground where the fisherman with jump off of, pushing down the pole that raises the net in which the fish - in this case, Gaspereau - will swim into. The use of squarenets and the fishing of Gaspereau is a short season of 1 month long. 

In this particular case, the fish gathered from this squarenet were being sent to Haiti!

The family was nice enough to send us home with a few Gaspereau that we watched them catch just moments prior (I may have cried a little). I am not a huge seafood fan but I will say that Gaspereau - besides the annoying amount of small bones - were pretty tasty! 

If you ever find yourself in the Gaspereau Valley of Nova Scotia during the month of May, you should definitely try to find a squarenet and the extremely friendly people that manage these rad contraptions!