Notes from the Netshed

Allen H. Soroka is assistant law librarian at the University of British
Columbia Law Library and an avid sportsman.

Mrs. Amor de Cosmos is the nom de plume of a commercial fisher on the
B.C. coast. For the past 15 years, she has written a column for
Westcoast Fisherman. Notes from the Netshed is a collection of over 50
of her columns, divided by the four seasons.

The commercial fisheries of the West Coast are being crushed by two
forces: the urbanization and destruction of the salmon spawning grounds
by real-estate development, and the inexorable concentration of capital
and monopolization within the fishing industry. The independent boat
owners, who have led nomadic and often romantic lives, are fading away.
Against this backdrop, Mrs. de Cosmos writes eloquently about the
fishing life, and about some of the relatives, deckhands, friends, and
cronies who populate it.

A walk along the Steveston docks inspires this reflection: “I will
look for my past in the boats, for fishermen grow nothing, build
nothing, leave nothing behind. All we can do is look at a boat and
capture what it was like for us.” Notes from the Netshed is an
evocative account of a vanishing way of life.