Tripatini contributor Kaleel Sakakeeny writes:

"It’s certainly tempting to think of Grand Manan as God's shrug of land surrounded by a vast, changing and beautiful sea.

There is something about small fishing villages on islands that holds my heart tightly, especially those snuggled against rocky coasts with mists hovering like shifting shrouds.

Partly it's the pitched, jarring sound of gulls or the air heavy with the scent of salt and fish.

But I think it's the deep quiet, a stillness surrounding the colored, paint-pealing fishing boats at tether, waiting patiently to be called again to the sea.

So it is with Grand Manan Island, on the Bay of Fundy at the very tip of New Brunswick, Canada, part of the province's  maritime archipelago.

One could describe this 21-by-11 mile island with fewer than 3,000 people as a huge fishery. Fishing  in one form or another is the backbone of the island's economy. There are big wooden herring pens everywhere in the sea. There are lobster traps or buoys on front yards. There are lobster boats and lobster meals and the business of fishing everywhere. Then again, it's tempting to think of the island as one delightful, big field of lupin, those ramrod-straight, deep violet or pink flowers that fill the spaces along the roads and in the yards of simple homes."

Read more in his post New Brunswick´s Grand Manan: One of Canada´s Top Ten Islands.


Jake Wellington