There is something both refreshingly and depressingly unpolitically correct about the New Brunswick Aquarium (NBA for future reference) in Shippagan. Maybe it is that I am too used the Vancouver Public Aquarium (VPA for same), but then maybe the NBA is presenting a different perspective on sea life. Either that or it is too closely associated with the University of Moncton, Shippagan campus. The NBA focuses on the aquatic life around New Brunswick, mostly salt water but it had a few fresh water tanks. Fair enough, small aquarium and all that, so someone familiar with the VPA might allow. However, I really can’t see the VPA having a section in the information boards saying whether a given species was tasty or not and whether any one fished them! It reminded me of a line in “Comment Obélix est tombé dans la marmite quand il était petit”. Astérix talks about their natural history lesson in school: “Nous apprenions tout sur le sanglier, ses mœurs, sa cuisson.”
The NBA is an aquarium about commercial fishing and what an important part of the economy it is. There was a short film about fishermen and how their lot had improved in the 1950s, before they diversified their catch in around 1970s to include crustaceans such as lobster, snow crab and shrimp. It leaves out bits such as they had to diversify as the big factory trawlers were vacuuming up the cod, putting the small boats out of business. It showed how the new fishing schools were teaching safety, electronic navigation and best fishing practices including quality control. It didn’t comment on but showed an example of the macho attitudes I have noticed among fisherman. Strangely enough, I had seen it last year in Alma in the names of some of the fishing boats. The “Fundy Fury” was one of the boats in the film. I just checked my blog entry for Alma and there it was. End of rant about the NBA.
I had left Caraquet relatively late on the grounds it was always going to be a short day. I rolled along the well paved former rail bed through what were mostly forests, but also fields. It was nice and sunny and the mozzies were sleeping. It was therefore somewhat depressing that all but one of the other users were riding electric assisted bikes! At a guess, most of them seemed older than I, but it galled me to see them “waste” the opportunity the flat bike path offered them. I was vaguely tempted to tell them about Pappy having ridden the path in 2009, less than a year his hip replacement. ;-)
After making the turn towards Shippagan, I noticed an oncoming cyclist weaving a shade erratically, before stopping looking into the nearby field, then turning to me with his hands in the air with his thumbs near his head. I stopped. It turned out he had just seen a bull moose in the field which had really impressed him. Unfortunately, it had just gone into the underbrush. I commented that if moose doesn’t want to be seen, then it is gone. We chatted a bit and I tried to say that I considered the moose my totem animal and pointed out the moose silhouette on Leonardo, but I don’t think he really understood what I was saying.
The plan for tomorrow is to leave most of my baggage at my motel in Shippagan and ride out to end of Miscou Island and back. With sightseeing detours and the like, it should be about 90 kilometres or so. The weather, well, the forecast calls for mostly sunny weather, which is good, and a southerly wind, which isn’t as it means I will be going against the wind on the way home.
There was also a weather advisory from Environment Canada saying that tropical storm Franklin may cause rain in the Atlantic Provinces. It will not be anything like Fiona, thank God!
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