A Catch of Kiack
Kiack
The annual Kiack (aka Alewives or Gaspereaux) run is on now in many rivers in Nova Scotia. An abundance of the silver fish that are caught by dipping and then pickled or smoked. It’s apparently a good year as speaking to the locals they had some very good catches. It’s nice to know that some fish are still doing well despite the changes human have wrought – of course moderated by the fact that the fish are now strictly regulated as to season, method and numbers. I also heard tales of some illegal poaching of fish, the greediness of mankind.
Thoreau made some observations on a week long trip on the Concord River :
“Dim visions we still get of miraculous draughts of fishes, and heaps uncountable by the riverside, from the tales of our seniors sent on horseback in their childhood from the neighboring towns, perched on saddlebags, with instructions to get the one bag filled with shad, the other with alewives.”
Henry David Thoreau, Journal
