Local fishery shares knowledge and hospitality
The methods of a local business were studied last week for use in Norway. John Gauthier and Tom Spaulding, of Gauthier & Spaulding Fisheries, offered a tour of their operations to a delegation from Norway, who were looking to learn a thing or two from the veteran fishermen. The meeting came through indirect channels, and gave the Norwegian group some ideas on how to improve their fishing operations by watching what is done on the Great Lakes.
“They have an inland fishery there. They have a huge ocean fishery, but they have an inland fishery that is underutilized. They fish gill nets there, so basically what they are doing is they came here to see our operation with trap nets to see if that would work for them over there,” said Gauthier.
He said methods used in Lake Huron could work in the inland lakes of Norway. The catch in both areas is whitefish, although the fish are not exactly the same. The whitefish in Norway is at best 17 inches in length where the fish Gauthier & Spaulding pull out of the lake are much larger. The group of seven were given a day on the Gauthier & Spaulding boat, witnessing how trap nets could make their business more efficient. Trap netting and icing the fish immediately improves the freshness of the catch, as opposed to the gill net process used in Norway.
A member of the Norway group found Gauthier & Spaulding through a search on the Internet and the people hooked up a short time later. “He came to our Web site, saw Ron Kinnunen as a contact and he works with Michigan State University Sea Grant out of Marquette. Ron knows us real well. It was not just the fisheries but the processing end of it, too. So he directed them to us,” Gauthier said. A group came to Michigan three years ago, but windy weather conditions prevented them from going on the lake. This time, more favorable conditions allowed the guests to see first-hand how the successful fishermen do their craft. The group learned not only fishing techniques on the lake, but also how Gauthier & Spaulding processes their catch at their operation in Rogers City and prepares it for sale. Funded by the Norwegian government, one of the purposes of the trip was to learn how to make rural businesses more efficient. While in the area, Mayor Beach Hall, council members Deb Greene, and Dana LaBar and city manager Mark Slown took the group on a tour of Calcite, hosted by Al Pines. Gauthier said he might make the trip to Norway sometime in the future to check on his new friends’ progress.