This story, written by the Mary MacKay of the Charlottetown Guardian, was published on August 14, 2008.

Former Island resident Ken Fraser’s new book, Possessed, chronicles the rich history of P.E.I.’s recreational and commercial tuna industry

There are plenty of big fish tales to tell in the Maritime tuna fishing industry.

And former Prince Edward Island resident Ken Fraser is doing just that with a new book, Possessed, which chronicles the exciting world of giant bluefin tuna fishing from its start in the late 1960s through to today.

It focuses mainly on North Lake, which has been dubbed the Tuna Capital of the World, with some Nova Scotia stories as well. It also details the men and women who at one time held world records for landing the giant tuna, including Fraser, who still holds the world record for the 1,496-pounder he caught in 1979.

“It was a dream of mine (to write a book about the tuna industry) for 30 years and it was just something that needed to be done. It had to be put on paper before it was all forgotten about,” says Fraser, who now lives in Bridgetown, N.S.

This large print 245-page book starts with the birth of an industry that eventually drew sport fishers from around the globe and buyers from half a world away.

“The first tuna that was ever caught on rod and reel in P.E.I. was caught in 1967 by Bruce Oland (of Halifax),” Fraser says. “(Before that) they knew the tuna were there. They were catching them in nets but there was nobody trying to make an industry out of it. There was no recreation fishing, there was no commercial fishing of them or anything until 1967.”

Fraser got hooked on the sport in 1970. He was living in Port Hawkesbury, N.S., and began to travel to P.E.I. on the weekends for some prime tuna fishing time.

“Tuna fishing is an addiction, as much like gambling or smoking or anything else, you get addicted to it and then you just can’t get away from it,” he says, laughing.

As it turned out, this passion for tuna would lead the former welder to a lobster fishing life on P.E.I. just a few short years later.

“(The government) decided that you had to be a bona fide fisherman to hold a tuna license, so that’s when I decided I would get out of the welding business.

“I built a house in North Lake, bought a lobster license and went lobster fishing to hold my tuna license,” he says.

In Possessed, Fraser provides an overview of the industry, both the recreational and commercial sides, as well as personal stories from his life and that of others in the tuna fishing industry,

“It sort of began as an autobiography of my life in the fishing industry, but I put a lot of history into it and it’s probably a book that the schools could use to teach students what happened in the tuna industry over the years and right up until the present time,” he says.

“It’s the only book that’s out there that really has everything documented, like the catches every year, who caught the world records, what date they were caught, what boats they were caught on.”

One day that stands out in Fraser’s mind is Oct. 26, 1979, when he and a few guys were fishing on the Lady & Misty at Auld’s Cove in Nova Scotia.

“We had hired a young fellow, Kyte Gillis, to fight the fish because that’s hard work.

“And we had hooked a fish early in the morning and we had the fish on for an hour or so and then we lost it,” he remembers.

They baited the lines again and hooked up another fish.

“The young fellow, Kyte Gillis, was tired so I jumped in the chair and an hour later we had a world record: a 1496-pound fish,” Fraser says.

“It’s just ironic; it’s just the way it happened. I wasn’t supposed to be in the chair, I was supposed to be helping get (the tuna) but I wasn’t supposed to be in the chair.”

Tuna catches off North Lake began to drop dramatically in the years that followed and actually vanished for a time until they began to recover in the late 1990s.

However, the flurry of large fish landings in the early years in the tuna industry will not likely be seen again.

“The huge fish that we used to catch years ago don’t seem to be around right now. I don’t know why,” says Fraser, who left the fishing industry in 1984.

“When we were fishing at North Lake we caught so many world records it was unbelievable. There were three world records caught in one day.”

Coincidentally, Fraser’s photo and profile were published in this year’s Guinness Book of World Records for the second time.

Whether it will be a permanent record fixture in the annals of tuna fishing history only time will tell.

“It’s difficult to say if another bigger one will be caught,” Fraser says.

“Records are made to be broken and it would be nice probably to see it broken. But it was a big fish.”

Quick facts

At a glance

Where to get it:?

The book, Possessed, by author Ken Fraser is available at the Cape Light Restaurant in Cardigan; Stewart and Beck Home Hardware in Montague; Vernon d’Eon Lobster Plugs in Souris; and from Christine Mailman in Charlottetown, 566-5180, or e-mail camailman@eastlink.ca.

Worth quoting:?“A tuna strike has been compared to hooking onto a truck travelling at 60 miles per hour. The fight has been compared to hauling a safe up 15 or 20 floors and having it fall back down six or seven times before you got it to the top.” – Ken Fraser, author of Possessed.

Copyright
Waldron H. Leard