(accordion)
(waves crashing)
- When I was kid, we used to live in Dark Harbor
during part of the summer months
when we was working out there.
Live in little shacks, almost like okies, you know?
(laughs)
Sort of.
And, uh, yeah, it was great.
It was really old-fashioned, too.
(light instrumental music)
Dulsing is picking an edible
seaweed off the beach at low tide.
(wave rushes in)
(pulls seaweed)
My great-great-uncles back in the early 1900s were dulsers.
And then my grandfather did, too.
And then my father.
And then me.
It went down through the generations, for sure.
Dark Harbor's a pond, I don't know,
it must be over half a mile long, I guess.
And it's enclosed by a natural sea wall.
There's high cliffs surrounding most of it,
except the western side.
I guess that's why they always called it Dark Harbor,
‘cause it takes a while for the sun to hit
down there in the, in the morning.
Some fisher's tried up there that didn't pan out.
They blamed it on that pirate's curse.
Pirate and his crew come ashore and they bury their treasure
up on top of the hill.
The captain got them all drunk and then he
murdered them all so he could have the treasure himself.
But in the process, he got cut too and he bled to death.
So anyone that has tried to find his treasure
has all met an untimely death since then.
So there's been a curse on the whole place since then, yeah.
(waves crashing)
Got into it with my dad when I was a small child.
I started going dulsing with him.
Then, as I got old enough, I went on my own.
And I'm still doing it for the last 46 years.
And that is a long time.
But some of the older guys who can't go
and they tell me, they say,
“Oh, go while you can, ‘cause you'll miss it.”
These guys are 80 years old, you know.
And they miss it, they wish they could go.
I don't know, I think I can find something else to do.
(light accordion music)
Nothing has changed.
It’s still picked by hand,
still dried by the sun outside.
(seaweed pouring)
They're all homemade shaking machines.
Just an old washing machine motor,
prongs inside that turn and thrash your belts around,
and it comes out the bottom.
I guess that's pretty much what it does.
(light accordion music)
I just kind of like working alone in the peace and quiet
and doing my own thing without a bunch of people around.
That's the way I prefer it.
(light accordion music)
The only one's that go alone, that I know of,
is me and my friend Donny Richie.
I think that we're the only two that go alone.
Donnie Richie came up with the idea of putting the
bicycle wheel on the other end.
(light accordion music)
(bugs chirping)
I love dulsing.
Most Grand Mananers do, too.
We love it.
I know guys who have to keep some on hand
during the winter months
when you can't really buy any fresh dulse.
They keep them in their deep freeze and
hopefully it lasts them until
the next season starts up again.
You can't feed a Grand Mananer bad dulse.
They won't accept it.
It's gotta be good, fresh dulse,
or they won't have anything to do with it.
(light accordion music)