There are two acceptable spellings for caplin. They are caplin and capelin.
Since moving to "the mainland"
I have mentioned the types of fish that we caught in my home province of Newfoundland Labrador. When I mention caplin, they
automatically ask me,"what are caplin?"
I usually ask them if they are familiar with
a smelt and most people are. Then I just say that they are similar in size and that caplin are a saltwater fish. They come
in large schools and usually roll on beaches in late June or July.
Capelin rolling on beaches.
I
was surprised that most people, on the mainland, are not familiar with the terms capelin rolling on beaches or a capelin roll.
Capelin come to shore and spawn on sandy beaches. It is my understanding that most male capelin perish or are eaten by gulls
or other birds of prey.
You will find adults and children, on the beaches of Newfoundland Labrador, harvesting
capelin. Word spreads very quickly when the capelin arrive.
Some people will have a meal of freshly
caught fish and freeze some for later. Many people like them dried so they are salted and dried in the sun. It is a battle
at times, to dry capelin, as the weather can be so unpredictable.
I remember, when I was a child
that my father and other families, in our coastal community, would use them as a fertilizer. If I remember correctly, they
were placed in trenches and covered over with soil. Most of our vegetables were grown in what I remember were called beds
and the trenched soil, with the capelin fertilizer, was shoveled unto the planted potato beds. This fertilizer, along with
the manures made for a rich organic soil.
One of my favorite capelin stories is when my aunt Florence
and her children came to visit us from Boston. We took them to Bellevue Beach. It was a beautiful sunny day and there were
schools of capelin about ten to twenty feet from shore. Aunt Florence was a big woman and she wore a long black dress. It
was quite a sight, when she stepped into the water and started to swim amongst the capelin. They were all around her. They
they scurried off. I guess they thought she was a whale.
We ate some of the fish that had rolled
on the beach and had dried in the hot sun. They were a delicacy. Aunt Florence and my cousins had never experienced anything
like it before. It was the high-light of their trip.
Do you have a capelin story or pictures that
you would like to share? Please feel free to send an e mail,
Enjoy your capelin or caplin.
