A politician is seeking to forge a formal partnership between St Brelade and a Canadian town thousands of miles away after uncovering the remarkable scale of Jersey’s centuries-old cod fishing links with the region.
“I was doing a bit of research into the links between Gaspé and Jersey,” Deputy Max Andrews told Express.
It would definitely be worth twinning with Gaspé, because we celebrate the trade links that we have and – to a certain extent – those links are still going on today
Deputy MAx Andrews
“It’s quite surprising, actually, the extent of our history with with Gaspé – because fishermen travelled to Newfoundland as early as the 1500s all the way through to the early 1900s.”
He noted that a number of Islanders had been very successful in capitalising on cod fishing in the region, including Charles Robin, who is commemorated on a monument in St Aubin.
Deputy Andrews continued: “There’s definitely strong connections between St Brelade in particular, where quite a few of the fishermen were based, and Gaspé.
“It would definitely be worth twinning with Gaspé, because we celebrate the trade links that we have and – to a certain extent – those links are still going on today.”
Deputy Andrews added that he had discussed this with a number of States Members, including External Relations Minister Ian Gorst and International Development Minister Carolyn Labey.
A fishing empire across the Atlantic… Why does Jersey have links with Gaspé?
- Jersey fishermen were sailing to the waters around Newfoundland as early as the 1500s, with the cod trade becoming one of the Island’s most important industries.
- By the 1770s, around 70 Jersey ships and 2,000 Islanders were involved in the North Atlantic cod fishery.
- The trade shifted from Newfoundland to the Gaspé Peninsula in what is now Quebec, where Jersey merchant Charles Robin established a fishing station at Paspébiac in the 1760s, laying the foundations of a business that would dominate the region’s economy for generations.
- At its peak in the 1840s, Jersey’s cod industry directly employed around 4,000 people, with many more Islanders supplying ships and exporting goods to the Canadian settlements.
- The connection is still celebrated today. Charles Robin is commemorated by a monument in St Aubin, while his legacy remains prominent in the Gaspé region, where many historic buildings linked to the Jersey merchant have been preserved.
