Lögberg-Heimskringla - 25.03.2005, Blaðsíða 16

16 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 25 March 2005
thor’s Making nets keeps him busy
-
Meats and Groceries
Fresh Meats
Wholesale and Retail
Custom Cuttingand Wrapping
Tel: 204-482-4424
Fax: 204-785-4966
I
Springbank
Cheese Co.
SPR1NG13ÁNKCHEKSH.CA
1 (800) 661-2349
WE HAVE OVER 300 TYPES OF CHEESE
iféjaisr
,
r\ ,
c-í
shlfi fliA.ywhíKe í.ia. cawada wíth stores ír;
Igflry, AB Woodstocte, ON
Complimcnts of. . .
Stefanson & Lee
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS
Brenl Stefanson, C.A. Ken Lee, C.A. Phil Romaniuk. C.A.
<20™642-5577
Open 1' & 3' Thursday ol every month
(204) 775-8975
200B Polo Park Shopping Centre.
1485Portage Ave.. Winnipeg. R3G0W4
‘r&ecái ‘&e*c€aýe
Descendents and friends of
Hecla Island Heritage Inc.
Assisting in the
development ofHecla’s
Icelandic Maritime Village
We welcome
suitable artifacts
Visít the
Museum & Village
Steinþór Guðbjartsson
Vancouver, BC
Net maker Jón Óli Jóhan-
nesson, from Vestmannaeyjar,
Iceland, has worked in his pro-
fession in Vancouver, BC for
about 15 years. “Before, I was
in the business in Vestman-
naeyjar for about 22 years, and
I wanted a new challenge,” he
says, explaining why he and
his family moved to Canada.
Cantrawl Nets has been
keeping Jón Óli busy for the
last few years. The company
manufactures deep sea fish-
ing nets, experimental nets,
marine industrial safety nets
and aquaculture, golf and oth-
er sport nets. “We have been
quite busy and are booked
four months ahead,” he says,
hardly looking up from his
work. Yet he has much more
free time than he had in Ice-
land and the work is more di-
verse. “Back home we often
worked for 36 hours, rested
for six hours, and then had
another heavy workload. Here
we never work in the evening
and only occasionally on Sat-
urdays.”
For centuries, Icelanders
have been looking for adven-
ture in one form or another. In
lícelandic Ijerilagc Calendur
CliftPTliK MM-TCrJuHS
The Icelandic National League
ofNorth America
HERITAGE CALENDAR
ONLY $10.00
CAD
K* 2005 m
CONTACT INL OF N/A
103-94 First Avenuc
Gimli, MB R0C 1B0 Canada
Tei: 204-642-5897 Fax: 204-642-9382
E-tnail: inl@mts.net
PHOTO: STEINÞÓR GUÐBJARTSSON
Net maker Jón Óli Jóhannesson from Vestmannaeyjar, Ice-
land, works for Cantrawl Nets in Vancouver, BC.
1989 Jón Óli and his wife Ólöf
Andrésdóttir, along with their
two daughters Andrea, then
three years old, and Auður,
then fourteen years old, decid-
ed to move from Vestmanaey-
jar to Vancouver. “Our friends,
engineer Jón Ari Sigurjónsson
and his wife Sigríður Gunn-
laugsdóttir, had lived here
for a few years and our idea
was to accompany them and
try something new for a few
years,” Jón Óli recalls. “We
are still here and its too late to
move back to Iceland.”
In Iceland, Jón Óli was
used to working with heavy
bottom trawls for big trawlers,
but here most of the customers
don’t need nets that large, as
they are operating smaller ves-
sels with lpwer horsepower.
Yet making small or big nets
requires the same skills. “It’s
all about making nets, and that
keeps me busy,” he says.
After having worked as a
net maker in Vestmannaeyjar
for about 20 years, Jón Oli
thought of moving with his
family to Bellingham, WA
in 1987, but he could not get
a green card. “In a way I’m
glad, because I prefer living in
Canada. The athmosphere is
more European on this side of
the border.”
Ólöf and Jón Óli have been
active members of the Icelan-
dic Canadian Club of British
Columbia since they settled in
the province. They are mem-
bers of the board and keep
in good touch with people of
Icelandic descent: “Soon af-
ter we arrived in Vancouver,
we went to a Christmas craft
fair,” Óli recalls. “We were
surprised how many Canadi-
ans spoke Icelandic. The lan-
guage tied us together and we
got to know many people of
Icelandic descent, people we
have kept in touch with ever
since.”
MfD-JoWN
mmmmmFORD m SALES Lmrrto
1-800-665-1632 204-284-7650
100-1717 WAVERLEY STREET WINNIPEG, MANIT0BA R3T 6A9 WAVERLEY AUT0 MALL

EALER
TFRID

Visit us on the web at http://www.lh-inc.ca