High lobster prices push fishermen to take risk, the Captain of an all-female crew pushes for change
The F/V Nellie Row was making her return to Lunenburg, N.S., after a long night at sea, loaded with another haul of lobster, when captain Gail Atkinson lost sight of one of her crew members. When that happens, a fisherman’s mind instantly goes to dark places – out here, off the southern coast of Nova Scotia, a novice deckhand can easily be knocked off their feet, swept overboard and swallowed up by the endless black sea. Ms. Atkinson, skipper of Canada’s only all-female lobster crew, didn’t know her new employee had just gone up on top of the boat’s wheelhouse to get the docking lines ready. “I just freaked out and lost my mind,” she said. “On my boat, I need to know where everyone is at all times. I told her, ‘I’m 57 years old. You almost killed me right now.’” Commercial fishing has always been dangerous work,,, >click to read< 17:02
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