Daily Archives: January 14, 2021

A wild life

Cancer has claimed Dan Gabryszak, a backwoods Renaissance man who built a life for himself and his family along the Yentna River north of Anchorage when it was still a wilderness a world away from his California roots. Everyone who traveled the now popular, Alaska waterway in the past three decades knew, or knew of, Dan and the Gabryszak family at Yentna Station Roadhouse. Today it is a refueling stop or place to grab a burger for riverboat drivers in summer and a winter swarm of snowmachine riders, mushers, fat bikers or the occasional skier. Forty years ago, it was a considerably different and quieter place where Gabryszak and his wife Jeannette – Jean to friends – nearly starved to death their first winter. >click to read< 17:40

A World First: Activation of Commercial Iridium Global Maritime Distress Safety System on board Norwegian Trawler

The Norwegian trawler F/V  Trygvason has put to sea following installation of two Lars Thrane LT-3100S GMDSS terminals by local marine services company Brommeland Elektronikk A/S, with Iridium GMDSS service provided by remote communications solutions provider, Applied Satellite Technology (AST). The terminal manufactured by Lars Thrane A/S is the only GMDSS terminal paired with Iridium’s global network. >click to read< 12:48

New regulations delayed the 2020-21 Dungeness crab season, forcing crab fishermen to rely on staples like black cod

Like many other fishermen, Blue doesn’t just fish for one kind of seafood. He fishes for black cod and Dungeness crab with a small team—himself and two other men. He’s been in the industry since 1974, when he moved to Morro Bay at the age of 18 and got his first job as a deckhand. Three years later, he bought his first boat when, he said, it cost about $100 to be in business. Things have changed a lot since then.,, >click to read< 11:11

Longtime, devoted Galveston shrimper Joseph “Captain Joe,” Grillo dies

Joseph Anthony Grillo, a commercial shrimper for more than 50 years who fought for legislation to protect the island industry, died on Jan. 1 at his home. He was 89. Grillo, affectionately known as “Captain Joe,” was born Jan.10, 1931, in Apalachicola, Florida. He moved to Galveston with his family in 1940. Grillo was a loving family man, a hard-working commercial shrimper and devoted Roman Catholic, his family and friends say. Grillo purchased his shrimp boat, which he named Santa Maria, in 1952 and he and his wife operated it until they sold the boat at their retirement in 2003 to the Galveston Historical Foundation, which made it a part of its Texas Seaport Museum on Harborside Drive. >click to read< 09:55

The President vetoed a bill that would have decimated family fisheries and the ocean

Thanks to a last-minute veto by President Donald Trump on January 1, dozens of American family fishing businesses will be saved from going out of business, and the ocean ecosystem will be better protected—both of which were being threatened by a bill that was more rhetoric than science. In mid-December, Congress passed S. 906, the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act. The legislation would have phased out the use of drift gillnets, the only proven commercially viable way to catch swordfish, and would have effectively closed the West Coast swordfish fishery. This comes amidst particular uncertainty for fishermen in the region, who were already facing daunting challenges. >click to read< 09:15

Three fishermen saved after shrimp boat sinks off North Topsail Beach

On Dec. 30, Lawrence Hansley and two others headed out to sea with Hansley’s shrimp boat, Salty Boy. It’d been six or seven months since he was on the inlet. While out on the water, the team entered a channel not far off NTB. “We went through a set of buoys, and I know we had to line up for the red buoys, but we didn’t see the red buoy,” said Hansley. That’s when they were caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. The boat touched the bottom of the seafloor, coming up onto a sand bar, and ran aground. >video, click to read< 08:10