Tag Archives: Craig

Son of overboard fisherman John McTaggart vows to keep working at sea to ‘make him proud’

Last night his wife Catherine, 39, and four children Caitlin, 21, Chelsea, 18, Craig, 16, and Carly, 10, paid tribute to the fisherman of 28 years. They said he had just become a grandfather for the first time with the birth of little Kayson in May. Young Craig, who recently celebrated his 16th birthday out at sea with his dad, had only started working in the fishing industry alongside his father in the past few months. But despite the tragedy which has “devastated” his family, the teenager said he will do all he can to follow in his father’s footsteps and continue the family trade of working at sea – and he hopes to do so aboard the Acorn. photos, >click to read< 16:47

Alaska dipnetting – Disorderly and unsafe

alaska-dipnetting-medredThe winter meeting of the Alaska Board of Fisheries is months away but already the weirdness has begun.  At a work session in Kenai-Soldotna this week, the board spent some time kicking around the idea of motor restrictions for the Kenai River to make the popular, personal-use dipnet fishery there safer. The suggestion was brought to the board by 72-year-old Soldotna resident George Parks and picked up by the board’s new vice-chair Sue Jeffery, who termed the Kenai a “disorderly, unsafe fishery.” A commercial fisherman from Kodiak, Jeffery appeared unaware everyone was discussing the wrong fishery. There are deadly dipnet fisheries in Alaska, but the Kenai boat fishery is not one of them. The short stretch of the Kenai open to dipnetting from boats during the short July dipnet seasons does get congested. Some boats have collided, and a few have even taken on water until they sank. But no one has ever died. Read the story here 14:38