Tag Archives: F/V BJ Thomas
Commercial Fisherman Lloyd D. Whaley of Brookings, Oregon has passed away
Lloyd D. Whaley was born April 30th, 1943, and passed away peacefully on Saturday morning April 29th, 2023. He juggled working nights at the lumber mill while pursuing his eventual career during the daytime: commercial fishing. The long hours and lack of sleep eventually paid off when he was able to buy his first salmon trawler, the Marilyn A. Some years later, he sold the Marilyn A and bought a slightly larger trawler, the Kristy. Unfortunately, the risk of fishing caught up with him and the Kristy sank. Instead of becoming discouraged, he remained devoted to commercial fishing and built a boat that could handle harsher weather conditions and diversify into other fisheries such as crab, shrimp, and bottom trawl, the Cape Sebastian. From there he grew to a second vessel, a 90-foot gulf shrimper the BJ Thomas (later sold to his granddaughter Sarah and husband Justin). Finally, in 1987 in a partnership with his son, they built a combination trawler crabber in Alabama and named it the Miss Sarah after his granddaughter. Additionally, Lloyd gave 20 years of service to the Port of Brookings Harbor as a commissioner. >click to read< 11:54
A Stunning Transformation: More Than a New Shell
Like many fishermen, Justin Yager has a strong interest in responsible harvesting. Similarly, he saw the common sense of rebuilding the Gulf shrimper BJ Thomas after the boat had a serious fire at Newport, Oregon. Built in 1976 at Marine Builders in Mobile, Alabama the boat found its way to the west coast where Justin’s wife, Sara’s grandfather, owned it for some time before selling it on to the next generation. Justin fished the boat for a few years with the crab and shrimp permits that the couple also purchased from Sara’s grandfather. The fire was the impetus for the rebuild that the owners had planned for the boat. ‘We cut off the bow, part of the stern, and the house. We took it right down to the engine room and the fish holds he explained. photos, >click to read< 12:05
Newport firefighters, Coast Guard extinguish fire sparked by space heater
Firefighters spent hours early Wednesday morning extinguishing a blaze aboard a fishing vessel at Port Dock 5 on Southeast Bay Boulevard. Crews with the Newport Fire Department were dispatched just after 12 a.m. and found heavy smoke coming from the fishing vessel BJ Thomas. Firefighters tried to extinguish the fire using portable dock pumps, but were hampered by extreme heat from the fire, snowy conditions, and by having to force entry into the wheelhouse, fire officials said. >click to read<19:49
