Tag Archives: F/V Island Lady

Mother of Man Lost at Sea Renews Call for Dedicated Search and Rescue Services in Labrador

The mother of one of two fishermen lost at sea is renewing her calls for increased search and rescue services in Labrador before a meeting with the federal government. Jeannette Russell, the mother of Marc Russell who, along with Joey Jenkins passed away when their vessel the Island Lady sank while on a fishing trip, will join provincial Labrador Affairs minister Lisa Dempster in a meeting with the Minister of National Defence in an effort to improve emergency response on the Big Land. Russell says if she doesn’t speak out, then who will? >click to read< 10:04

Jeanette Russell lost her son at sea a year ago. Now she’s starting a coalition.

Jeanette Russell is the mother of Marc Russell, who disappeared off the coast of Mary’s Harbour with crew mate Joey Jenkins aboard his fishing boat the Island Lady just over a year ago. “Labrador has twice the amount of coastline as the island portion of Newfoundland. It has three times the land mass compared to the island of Newfoundland.” “A secondary search and rescue unit does not have the accountability to always be able to respond.” That’s why Russell says she’s starting her own group, called the Labrador Coalition for Search and Rescue, to keep the pressure on government. >click to read< 13:38

Calls for change continue 1 year after fishermen die off Labrador coast

It’s been one year since fishermen Marc Russell and Joey Jenkins left the wharf in Mary’s Harbour to gather their nets for the last time. The two fishermen died off the southern coast of Labrador on Sept. 17 of last year. Their fishing vessel, the Island Lady, was last seen in the afternoon. No distress calls were received. “It can’t just be an anniversary, briefly. Something more needs to come out of it. No other family should have to grieve like this,” said Niki Greeley, a Lodge Bay resident and Jenkins’s common-law partner. The search on Sept. 17 last year started after Russell’s father noticed his son wasn’t on social media as usual that Friday night. His father called around and found out the boat wasn’t back at the wharf. >click to read< 08:24

TSB: Island Lady likely sank quickly and with no warning

Unable to examine a vessel that cannot be found, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Wednesday it cannot say what happened to a small fishing vessel that disappeared last year off the coast of southern Labrador. Marc Russell and Joey Jenkins of Mary’s Harbour were last seen Sept. 17 aboard the Island Lady, which fished from Mary’s Harbour. The pair had headed out to fish for cod. “The TSB’s investigation into this occurrence could not determine with certainty the cause of the disappearance of the Island Lady,” the board said in a statement Wednesday. >click to read< 14:42

Labrador Shrimp Company Partnership Brings 70 EPIRBS to Harvesters

Seventy commercial fishing enterprises in southern Labrador between L’Anse au Clair and Cartwright will receive an EPIRB. This is made possible through a living memorial to two young harvesters who lost their lives while fishing on the F/V Island Lady on September 17, 2021. Marc Russell, aged 25 from Mary’s Harbour, and Joey Jenkins, aged 30 from Lodge Bay, failed to return home to their community and were never found. The Labrador Shrimp Company is spear-heading the project in collaboration with the Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Harvesting Safety Association (NL-FHSA), Fish Harvesters’ Resource Centre (FRC), Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board (PFHCB), and the Fish Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW-Unifor). >click to read the press release< 13:52

EPIRBs: Emergency radio beacons coming for small fishing vessels in southern Labrador

The Labrador Fishermen’s Union Shrimp Company is outfitting dozens of vessels between Cartwright and L’Anse au Clair that are under 40 feet and harvesting for them. The move comes less than a year after two fishermen died near Mary’s Harbour and shortly following a Transportation Safety Board report into the loss of the FV Sarah Anne in Placentia Bay. The devices transmit signals to a satellite, which alerts search and rescue services in case of an emergency at sea and allows them to pinpoint the beacon’s location. Linstead said the company’s board brought the idea forward after the fishermen were concerned about recent accidents. > click to read < 13:48

Teacher finds the lobster shift is a class by itself – my first summer job on a lobster boat

Dana McIntyre is a smart man. As I hung my arms high on the railing atop the stern of Island Lady, his lobster boat, leaning toward the expanse of Middle Bay in Harpswell as we sped from one string of traps to another, he said: “If I had your job as a high school teacher, talking and listening to students, parents, teachers and administrators nonstop for 10 months, I would not be starved for conversation in the summertime, either.” Captain Dana had nailed it. I love the idea of not talking during summer vacation, although it never works out that way. Dana knew how to get me yapping while taking care of business at my first summer job on a lobster boat – 30 years after buying a house less than 2 miles from Potts Harbor, at the end of a skinny 13-mile peninsula we call home. click here to read the story 10:06