Tag Archives: Jon Williams

Love Blue Crabs? Meet the Red Crab

If blue crab is this region’s Beyoncé, Atlantic deep-sea red crab is the backup singer you’ve never heard of. Found about 2,000 feet below sea level, these crustaceans are harder to harvest than their Chesapeake cousins. Plus, only one East Coast company is licensed to catch them. “I’ve been in business for 22 years, trying to put red crab on the map,” Atlantic Red Crab Company founder Jon Williams says. “It’s very well received when there’s no blue crab around, but as soon as blue crab becomes available, we take a second seat.” >click to read<21:18

Don Cuddy: Local crab fisherman finds a niche market with slime eels

Slime eel, it’s what’s for dinner.  Well perhaps not on menus around here but in South Korea ‘ggomjangeo’ is extremely popular and, barbecued, is sold on the street like hot dogs. With scant recognition a fishery for these scavenging bottom dwellers has been prosecuted in New England for the past 40 years. Hagfish, as they are also known, are primitive deep-sea creatures and reputedly the only living creature with a skull but no vertebrae, although, given recent events, there may be some elected officials who could potentially rival that claim. Atlantic Red Crab company founder Jon Williams has been fishing these eels since 1999.,, >click here to read< 20:02 

Trump Administration Facing Battle Over New England Marine Monument

“We will challenge in court any action to roll back the Coral Canyons and Seamounts monument and we expect to win,” said Priscilla Brooks, director of ocean conservation for the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation. But Jon Williams, owner of the Atlantic Red Crab Company in New Bedford, Mass., said he and other commercial fishermen who have harvested crabs and deep sea lobsters from the Coral Canyons region for decades are delighted with the Trump administration’s proposal. click here to read the story 08:22

Letter: Atlantic Marine Monument Area Vital To Fishermen – Jon Williams, Westport Island, Maine

Atlantic red crabI was disappointed with The Courant’s Aug. 18 editorial “Atlantic Marine Preserve Would Be Victory For Environment” endorsing a plan for President Obama to designate a marine national monument off the New England coast. Contrary to what the editorial stated, a monument would profoundly impact commercial fishermen. The editorial cited the Natural Resources Defense Council’s claim that the “vast majority of red crab landings” along the Eastern Seaboard are outside the proposed protection area. But take it from a crab fisherman: That area is vital to our livelihoods. Read the letter here 17:01

Not so fast on Atlantic marine monument – By Jon Williams

An ongoing campaign led by large, well-funded environmental organizations is urging President Obama to use the 1906 Antiquities Act to designate parts of the Atlantic Ocean—such as Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine and the New England Canyons and Seamounts—as marine National Monuments. In September, I had the privilege of testifying before House Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans about the aspect of this proposal that seeks to exclude historic fisheries from the designated area. Read the rest here 18:47