‘This is my life’- 71 years a fisherman and counting
Moving away from the wheel, Alcide Arsenault draws in a chest full of salt air. “This is what I like,” he says. His hands are thrust wide from his hips as he stands proudly on the deck of the Key West One, looking towards the few remaining stars in the first light of day. He’s been out on the water for nearly two hours and his crew, consisting of his son Kenneth and grandson Bradley, has already checked over 30 lobster traps. It’s late in the lobster season, but fishing’s still good and the veteran captain is pleased. He’s used to being in the stern of the boat, but his back has been giving him some trouble the past couple of years so he’s content to run the boat and allow his younger crew to do the heavy lifting. But even what they do is not how it used to be. “When I started fishing it was by hand. You had to pull everything up by hand. It wasn’t a great job but, well, it kept us in pretty good shape,” remarked Arsenault who consistently tips the scales at between 138 and 142 pounds. With 71 years of fishing experience, this 85-year-old Cape Egmont captain knows better than most present-day fishermen how it used to be. “We didn’t have anything then. We had a compass and that was it. Read the story here 11:39
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