Daily Archives: October 21, 2019
Righting John Steinbeck’s Storied Ship, Western Flyer Gets a Plank-by-Plank Restoration and Soul Re-Infusion
In 2013, the fishing vessel Gemini, a purse seiner built in 1937, was hauled up from the bottom of the Swinomish Channel in the Pacific Northwest. The event wouldn’t have drawn much attention had this old wooden fishing boat not had such a storied past. In 1940, the novelist John Steinbeck and his friend, marine biologist Ed Ricketts, chartered the sardine fisher under the name Western Flyer,,, Luckily, when the boat sank for what was the third (or maybe even fourth) time in her history, she was not far from Port Townsend, the Northwest’s hub of wooden-boat restoration. The Western Flyer soon found a home at the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op, and her new owner started a nonprofit foundation to oversee an ambitious—and expensive—restoration project. >Video, photos, click to read< 20:19
Families sought to attend 60th anniversary service for victims of George Robb trawler disaster
The journey began in Aberdeen with a crew of mostly young men hoping they might secure a Christmas bonus for their loved ones. But it ended in disaster when 12 sailors aboard the George Robb trawler, skippered by 31-year-old Marshall Ryles, were killed in the midst of a horrific storm off Duncansby Bay in Caithness en-route to the Faroes in December 1959. The disaster – which claimed a 13th victim when one of the rescuers, Eric Campbell, succumbed to a heart attack – led to 34 children losing their fathers as communities grieved across the Granite City. >click to read< 17:29
‘Worse now than it’s ever been’: Wheatley, Ont. harbour not safe, says fisherman
“This has been going on since the ’70s,” said Bobby Cabral, who took over his father’s business and has been fishing out of Wheatley Harbour since 1998. “It’s worse now than it’s ever been.” Cabral battles his fishing vessel in and out of the harbour on an almost-daily basis, fighting over a sandbar which keeps building up in his path. He’s one of about 35 commercial fishing vessels operating out of the harbour — vessels which bring about $9.7 million in annual landings. >click to read< 16:16
“Oh, here we go, baby!” Watch: Researchers stumble across a whale carcass teeming with marine scavengers
When whales die in the open ocean they sometimes sink to the sandy floor where scavenging fish and other marine creatures tuck into the colossal feast. Octopuses, deep-sea fish, crabs and bone-eating worms all turn up for dinner. But there’s one species in particular that gets über-excited when a whale carcass hits the ocean floor: marine researchers. A team from Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary aboard research vessel Nautilus were exploring the ocean depths off the coast of central California recently when they happened upon a baleen whale carcass. >click to read/watch< 15:12
Fishing chief says No Deal only way to exit the EU on time – and save dying UK industry
Campaign group Fishing for Leave (FFL) is fighting to take back control of British waters and the fishing industry connected to it. FFL slammed the Yellowhammer document, that suggested around 300 EU boats would sail in British waters “illegally” after Brexit. The group have stuck by their mantra of a No Deal being the best way forward for the UK’s departure from the bloc. >click to read< 12:19
Federal Fishing Expansion Could Endanger Right Whales
Trump regulators opened about 3,100 square miles of ocean to fishing for scallops and fish that live near the bottom of the ocean such as halibut and flounder that had been closed for more than two decades, including a section of Georges Bank off Cape Cod, Mass., and part of the ocean near southern New England.,, A scallop fishing industry group, Fisheries Survival Fund, said no scallop vessel has ever had an interaction with a right whale. >click to read< 11:29
