Daily Archives: August 13, 2020
The “Lobster Lady” is honored as Grand Marshal for Sea Goddess Coronation
At the 73rd Sea Goddess Coronation luncheon Aug. 8, visitors honored the 2020 Grand Marshal for the parade, who is Virginia Oliver (also known as “The Lobster Lady”). Oliver recently celebrated her 100th Birthday and is the oldest licensed lobster fishing person in the state of Maine. >click to read< 17:58
‘weak and tired’ but ‘thankful’ – Fisherman Patrick Oliver ‘couldn’t sit at home’ when he heard two women were missing
The fisherman who rescued two young women clinging to the buoy of a lobster pot off Inis Oirr after 15 hours in the water has said they were “fairly shook” and “delighted” when he found them. Patrick Oliver and his son Morgan (18) found the women, aged 17 and 23, around 20 miles out from Furbo Beach in Co Galway where they had been paddle boarding on Wednesday evening. Mr Oliver, from Claddagh, said the women spent the night on their paddleboards and held onto each other overnight. He said when daylight came on Thursday morning they saw a buoy, paddled towards it and clung onto it until they were found. >click to read< 14:01
CHA-CHING!!! Vineyard Wind to pay town $34.4 million in mitigation money
Vineyard Wind has agreed to pay the town $34.4 million over the next 45 years as financial mitigation for the 84-turbine offshore wind farm it’s proposed 14 miles southwest of Madaket that some town officials, preservationists, fishermen and environmentalists see as potentially environmentally and visually devastating. But Mary Chalke sees it as the least they can do. No amount of money or mitigation, she said, can reverse the environmental impact the wind farm will have on the marine animals that inhabit the waters around the island ,,, >click to read< 12:14
A family of crabbers – Tradition provides a through line for generations
With his orange gloved hands, my dad pops the shell off the crab, then twists the crab in half and pulls the guts off, and then puts the crab halves in the tote beside him. We’re processing Dungeness crab at Mickey’s Fishcamp. My dad tells me when his mother first came up to live in Wrangell, she worked as crab shaker at the local cannery. Crabbing and shaking run in our family. We bought these crabs from my son, Mitch Mork, who’s deck-handing for his dad this summer, along with my two grandsons, Owen, 9, and Chatham, 6. They’re working 225 pots around the Wrangell area. Mitch crabs partially for work but mostly to hang out with his dad. He’s also teaching my grandkids how to work hard and showing them that being an employee isn’t their only option in life. >click to read< 11:05
Big turnout for Winter Harbor lobster boat races
Blessed by near perfect weather, 88 boats signed up to power up the course between the Schoodic Peninsula and Grindstone Neck in a slate of 29 races that saw some tight competition and a new diesel-powered lobster boat speed record — well, maybe — set. There were plenty of stars in this year’s event, but the “supernova” had to be Cameron Crawford’s 28-foot, 1,050-horsepower Wild Wild West. Winter Harbor always seems to bring out a good mix of boats familiar to racing fans and boats that are brand spanking new. >click to read< 08:58
SCRUB OBSERVERS ON FISHING TRIPS!
From all indications, on August 14, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration commercial fishing monitors will be back looking for a journey unless NOAA steps in and waives the requirement for data-collecting observers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The information human observers collect can be temporarily gathered through electronic surveillance, but a momentary waiver has to come directly through your two U.S. Senators and one U.S. Representative in Washington. Let them know as soon as possible because if you don’t email or call them now, don’t think anyone else is going to do this for you. >click to read< 08:11
Apprehension: Young deckhands backed out of fatal F/V Arctic Fox II trip just before fishboat departed
Two men who were supposed to crew the boat decided to leave money on the table and walk away before it hit the open ocean. Raymond and Anthony Dixon, twins from the Nanaimo area, were on board the F/V Arctic Fox II as new deck hands with Captain Tom Lindberg when they sailed out of Cowichan Bay Marina on Sunday, Aug. 2. Originally, there was another deckhand, Jessie Gilbert, who had actually recruited Raymond. But the day before Raymond was due to arrive in Cowichan Bay, Gilbert had to go home sick. So Raymond recruited Anthony, who was hired immediately. It would have been the 19-year-old brothers’ first commercial fishing trip. >click to read< 06:53
Brothers sensed danger and didn’t stay on boat that later capsized – In Victoria, Dixon and his brother met the boat’s owner, Larry Teague, who told them they have to keep an eye out for boats because Lindberg’s eyesight was poor. Dixon believes Lindberg was in his early 80s. >click to read<10:04
