Daily Archives: August 17, 2021

High Court backs $500,000 award for emotional harm to FV Jubilee sinking victims

The High Court has thrown out an insurance company challenge to $505,000 granted to the families of three fishermen who drowned when their trawler sank. FV Jubilee sank about 22 kilometres from the Rakaia River mouth in the early hours of October 18, 2015, killing Terry Donald Booth, 55, of the Nelson area; Paul Russell Bennett, 35, of Motueka; and Jared Reese Husband, 47, of Timaru. Lyttelton-based Ocean Fisheries, owned by the Stark family, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the Jubilee crew’s safety as the installation of high water level alarms would likely have prevented the sinking and crew deaths. >click to read< 21:55

Legendary Commercial Fisherman Michael D. McHenry has passed away

“You can have that boat if you want to re-float it.” That was all Michael had to hear. He began his fishing career at age 15, fishing in the summers until he graduated from Half Moon Bay High School in 1961. After that, he went full time on the water going down to Three Rocks every day and coming in with a boat full of ling cod. In 1965, Michael bought the F/V Pescadero and continued his career, now as a salmon fisherman. When his abilities outgrew that boat, he built the Merva W and launched her in 1971. The legendary “Blue Boat” was named after his mother, Merva Wilson. She is a steel, 65-foot salmon/crab/albacore fishing boat. He made a name for himself throughout coastal California and Oregon as a fun-loving Irishman and a salmon fisherman extraordinaire. Fishermen were drawn to him as a natural leader and he led a following of fishermen nicknamed “The Z Squad.” >click to read< 18:47

Search suspended for crewman who went overboard from New Bedford fishing vessel

The Coast Guard on Monday morning responded to a call for a man overboard from commercial fishing vessel F/V Blue Wave, a scalloping vessel belonging Blue Harvest Fisheries. CEO Keith Decker said the vessel returned to port Tuesday morning, where crew members will meet with Coast Guard officials. He said they are waiting for the investigation to determine what happened. There were seven crew members on the vessel, including the captain and the man who went overboard. The Blue Wave left port around Friday, Decker said, and was scheduled to return after eight to 10 days. >click to read< 15:07

Foundation created in memory of Alex and Ethan to memorialize ‘2 great young men‘

Alex Hutchinson and Ethan Reilly were killed in a boating accident last September. But nearly a year later, the community is rallying to create a foundation in honour of the boys, who were both known for their kind-heartedness before they died at only 17 years old. The families were then approached by Joey Dumville, who coached both Ethan and Alex in hockey and knew them well. The Hutch Cup will be held on Sept. 11. It’s a competition to see who can catch the biggest lobster and take home the trophy in honour of Alex. “Alex loved being a fisherman, and he was the third man in the boat, which is usually a job for an adult,,, The foundation also plans to host the Rufus Run this year, an all-terrain vehicle event in honour of Ethan, who loved anything and everything to do with motors. For Ethan’s mom, the warmth behind the legacy foundation is something she saw in her son from the time he was a child. >click to read< 13:19

“Oiled: A Fisherman’s Journey”

Derrell Short, a former fisherman, has released his memoir, covering everything from the Exxon Valdez oil spill to his adventures at sea in Kodiak Island, Alaska. Short covers not just the mishaps of working on a crab boat, but also how he worked on the Exxon Corporation oil spill in 1989. An Exxon tanker had run aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, an inlet in the Gulf of Alaska, Alaska. The tankard had been transporting crude oil from Valsez, Alaska, to California. Short covers the spill in his memoir and criticizes Exxon on the cleaning up of the oil spill.,, Other sections of the memoir focus on Short’s building his remote cabin, hunting, his many encounters with bears and his time as a fisherman. >click to read< 10:28

Offshore wind farms will have ‘major’ impacts on commercial fishing. Meanwhile, in New Bedford,,,

Development of the South Fork Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island would will have an overall “major” adverse impact on commercial fishing, according to a newly released federal study.,, Mark Philips, a commercial fishermen operating out of Greenport, cast doubt on the notion that climate change and fishing presented greater threats than the turbines themselves to his fishing activities.,,  With wind farms planned from Maine to North Carolina, he sees his fishing options collapsing, even if, as the study points out, planners identified and excluded the most productive fishing grounds from the wind-energy areas. >click to read<New Bedford fishermen, officials question New York offshore wind areas as auction nears >click to read< –  09:24

Net migration: Young commercial fishermen ship out of Cook Inlet

The Cook Inlet salmon fishery was once an economic engine for Kenai. But the fishing there is no longer lucrative. Many fishermen with deep ties to the inlet are retiring, or moving elsewhere. The F/V Nedra E is smaller than the other boats bobbing at the dock in Naknek. Thor Evenson didn’t have Bristol Bay in mind when he designed the boat for his parents, Nikiski homesteaders Jim and Nedra Evenson. Until last year, she’s been a Cook Inlet boat, captained by Jim, then his nephew, and now his grandson, 32-year-old Taylor Evenson. Last year, Taylor couldn’t put it off any longer. So with the help of the boat’s original builder, Kevin Morin of Kasilof, he gutted everything behind the cabin, chopped several inches off bow and stern, and installed a brand new deck, to bring the Nedra E in line with Bristol Bay standards. >click to read< 07:50