Daily Archives: April 9, 2022
High lobster prices push fishermen to take risk, the Captain of an all-female crew pushes for change
The F/V Nellie Row was making her return to Lunenburg, N.S., after a long night at sea, loaded with another haul of lobster, when captain Gail Atkinson lost sight of one of her crew members. When that happens, a fisherman’s mind instantly goes to dark places – out here, off the southern coast of Nova Scotia, a novice deckhand can easily be knocked off their feet, swept overboard and swallowed up by the endless black sea. Ms. Atkinson, skipper of Canada’s only all-female lobster crew, didn’t know her new employee had just gone up on top of the boat’s wheelhouse to get the docking lines ready. “I just freaked out and lost my mind,” she said. “On my boat, I need to know where everyone is at all times. I told her, ‘I’m 57 years old. You almost killed me right now.’” Commercial fishing has always been dangerous work,,, >click to read< 17:02
Aspin Kemp unveiled new diesel-electric hybrid lobster boat model earlier this month
The federal government is giving Aspin Kemp & Associates $340,000 for the further development of a hybrid lobster fishing boat. The Montague-based engineering firm showcased its new diesel-electric hybrid model for the first time earlier this month at a boat show in Moncton. The vessel is designed for inshore lobster fishery. Aspin said the bigger boats often have requirements unique to each vessel that ultimately end up driving up costs. But the company is striving to “totally standardize” things for the lobster boats, which would help lower the price. Aspin Kemp has also been working with another company on a retrofit solution so that older boats can also get the hybrid system installed. >click to read< 13:57
Blessing of the Fleet: Boat blessings return to Terrebonne and Lafourche
After Dulac was ravaged by Hurricane Ida, this year’s shrimp boat blessing holds a special place for the Rev. Antonio Speedy of Holy Family Catholic Church. “Hurricane Ida has turned our community upside down,” he said. “It’s not the first time the people here have been through a hurricane, but this one was different from the rest. Many people have been left homeless, and the fishing season has started off slowly. There was debris all over the water.” After months of recovery, Speedy said blessing shrimp boats was the last thing on his mind. But as April approached, he began getting requests for the annual tradition. Photo gallery, >click to read< 12:24
Wrangell fisherman among the nearly 50 candidates vying to fill Alaska’s Congressional seat
64-year-old Wrangell fisherman Otto Florschutz was up in Kodiak with his grandkids when Congressman Don Young died. Of the nearly 50 Alaskans vying to fill the state’s House of Representatives seat, only one hails from the small Southeast community of Wrangell. Commercial fisherman Otto “Ottie” Florschutz says he figures it’s the people’s seat, so why shouldn’t a small-town commercial fisherman run for Congress? He says he knows it’s a stacked field vying to fill Alaska’s sole seat in the House of Representatives, and that getting his name out will be pretty hard. Made harder because he usually goes by his nickname. “My name is Otto, but most people know me as Ottie,” Florschutz explains, “And in the commercial fishing industry, it’s Ottie on the Adeline, they don’t even know my last name, so here I am, I’ve got an unrecognizable first name and a nickname.” >click to read< 10:42
Quebec crabbers angry at DFO
Quebec crabbers who frequent the southern Gulf fishing areas, including large area 12, planned to leave during the weekend. Everyone was ready, on the Islands as in the Gaspé, assure with one voice the president of the Association of Gaspesian crabbers, Daniel Desbois, and Paul Boudreau, representative of the traditional crabbers of the Islands. The factories too, adds the director of the Quebec Association of the fishing industry, Jean-Paul Gagné. According to Paul Boudreau, Fisheries and Oceans informed them that the Coast Guard was not ready and that there was still ice in the gulf. The crabbers and processors of Quebec, who are campaigning for an early opening of the fishery in the spring to avoid interactions with the right whale, are outraged. >click to read< 09:17
Blood pressure surging, waves swelling, Coast Guard airlifts F/V Captain John fisherman
A commercial scallop fisherman facing a medical emergency was safely airlifted from a vessel by the U.S. Coast Guard Wednesday evening. The rescue was made even more daring by the fact that the wind was blowing 35 knots and the waves were seven to 12 feet high, according to statements the boat’s crew made to the Press. The fisherman, Chris Vanbergen, 46 of Lacey, told the Asbury Park Press on Friday that he was feeling better a couple days after the ordeal. He was a few days into a 10-day scallop trip on board the F/V Captain John, which docks at Viking Village here, when he began to fill chest pain and his blood pressure rise. >click to read< 08:01
