Daily Archives: October 5, 2023
Fukushima sake brewer warms shattered Japanese fishing community
Daisuke Suzuki is helping by doing what he does best as life tentatively returns to normal for the devastated fishing communities of Japan’s Fukushima region: making sake. The “toji” sake master and his family were lucky to escape with their lives when a huge earthquake and tsunami devastated the area in March 2011, killing about 18,000 people and knocking out the nearby nuclear plant. In the town of Namie, the disaster obliterated the old port of Ukedo and its local fishing industry, as well as the Iwaki Kotobuki sake brewery that Suzuki’s family has owned for five generations. For two centuries, at least, it had made the rice wine that revived many a fisherman’s spirits after returning to port from the capricious Pacific Ocean with a hold brimming with fish. They would drink cups of Iwaki Kotobuki sake over white-meat sashimi of flounder and bass, delicacies from the Fukushima coast. “The sake was always there, just like the fish,” said one taciturn local fisherman, not wishing to be identified. “That is the way it has been here since my childhood.” Two years ago, the government gave the all-clear for the sale of fish from the Fukushima region to resume. The fisherman needed something to drink, and Suzuki then built a new sake plant back in Namie. >>click to read<< 15:42
Hard-hit Bayou La Batre shrimpers say they need all the help they can get
Shrimpers say this is the best time of the year to harvest the crustaceans, but most of the shrimp boats in this seafood capital are tied up on the docks these days. James Mason, who has fished his entire life, said it simply isn’t profitable to go hunting for shrimp. “Haven’t been out in a year,” he said. The Wilmer resident said that to make ends meet, he has been working at a shipyard not far from where the Capt. Mason sits idle. He said he even tried working for a month on an oyster boat in New Jersey. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) last month offered legislation that would create a task force to monitor foreign subsidies of shrimp and other agricultural products. He said he hopes that would greatly speed up enforcement. “We need some help, and I’m talking about urgent help,” he said. “If we don’t get some help, I don’t’ know if we’ll survive.” Added Mason: “Everybody in this bayou is hurting. Everybody. It doesn’t matter who it is.” Video, >>click to read<< 11:46
Grounded Austro Carina trawler at Banks Peninsula starting to break up, salvage could take months
The fishing boat that ran aground at Banks Peninsula carrying thousands of litres of diesel is breaking up, Canterbury Regional Council says. Heavy swells continue to make it difficult for crews to get to the Austro Carina, which ran aground near a marine reserve at Shell Bay’s Red Bluff on 24 September. The boat was carrying about 10,000 litres of diesel and 400 litres of hydraulic oil. The council warned it could take months to salvage the wreck, with the necessary equipment unavailable in New Zealand. Wild weather that battered Banks Peninsula earlier this week ripped a hole in the boat. >>click to read<< 09:50
Lifelong Chatham Fisherman Arthur “Sonny” Mallowes has passed away
Arthur “Sonny” Mallowes 95, passed away at home, surrounded by family and his 4-legged buddies. He was the genuine article; a true Chathamite. Born at Cape Cod Hospital, son of Edward and Cecilia Mabel Mallowes, he lived a solidly good and simple life. He entered the Coast Guard after High School and was stationed on the Handkerchief Shoal Lightship, serving his country on the water and then went on to serve his family as a fisherman. Sonny met his future wife, Thelma Morrell, on a blind date arranged by her cousin. They married 6 months later. They are both survived by two sons, Edward and David Mallowes, their wives and families. He was particularly proud of son Edward being the Captain of a New Bedford scalloper and of David being a lobsterman. He was a lifelong Chatham fisherman, well into his eighties. If you knew Sonny, you knew he had nine lives. Two of them involved falling overboard, once in his youth from the Lightship, and once in his senior years while quahogging locally. >>click to read<< 008:58
The Western Flyer Returns Home to Monterey!
She’s coming home at last! After being away for 75 years, the historic Western Flyer—the sardine fishing boat immortalized by John Steinbeck’s 1951 classic The Log from the Sea of Cortez—will return to her home port of Monterey on Saturday, November 4th. “The Western Flyer was built for Monterey’s sardine fishery in 1937, and while it gained notoriety from its 1940 research trip with John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, it’s had a long and storied past as a fishing boat,” said marine geologist John Gregg, founder and board member of the Western Flyer Foundation. “Now restored with a hybrid diesel-electric engine and state-of-the-art marine lab, the Flyer symbolizes a bridge, linking Monterey’s commercial fishing heritage with its leadership in marine science and education.” When Gregg purchased the Western Flyer in 2015, the neglected 77-foot fishing vessel had sunk several times and was almost beyond repair. >>click to read<< 07:50
