Tag Archives: All Female Crew
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
Charting new waters aboard the Nellie Row
There will be an all-female crew aboard the Nellie Row when the LFA 33 lobster fishery opens this fall. “They want the opportunity and its hard to get the opportunity when you’re a woman,” says Captain Gail Atkinson, who along with her partner Kath Moore are going into their fifth season at the helm of the Nellie Row. Joining Moore on deck this season will be fellow sea salts Annie Featherstone and Sophie Mantel. Both have experience on the water in the tall ship world, said Atkinson, but not on fishing boats. “I don’t know if they can do it or not. I don’t know if they know whether they can but I want them to have a chance,” said Atkinson. >click to read< 06:46
Tendering for Herring – Fishery Support Vessel Has All Female Crew
On a door of the F/V Kamilar is a sticker with pink script: “Girls fish too.” And in the case of this boat, it is girls only. Vessel owner Brannon Finney is captaining the tender for the Sitka, Alaska, sac roe herring fishery with her all-female crew — something that’s rare for the fast and frenzied commercial fishery. Finney’s rotating crew is comprised of cousin Kelsey Kubik of Sitka; Bettina Nichols of Astoria, Oregon; Sandra Coats of Ketchikan and Annea Martinsen of Petersburg. They are packing for Petersburg’s Icicle Seafoods. “Tendering is usually really easy,” the 30-year-old long-lashed captain said. “You drop anchor and wait until the boats come to you.” But tendering for herring in the Sitka Sound sac roe fishery is different, she said. With so many boats in such a small area, the tender boats have to maneuver around a lot of obstacles. continue reading the story here 08:57
