Tag Archives: Captain Gail Atkinson
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
All-female lobster crew making waves
The Nellie Row looks just like any other boat slicing through the waves and darkness of the North Atlantic on the first day of Canada’s most lucrative lobster fishery. But the cheerful red and white vessel is distinct from hundreds of other boats racing out to sea Tuesday morning in one crucial aspect: there are no men aboard. Gail Atkinson is captain of the boat, named after her grandmother — a trailblazer like herself — and is leading what they believe to be Nova Scotia’s first all-female lobster crew. >click to read< 08:32
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
