Tag Archives: Lobster wars
Narragansett’s Charles J. Wolf, Featured on Discovery Channel Series Lobster Wars, has passed away
We sadly said goodbye to Narragansett surfcaster and owner of Surf Ninja Customs, Charles J Wolf (Lepre). Born February 13, 1979, in Warwick, RI. Charlie passed due to complications from a heart condition, on Thursday, June 29, 2023, at the age of 44. Charlie was surrounded by his family, at Hope Hospice Center in Providence, RI. As a senior at Narragansett High School, he joined the Pt Judith commercial fishing fleet. He worked on lobster boats, scallopers and everything else that fished our waters. That same year, he was offered the captain seat of the inshore Lobster Boat the Jeanie, owned and operated by Thomas Ditmar. Tom became a mentor to Charlie, teaching him the ins and outs of operating and maintaining a fishing vessel. During his career, he was featured on the Discovery Channel series Lobster Wars. At that time, he was a deckhand on The Dragon Lady, an offshore Lobster Boat out of Pt Judith. Charlie spent over 20 years in the commercial fishing industry earning a reputation as a skilled and worthy deckhand and shipmate, becoming a brother to many. >click to read< 10:43
Welcome to the Next New Reality TV Show Full of Drama, Betrayal and … Lobster Fishing?
The show, and the book, finds its leading man in Connor Nichols, not exactly rolling in dough, but an outsider from a wealthy family who wants to make a career on the waters as a lobsterman. “His plan was simple. Buy a boat. Buy traps. Set traps. Catch lobster. Sell lobster. Pay off debts. Have a life.” The hardened lobster lifers, however, are not welcoming of anyone outside their “fraternity” and act accordingly, sabotaging Connor’s every effort. “These inbred jerkwads in Tranquility had an industrial-strength hard-on for anyone without ten generations of headstones in the local cemetery.” First among them is Wade Baxter, who will do everything from put rocks in Connor’s lobster traps to damage his boat to ruin his truck. >click to read< 13:31
Reality TV and Real Work in the Fishing Industry
Fishing may be the world’s second oldest profession, but the industry is about as visible as a quiet cousin at a family reunion. Unassuming, keeping to itself, it is largely ignored in talk about work and the economy. All of which belies its oddly large footprint in reality TV. Some of these “fishing industry” shows look at huge, highly capitalized and often nationalized factory fishing fleets. But most usually focus on much smaller, community and family-based single-owner boat crews that are part of a local fleet. >click to read< 08:09
The ‘lobster wars’ rocked Atlantic Canada two decades ago.
It was 21 years ago that a small fleet of Esgenoôpetitj fishing boats took to the waters off western New Brunswick, where the Miramichi River meets the ocean. They had been fishing for lobster in the weeks before as part of their ceremonial fishery, harvesting enough for a feast that would take place at the end of their annual powwow. But on Sept. 17, 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada had released a ruling on Donald Marshall’s case. The Mi’kmaq man had been arrested in Cape Breton, N.S., in 1993 for catching and selling eels out of season. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which formally acknowledged the right of Indigenous people to fish year-round for a moderate livelihood. >click to read< 09:46
Letter: More awareness needed of fish farms
To the editor: I went to the screening of “Lobster Wars” that occurred at the Cape Ann Museum on June 4. In the panel discussion after the movie, Larry Stepenuck was the only one who brought up the devastating effects and disturbances on the lobstermen and fishermen by the fish farms. These polluting enterprises and associated infrastructure take out huge chunks of the ocean that the fishermen and lobsermen could otherwise fish in (both vertically and horizontally). What’s left is getting slimmer all the time. Here, NOAA wants the lobstermen to develop ropeless lobster traps in order to protect the right whales. Meanwhile, NOAA and the Army Corps of Engineers turned around last year and awarded one of the Saltonstall-Kennedy grants to the development of a fish farm in the Critical Zone. A must read by Sue Waller, Rockport. >click to read<14:13
60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue NOAA under the Endangered Species Act Regarding Sea Grant’s Funding of Offshore Aquaculture Projects – >click to read<
The lobster wars are over. We won
You may recall a few weeks ago when we discussed the coming Lobster Wars involving the United States, Canada and China. (There’s an odd combination for you.) The first component of the conflict has to do with the ongoing dispute between America and the Great White North over who actually owns the “gray area” surrounding the Bay of Fundy off the coast of Maine.,,, It’s the trade war aspect which was of more current interest because it would cut off some of the markets for American fishermen leading to an increase of supply domestically and a cut in demand. >click to read<15:41
Lobster wars
Burned out fishing boats, thousands of pounds of dumped, dead lobsters and allegations of a booming black market for the popular crustacean have drawn federal investigators to Nova Scotia’s most lucrative fishing grounds in the lead-up to lobster season. Tensions have been running high in recent weeks along the small wharves in the communities that dot St. Mary’s Bay, a well-known breeding ground for lobsters during the summer. While conservation laws prevent lobster fishers from harvesting the shellfish during breeding season in order to safeguard stocks, stunned locals watched thousands of pounds of lobsters that appeared to be commercial loads pass over their docks though the summer months. click here to read the story 10:53
