It was the summer of 1978. Then-12-year-old Mike Kalaman approached the captains of two lobster boats on a pier in Westport. This was a common activity for Kalaman, whose father, a mechanic, secured him a job at a family friend’s fish market to keep him out of “trouble.” The Norwalk teen would run down to the boats tied up near the Westport market and fire away questions about the crustaceans that would be sold that day. “You want to see how this is done?” a captain finally asked him. That was the first day of Kalaman’s nearly 50-year career as a lobsterman. “You could go down to any beach anywhere in the state of Connecticut, at low tide, turn over rocks and find baby lobsters. That’s how prolific they were,” he recalls. Then came the die-off. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:47
Tag Archives: Occupation
Trawlerman Jimmy Buchan: I earned £12 fishing 6 days a week at 14
Jimmy Buchan appeared in the Bafta-winning BBC series Trawlermen (2006-10) and published his memoir, Trawlerman: Life at the Helm of the Toughest Job in Britain, in 2011. The former skipper of Amity II has 40 years’ experience of North Sea fishing and has been running his own seafood supply company, Amity Fish, since 2019. Now 64, he is the chief executive of the Scottish Seafood Association and still lives in his home town of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, with his wife, Irene. They have two grown-up daughters, Jenna and Amy. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:29
America’s Least Desired Job: Being a Commercial Fisherman, According to Survey
While being a Hollywood actor in California, an investment banker in New York, or an outdoor adventure guide in Colorado may top the list of America’s most coveted careers, we often overlook the jobs that people least aspire to. The survey revealed some interesting results. Among Americans, the job they would least be willing to do, even if offered double the salary, was that of a commercial fisherman. Commercial fishing is one of the most hazardous jobs in America. Here are some of the other least desired careers among Americans: more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:57
Anxiety, depression are top issues faced by people who make their living on the sea
The number of people working in fisheries and aquaculture who are calling a dedicated industry counselling service on Prince Edward Island has more than doubled over the last fiscal year. From May 2022 to May 2023, the service counselled 24 people. That jumped to 64 people in the 2023-24 fiscal year. “The stigma for reaching out [about] mental health, I think that’s decreasing in our society generally. So it becomes more socially acceptable and people give themselves permission to reach out,” said social worker Frank Bulger. The program has been offered since 2019 by Frank Bulger Personal and Family Counselling, on behalf of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association and the P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance. Bulger administers the program, along with a counsellor in Summerside and one who works remotely from Alberta. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:29
Former Lobsterman Thrives With Own Biz, G & C Marine Services
G & C Marine Services Inc., a full-service marine construction company located in Norwalk, Conn., is run by company founder Gary Wetmore and his son, Charlie, who have been in the business for approximately 20 years. In addition to the marine construction side of the business, which includes pile driving, masonry, maintenance and repair, dock building/carpentry and marine salvage, the company also owns a few small commercial fishing vessels targeting a few small commercial fishing vessels such as black sea bass. “Our marine service company has been very successful and that’s quite fortunate for me because it supports my fishing habit,” Gary said with a smile. Years ago, Gary was a lobsterman, however as water temperatures increased, the lobster population migrated north, leaving Gary looking for alternatives to support himself. He took a job working for a marine contractor in the Norwalk area. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 15:18
Deadly fentanyl raises stakes for addicted fishermen
New Bedford fisherman Michael Kennedy, who died from a fentanyl overdose in 2022 at the age of 32. Photo provided by family.
Drug addiction is not new in the fishing industry. There is a tragic and long-understood pattern of fishermen using opiates or amphetamines to manage the chronic pain and endless hours that come with hard labor deep at sea. But the introduction of fentanyl has altered this pattern. In recent years, both fishermen and addiction counselors in the area say drug use has actually tended to be less pervasive on the waterfront than at any other point in the last few decades. Captains say they are more strict about enforcing a “zero tolerance” policy on their vessels, due to the high risk of fentanyl overdoses leading to death. Many keep Narcan, the opioid-overdose antidote, stocked on their boats and are aware of the outreach programs available to fishermen. But fentanyl has raised the stakes for fishermen continuing to struggle with addiction. >>click to read<< 15:59
Meet the Women Making Waves in Maine’s Tough Lobster Industry
When Krista Tripp was 18, she’d completed all of the hours at sea necessary to get her captain’s license, but her parents submitted her brother’s paperwork to the State of Maine and not hers. Why? Even though Krista had been hauling traps since she was eight years old and running her own boat since 15, the expectation was that now she’d settle down and start having babies. “My brother and I shared the boat, we had 150 traps, and I became obsessed at an early age,” Tripp recalls. “I knew that was what I wanted to do. But, as a girl, my parents didn’t really take me seriously.” Tripp would spend the next few years working as a sternman off of a scallop boat in Massachusetts. Eventually, she returned to Maine, and after 14 years, she got herself off the waiting list and became the captain of her own lobster boat. Today, she has been captaining her own lobster boat for more than eight years. Photos, >click to read< 14:23
Barataria Crabber isn’t Giving Up
A large majority of Louisiana’s crabs comes from the waters of the Barataria Estuary, situated between the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche. Scott Sugasti has been on those waters working his traps since an early age, and as one of the younger crabbers on the bayou he knows hard work is the key to success. Since Hurricane Ida he has had to work harder at avoiding numerous pitfalls the storm has caused for local fishermen. Now 23, he started crabbing on his own at the age of 13, never afraid to be alone on the water. While in high school he would get up at the crack of dawn and head out in his boat. ‘I used to go before and after school. I would wake up at three in the morning all the time and head out to run my traps.’ Over the years he has started and stopped a number of times, but it became his daily occupation when he bought his first boat from his grandfather, Jimmy Matherne, two years ago. Photos, >click to read<13:21
Finding his calling: Former lobsterman forges a new career
Coby Lesbines is a completely self-taught bladesmith and blacksmith. What started as a hobby for when Coby wasn’t lobstering has turned into a full-time enterprise, Barney Brook Customs. Coby made the difficult decision to part with the fishing industry in December after spending the last 12 years working on the water. It was a choice he made as the demand for his custom knives catapulted, especially after this past summer. >click to read< 21:12
Ryan Phillips, sparking welds for fishermen and mariners
Ryan Phillips always knew he wanted to be his own boss when he grew up. Originally from the Sunshine Coast, Phillips was raised and immersed in the family business, now he runs his own welding workshop in Port Edward. His father, a commercial fisherman, would regularly take his sons out to sea. Phillips’s new customer base knew he was a commercial fisherman and had confidence in what he was doing. “I’ve prawn fished. I’ve halibut fished. I’ve tuna fished. I’ve salmon fished, long-line and crab fished,” he said, also adding shrimp fishing to his list of work. “If you’ve done all the fisheries, you get to learn how a boat should be set up for every fishery.” “When you do that, you know how a boat has to be, and that’s why I immediately did well here.” Great story! >click to read< 14:41
Greek traditional wooden boat builders a dwindling craft
Each beam of wood, each plank, has been felled, trimmed and shaped by one man alone, hauled and nailed into place using techniques handed down through generations, from father to son, uncle to nephew. But the current generation could be the last. The art of designing and building these vessels, done entirely by hand, is under threat. “Unfortunately, I see the profession slowly dying,” said Giorgos Kiassos, one of the last remaining 
boatbuilders on Samos, an eastern Aegean island that was once a major production center. “If something doesn’t change, there will come a time when there won’t be anyone left doing this type of job. And it’s a pity, a real pity,” Kiassos is working on two: a 45-foot pleasure craft and a 30-foot fishing boat. The boats are being made to order, with the bigger one costing around $70,000, and the smaller one around $35,000. >click to read< 11:41
A Day in the Life of Maine Lobsterman, Mike Sargent, in his own words.
“A lot of people think it’s like Deadliest Catch,” Mike Sargent says with a laugh. But his days are very different from the high-stakes drama of a reality show. Learn about what it takes to bring lobster from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to your plate with a day in the life of Sargent, in his own words. 3 am: I’ll get up and check the weather forecast. I’ll check the marine buoy data, see if there’s any inclement weather coming or going. If we’re all good to go, I will message my crew, say, “Yep, we’re set to go today.” They’re usually up and at ’em anyway, so I have them on standby. And then, I pack my lunch and head to the wharf. 4 am: I meet my crew down at the wharf,,, >click to read< 16:41
Teen commercial fisherman hooked on a career on the water
Made for Bristol Bay: A Conversation with Sockeye Salmon Guru Steve Kurian
In 2002, when Steve Kurian graduated from college in Pennsylvania, he moved west to Idaho to take a job in forest management. There, Steve rented an apartment from an old, crusty commercial Alaska fisherman who told stories of an ocean chocked-full of salmon, sea monsters and a real-son-of-a-buzzard white whale that ate one of his crewmembers the season before. Steve wasn’t quite shanghaied, but the old man’s stories were enough to make him quit his job and go setnetting in the Naknek district of Bristol Bay. His then girlfriend and now wife, Jenn—the two have been together since they were 15—got a job fishing a neighboring setnet. >click to read< 08:10
“I want to be a fisherman when I grow up.” Being a fisherman is a highly regarded job. Here, it’s a last resort.
Tom Lambourn is a 24-year-old fisherman based in Newlyn. He comes from proper fishing stock with both parents heavily involved in the fishing industry. Tom also has a degree in chemistry having studied at Cardiff University. Despite studying nearly 200 miles away, he couldn’t wait to return to Cornwall during holidays and spend time around the harbour and out on the boats.,, James Roberts is a 29-year-old who also fishes out of Newlyn Harbour. But unlike Tom, he didn’t get into it through his direct family. “I was about 8-years-old when I started going down the quay,” >click to read< 09:33
A cold snap can’t stop him… and sea scallops fear him! I asked, “Do you love it?” And Captain Zach Storer admitted he did love it…
Captain Zach Storer, the skipper of the Jenna Lee, pulled his jacket a bit tighter when I must of reminded him (me all bundled up, shivering a little) how cold it actually was, just prior to snapping the top photo of him… as if he had forgotten… as if he hadn’t realized… as if being cold had been last on his morning list of “things to do,” the man surrounded by heavy-metal fishing gear layered with sea ice. photos, >click to read< 11:02
Stay calm under pressure. You may not be a trauma surgeon, but you can use some of the same coping mechanisms.
While being a human is rarely a stress-free endeavor, this level of anxiety is new for many of us. But for people with the world’s most intense and dangerous jobs—occupations that can involve life-and-death decisions—such tension is a fact of life. We reached out to a few of them to learn about how they cope without freaking out, and to hear what advice they have for the rest of us. From the land to the air to the sea, the terrain—both literal and psychological—these folks navigate can be tough. Here’s what it’s like for Air Traffic Controller Nichole Surunis, Coast Guard Rescue Pilot Jared Carbajal, Fishing Boat Captain Dick Ogg, Trauma Surgeon Daniel Hagler. >click to read< 10:10
I am a Fisherman! WTF are you? Not a fisherperson, or a fisher!
Chloe-Louise Chesswas, 29, prefers to be known as a fisherman and says the politically correct alternative will never catch on. Chloe-Louise is believed to be one of just six female fishermen in Britain and has been doing the job for three years. The 5ft 4in mother of two is a deckhand and potter on a crab potting boat based out of Salcombe, Devon. But she said the term championed by the BBC would not catch on and that, if anything, it took away from equality. “I am 100 per cent a fisherman. There is no such thing as a fisherwoman. We are all fishermen. “It is a gender neutral word. >click to read< 09:25
If this is you my friend, you are a fisherman. Be proud. Be strong. Be safe.
The most abhorrent occupation in the world? – Imagine you have a business. You’re not breaking any laws and its something your family have been doing for hundreds of years. Your whole community has been doing it and whole cultures, traditions, music, stories and clothes have evolve around it. Industries have thrived on your products.,,, You find yourself and your industry being eroded. Not by fact-based evidence but by the wild ramblings of people who are ideologically driven to persecute those that make a living from a common resource. >click to read<
What I learned about myself as the sole female crew member on a commercial fishing vessel
Before the universality of social media and the promulgation of movements like #MeToo that now prominently display powerful, mold-breaking women as role models for younger generations, I embarked on a 90-day journey as the sole female aboard a commercial fishing vessel among 25 men across the perilous Bering Sea. As the passage below recounting my first day aboard the ship demonstrates, I was in uncharted territory (both literally and figuratively). From “Bering Sea Strong: How I Found Solid Ground on Open Ocean” by Laura Hartema >click to read<18:03
Occupation: Gender wage gap is part reality, part myth
The gender wage gap is real. But inequality does not equal inequity, and the steady drumbeat from agenda-pushers and propaganda-purveyors suggests the nation’s 18-cent disparity is due to gender discrimination – a practice outlawed nearly six decades ago.,, The No. 1 wage gap contributor is career choice.,, Do women, who make up just 7 percent of workplace fatalities, really want 50-50 parity here? If so, careers in logging, commercial fishing and steelworking await. That is, assuming the men who currently hold the vast majority of those jobs suddenly decide to work in marketing, human resources or social services. >click here to read< 11:09
New Stormline study reveals what people think of us, based on our jobs
A new study has revealed what people are likely to think of us, based on our job. Using Google autocomplete suggestions for 131 professions, the results reveal a somewhat depressing – and sometimes funny – snapshot of how we perceive one another. The study, launched by Stormline to challenge negative job stereotyping, revealed: Developers are grumpy, designers are pretentious and project managers are important – according to the data Bloggers and YouTubers are viewed as annoying, while writers are viewed as depressed. Case Study – Genevieve Kurilec, commercial fishing captain. Read the rest here 09:18
I want to be a commercial fisherman. What will my salary be?
Though many Canadians enjoy sport fishing, only a select few licensed and trained fisherman, operating in a limited number of regions across Canada, make a living from their catch. For such professionals, there are only a few seasonal windows when they are permitted to fish for certain species in certain locations, ranging from a few months to as little as a few days a year. As such, fishermen spend much of the off-season ensuring that they’re prepared for anything when that window opens. Read he rest here 07:40
Before You Grow Up: Be a Lobster Boat Deckhand
The Good: you’re on the open ocean, the pay’s great, and you’ll never complain about hard work again. The Bad: it’s nearly around-the-clock, demanding physical labor—hauling traps out of the water, removing the lobsters, cutting up bait fish with huge knives on rolling waves. After 20 hours there’s a four-hour break—sometimes. “If weather gets rough, I’ll keep guys on duty for up to 48 hours if I need to,” says Morgan Garrett, captain of the 64-foot Sea Star in Point Judith, Rhode Island. more@outsideonline 23:53
