Tag Archives: Stuart Vorpahl
Stuart Vorpahl – Crusader for Rights of Fishermen and Common People
Stuart Vorpahl, a lifelong fisherman, historian, former town trustee, and descendant of one of East Hampton’s oldest families, died on Thursday morning at Southampton Hospital. “He was fighting this fight when the rest of us were in diapers,” Mr. Rodgers said. “Stuart Vorpahl was not born to be a raconteur. He was born first and foremost a man of the sea, a fisherman. It was only through this frustration at bureaucracy and government regulation that he began challenging authority, and he never stopped. He never gave up; he never wavered. You have to admire that about a man. . . . He did this because it was the right thing to do. And he did it for all of us.” Read the article here 09:31
Fisherman Stuart Vorpahl dies; Amagansett man fought for fishermen’s rights
Stuart Vorpahl, a colorful and dogged fighter for East End fishermen and a central figure in East Hampton’s maritime heritage, died Thursday at Southampton Hospital after a battle with cancer. He was 76. Vorpahl, a resident of Amagansett, used encyclopedic knowledge of East End history to wage a decades long battle against laws he considered an infringement on his lawful right to fish the waters of East Hampton. “He was fighting for the rights of fishermen way before it was fashionable, and he was doing it all on his own,” said his attorney, Daniel Rodgers. “He never, ever gave up.” Read the article here 11:35
“I’ll be goddamned,” – Stuart Vorpahl Reimbursed By State For Seized Fish, 17 Years Later
On a hot August afternoon 17 years ago, a state Department of Environmental Conservation officer, dressed in peat green fatigues, strode up to the side of Stuart Vorpahl’s trawler as it berthed along the bulkhead of Gann Road commercial docks in East Hampton. On the decks of his boat, the Polly & Ruth, Mr. Vorpahl had seven cartons worth of freshly caught fluke, iced and ready for market. “But to no avail,” Mr. Vorpahl would write in his captain’s log later that day, “when I got to the dock, DEC seized the fish [and] arrested me again for fishing without a license.” Read the rest here 14:43
