WORKING AND LIVING IN THE GATEWAY TO ALASKA’S WILD WEST
THE LATEST IN RAINWEAR, BOOTS, GLOVES AND LAYERING TO KEEP YOU WARM, DRY AND WORKING BOATBUILDING \ MR PETE
A FLORIDA SHIPYARD BUILDS AN UPDATED NEW ENGLAND DRAGGER
We’re bringing to the surface the story of Alaska’s fishing fleet to hook customers all over the globe. Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s robust public relations and social media marketing campaigns show the world every angle of Alaska Seafood from beautiful fillets to hardworking hands.
This is just one example of how Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute puts all hands on deck to tell the story of wild, sustainable Alaska seafood so you and your family can focus on fishing today and for generations to come. alaskaseafood.org
The commercial grade Wheelhouse Boot is reinforced in high wear areas such as the toe and heel for maximum durability. This boot provides all day comfort with a slightly wider fit and EVA/PU blend insole. An SRC Rated outsole completes the package with industry leading traction and slip-resistance.
Few places personify the heart of shing in Alaska like the Port of Dutch Harbor. With annual landings of 763 million pounds, the port takes second in the nation in terms of value at $190 million but that doesn’t begin to highlight what it represents to the shing industry as a whole. Charlie Ess gives us a look at those details in a place that exempli es a love for shing, big money, big water and volcanic vistas.
is connection to the day-to-day life of a working sherman is further re ected in the gear they use on a daily basis, which Brian Hagenbuch outlines as a key part to a comfortable and profitable season. It’s the reason he has a lot more to say about gloves, boots and raingear than you might imagine.
Not to be outdone in terms of connecting with the people and issues that de ne the past and present of the industry, Larry Chowning documents why Kenny Heath has become such an inspiration to multiple generations of shermen. e devastating accident that he su ered didn’t stop him from getting back to the water. What does
it mean to go through tremendous hardships but still get back to a normal life at sea?
In case you missed them last time, you’ll also nd new sections like “Recipies for the Boat” and “Author’s Corner” in this edition, underscoring NF’s commitment to change that will ensure it remains an essential resource for
JEREMIAH KARPOWICZ EDITORIAL DIRECTOR JKarpowicz@Divcom.com
the shing community. We’re always looking at ways to inprove and expand this e ort though, so if there’s more (or less) of something that you want to see in the next edition of National Fisherman, please get in touch or let us know in person at Paci c Marine Expo. e show dates for this year’s show in Seattle (November 8th-10th) were just announced!
PUBLISHER: Bob Callahan EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Jeremiah Karpowicz ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kirk Moore BOATS & GEAR EDITOR: Paul Molyneaux
CONTENT SPECIALIST: Carli Stewart DIGITAL PROJECT MANAGER / ART DIRECTOR: Doug Stewart NORTH PACIFIC BUREAU CHIEF: Charlie Ess
FIELD EDITORS: Larry Chowning, Michael Crowley, CORRESPONDENTS: John DeSantis, Maureen Donald, Brian Hagenbuch, Dayna Harpster, John Lee, Caroline Losneck, Nick Rahaim ADVERTISING COORDINATOR: Wendy Jalbert / wjalbert@divcom.com / Tel. (207) 842-5616 GROUP SALES DIRECTOR: Christine Salmon / csalmon@divcom.com / Tel. (207) 842-5530 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: (800) 842-5603 classi eds@divcom.com
chowder in a to-go pouch, that won Bristol Bay Choice and Juneau People’s Choice in the Symphony. In Boston, they surprised everyone (including themselves) by taking home the top prize for a retail product in North America!
Since their big win in Boston, AFDF followed up with Kara Berlin and Taran White, founders and owners of Thunder’s Catch. They said the Boston show was a whirlwind, but they have seen subsequent results. For example, Taran reports that Thunder’s Catch will be in nearly 300 more stores starting September 2023, and they are in discussions with a major retail chain and are exploring a larger, food service package. www. thunderscatch.com
BY JULIE DECKER AND JULIE CISCO, ALASKA FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATIONSince 1994, the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation (AFDF) has conducted the Alaska Symphony of Seafood (Symphony) each year celebrating creative new commercial-ready products made from Alaska seafood. The purpose of the event is to encourage and promote the development of value-added products through this annual, friendly competition. Product development is critically important to the entire industry and the fishing communities that depend on it. Innovative new products allow the industry to remain relevant to consumers, encourage full utilization, and help diversify markets which leads to more stable value for the resource in the long-term.
Products can be entered into three categories: Retail, Foodservice, and Beyond the Plate. Beyond the Plate is for non-food items such as pet treats, supplements, leathers, and bath or body products. Additionally, products entered are eligible to win the following special awards: Bristol Bay Choice, Whitefish Choice,
Salmon Choice, Seattle People’s Choice, Juneau People’s Choice, and the coveted Grand Prize. Winners are provided airfare and booth space at the Seafood Expo North America (SENA).
As an additional benefit, AFDF pays to enter the winning products into the SENA new products contest, called the Seafood Excellence Awards (SEA). This year, two Symphony winners made it to the top 11 finalists in the Retail category: Wild Caught Alaska Salmon with Ribbon Kelp Chimichurri, by Peter Pan Seafood, and Wild Salmon Chowder by Thunder’s Catch. The finalists competed in front of a group of judges in Boston through a tasting and an in-person pitch of their products. As a result, for the first time, the winner of the SEA Retail category was also a Symphony winner – Thunder’s Catch with its Wild Salmon Chowder! This new product is a shelf-stable, hearty
Peter Pan Seafood (PPS) stepped into product development for the first time with their Wild Caught Alaska Salmon with Ribbon Kelp Chimichurri, which was a triple winner, taking home 1st place Retail, Salmon Choice and the Grand Prize in the Symphony! This is an exciting new product that features a portioned Bristol Bay sockeye fillet with a delicious chimichurri recipe made with Ribbon Kelp grown in Alaska!
Michael DeCaro says, “For Peter Pan, the Alaska Symphony of Seafood provided a wonderful opportunity to showcase the potential of the new Peter Pan Seafood Co., LLC to both our industry and consum-
experience that all innovative seafood companies should compete in to help
food trends, as well as new economic development opportunities for Alaska seafood processors and shermen. A large group of partners, the Alaska Mariculture Cluster, received a $49 million grant from the Economic Development Administration, to support the development of this new part of the industry. PPS seems to be positioning to take advantage of this new opportunity.
e fact that under’s Catch won the Retail category in Boston this year is a great testament to the high quality of products that win the Symphony! e 2023 winners of the Symphony demonstrate that excellent new products can come from small companies, large companies, or companies who have never made a value-added product before. en these winners, as well as previous winners and entrants, can leverage the Symphony platform and continue to see increased sales and market
exposure of their products. We are excited to see what entries there are for next year! Stay tuned for updates and the Call for Products, with a new category and new special awards, coming this summer at www.afdf.org
Founded in 1978, AFDF is dedicated to identifying common opportuni-
ties in the Alaska seafood industry and developing e cient, sustainable outcomes that provide bene ts to the economy, environment and communities. For more information, visit www.afdf.org.
Julie is executive director at AFDF, and has worked in various positions in the Alaska seafood industry for thirty years..
Julie is executive administrator at AFDF and will be the new lead in organizing the Symphony. She has worked in the Alaska seafood industry for over thirty years.
BY LINDA BEHNKEN AND AMY DAUGHERTY
Alaska’s troll-caught Chinook salmon is prized throughout the world as the highest quality salmon in the marketplace, thanks to the extreme care that trollers use when they catch each individual salmon with their hook and line. Troll-caught Chinook is also the poster child for Alaska’s sustainable small-scale sheries due to its low impact on the marine ecosystem and minimal bycatch.
Additionally, Alaska’s troll shery keeps many of Southeast Alaska’s rural coastal communities economically a oat, providing year-round shing jobs for families who have few income alternatives. Southeast Alaska’s archipelago contains 24 small communities, often with populations less than 500 souls.
But these days this small-boat, Alaska-family based shery is under attack by the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy, which sued the National Marine Fisheries Service over the impact of Alaska’s troll shery on the Paci c Northwest’s Chinook salmon and Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) populations. e recent court ruling in favor of the Wild Fish Conservancy’s lawsuit doesn’t just threaten the future of Southeast Alaska’s troll shery, it feeds a dangerous narrative that jeopardizes the future of shing communities throughout the U.S. It also distracts from the real issues that threaten the sustainability of our wild sh populations, such as habitat loss and changing ocean conditions.
Since 1985, Alaska has been party to and is committed to upholding its end of the Paci c Salmon Treaty even
though Alaska’s Chinook harvests have been consistently reduced with each renegotiation of the treaty. Despite Alaska’s investment and hard work to manage in compliance with the Paci c Salmon Treaty, the Wild Fish Conservancy deliberately promotes the story that Southeast Alaska’s troll eet causes harm to the Paci c Northwest’s Chinook and SRKW.
Making the situation even more frustrating is the fact that Alaska’s trollers have been on the frontlines of salmon conservation for decades, advocating to stop old-growth logging in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, block large-scale mining in the U.S. and Canada’s transboundary rivers, and take down the Columbia River’s four lower Snake River dams. Conservation is our bottom line. Shutting down Alaska’s troll shery would eliminate some of the most active and vocal salmon advocates, putting the Northwest’s Chinook
To go after Southeast Alaska’s Chinook troll harvest as the way to increase the SRKW’s principal prey also perpetuates the false narrative that commercial shermen are causing the decline of wild salmon, when much bigger unaddressed threats, such as destruction of critical salmon habitat, are the major culprits. Likewise, it is well known scienti cally that industrial toxins, water pollution, vessel tra c, and noise disturbance are the threat to SRKW – not sheries, and especially not Southeast Alaska’s hook-and-line troll shery that operates 1,000 miles away from the SRKW’s territory.
ere are no shortcuts when it comes to restoring wild salmon. We have seen everywhere else in the world that without healthy habitat and free- owing rivers and streams, you cannot have healthy wild salmon. As shermen who spend countless days on the water out in the elements observing the natural world, we know this, and we know it will take working together to address the complex issues that drive salmon declines throughout the Paci c.
We should be leaning into the threats of habitat damage, dams, urban development, toxic water pollution, and climate change rather than ghting over who’s catching whose sh. And rather than letting the Wild Fish Conservancy paint misleading narratives about Alaska’s sheries, we need to talk to our decision-makers about real solutions to help ensure our sheries are sustainable for generations to come.
BY LADONNA GUNDERSEN
TLiving on a boat means that meal prep can be a bit of a challenge, but this Seared Salmon with Wild Blueberry Salsa recipe is perfect for any boater looking for a quick and delicious meal. e combination of the fresh wild salmon with the sweet and tangy blueberry salsa is sure to impress your crew.
When it comes to cooking salmon on a boat, I always recommend using a stovetop grill pan. It’s a great way to get those grill marks without the hassle of an actual grill. Also, make sure to season your salmon with salt and pepper before grilling to bring out the sh’s natural avors.
e blueberry salsa is the perfect complement to the salmon. To get the best avor, I recommend refrigerating the salsa for at least an hour before serving. is will allow the avors to meld together, creating a delicious, tangy taste.
Overall, this seared salmon with wild blueberry salsa recipe is perfect for any boater looking for a delicious and easy-to-prepare meal. Give it a try on your next boat trip, and I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Happy shing and happy eating!
Ingredients:
4 (6-ounce) wild salmon fillets, remove skin and pin bones
olive oil for grilling salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Blueberry Salsa:
1 cup fresh wild blueberries
1/2 cup crushed canned pineapple drained
1/2 cup red bell pepper, minced
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup red onion, minced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup white raisins
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon lime zest
1 teaspoon jalapeños, minced salt to taste
The Salsa: Combine salsa ingredients in a medium bowl. Salt to taste. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.
The Salmon: Preheat a stove-top grill pan to medium-high heat and lightly oil the grates. Season the llets with salt and pepper. Grill the llets skinned side up and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Turn llets over and grill until sh is just cooked through, about 3 or 4 minutes more. To serve, place the salmon on a warmed plate and spoon blueberry salsa on top.
Currently, NYP operates in Washington, California, Alaska, Maine, and Massachusetts, with plans to further expand into southeastern states such as Louisiana and Florida. I had the privilege of meeting Caity Townsend, the Massachusetts Representative for NYP, at this year’s Maine Fishermen’s Forum. We discussed NYP’s mission and the profound impact they have had on promoting ocean sustainability. With organizations like NYP, we can continue to support the dedicated stewards of the sea—our fishermen.
Caity and I both share deep roots in fishing, spanning across generations, and we have a fervent passion for fisheries and preserving this way of life. What better way to protect our oceans than by establishing an economically viable pathway for recycling end-of-life fishing gear?
BY CARLI STEWARTIhad the incredible opportunity to engage in a conversation with Nicole Baker, the visionary behind Net Your Problem (NYP), an enterprise dedicated to recycling end-of-life fishing gear. Nicole’s background as a North Pacific groundfish fisheries observer from 2010 to 2015 fostered a strong connection to the commercial fishing industry, propelling her to explore ways to make it more sustainable. While working in Dutch Harbor during that time, she encountered numerous worn-out fishing nets, which sparked her interest in finding solutions for recycling them.
T he initial spark of inspiration for Nicole came from a nonprofit organization that had collected nets from an illegal fishing operation and repurposed the material to create shoes. She realized that these nets, made of plastics, ultimately ended up in landfills once they reached the end of their useful lives. This revelation led her to recognize the vast amounts of unusable
Although NYP originated in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, Nicole expanded its
Net Your Problem stands at the forefront of promoting a circular economy and reducing energy consumption in plastic manufacturing. Their website provides links for individuals to engage their fishing vessels or fleets in NYP’s recycling program. Additionally, the website offers resources for government agencies, net and gear manufacturers, outreach organizations, and brands aiming to enhance their sustainability practices.
Nicole shared with me the challenge of encapsulating the significance that NYP has brought to numerous fishing ports across the United States. Nevertheless, she proudly stated that they have collected nearly 1.25 million pounds of gear thus far.
“I have this mental ticker in my brain, always pushing us to grow and move onward and upward. The impact even a single vessel can have on our progress highlights the necessity of initiatives like NYP,” Nicole shares.
“Just the other day, we collected 30,000 pounds from a single boat in Kodiak.”
Nicole explains that while the weight may not always be substantial in certain locations, the impact is undoubtedly signi cant. Each shackle on a Bristol Bay gillnet weighs approximately fteen pounds. To collect 24,000 pounds, it would require the collection of 1,600 individual shackles.
“By focusing solely on the total weight, it’s challenging to gauge the true impact. However, overall, it feels like we have made tremendous progress,” Nicole adds.
One of the key resources that Nicole and her team seek are warehouses near the shing ports where they collect gear. Currently, they have one warehouse in Seattle, and in Alaska, they rely on subcontracted gear storage since they do not own the storage space themselves.
In New Bedford, Mass., NYP has a warehouse that accepts gear drop-o s, and there is a rope depot in Freeport, Maine, that facilitates similar transactions. e initial goal is to establish NYP warehouses in all ports, providing shermen with a convenient location to discard their gear once it has reached the end of its useful life. Typically, the team operates out of a 40-foot shipping container to ensure e cient transportation. e recyclers they work with are based in British Columbia, Portugal, and Denmark. e NYP team stores everything in warehouses until they have accumulated enough to load a container for shipment overseas.
Nicole emphasizes the collaborative nature of her team, expressing gratitude for the passionate individuals involved in the shing industry. “A friend of mine once said it’s like working on a short dock, you know? We’re constantly swimming in the same schools, bumping into familiar faces. is industry binds us together,” Nicole says with a smirk.
“I wasn’t the rst person to conceive this idea.”
In addition to their own collection programs, NYP supports other groups that have previously gathered nets, helping them nd new destinations.
e Curyung Tribe of Dillingham has been engaged in cleanup e orts for over a decade, while the Copper River Watershed Project in Cordova has also collected nets prior to NYP’s involvement. Both groups shared with Nicole that several years ago, China stopped accepting recyclable materials. As a result, the three organizations began collaborating to explore alternative options for recycling the nets. Nicole shares, “ ese are two of our partners who work directly in the communities, engaging with shermen, collecting and sorting the gear, and going through the recycling process on-site.”
Net Your Problem collaborates with partners who have years of experience in this eld and who support them by providing gear storage and warehouses along the West Coast and in Alaska.
Nicole also mentioned the other partners who helped fund NYP’s rst-year Bristol Bay program. Grundens has been a signi cant supporter of their work, along with Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, Seattle Marine, LFS, Trident, and Leader Creek. Together, they fully endorse the collection of end-of-life gear and form a multi-stakeholder group dedicated to the success of our sheries and sustainability.
Nicole concludes, “Just because we don’t have a collection program where you sh doesn’t mean we’re not considering it.” She encourages shermen from all regions to reach out to Net Your Problem, as they are always looking for ways to expand their reach and make a positive impact on more shing communities.
Is a Content Specialist for National Fishermen. She comes from a fourth-generation shing family o the coast of Maine. Her background consists of growing her own business within the marine community. She resides on one of the islands o the coast of Maine while also supporting the lobster community she grew up in.
cstewart@divcom.com
decided that the millions of sh that McCurdy, his father, and his grandfather had been selling for a century were a health hazard. “I took them to a lab myself,” says McCurdy. “ ey tested them and couldn’t nd a spore of botulism. And if they had found it, ve days in the brine would have killed it.”
BY PAUL MOLYNEAUXJohn McCurdy of Lubec, Maine, holds the distinction of having run the last herring smokehouse in the USA. Sit down to talk to him about it, and you’ll nd that at age 92, he is still mad about the US Food and Drug Administration shutting him down in 1991. “What happened is, some people in New York City got botulism from smoked white sh out in the Great Lakes. So, they made a law that all smoked sh had to be eviscerated before they were salted. Well, you know we bought over 100 hogsheads [120,000] at a time, and those boats wanted to unload fast and get back out shing. ere’s no way we could gut those sh.”
McCurdy’ smokehouse was already a labor-intensive business, with 24 people doing everything from brining
Unfortunately, the FDA’s one-size- ts-all regulation did not leave room for negotiation. McCurdy had to eviscerate the sh or close. In those days, he bought millions of sh every year from purse seiners working the Bay of Fundy, and stop seiners and weir shermen closer to home. “I’d get a phone call at 2 in the morning, ‘we got your sh,’ and I go down to the smokehouse and start getting the brine tanks ready. At rst light, I’d see that boat come around Quoddy Head loaded right down to the rails; oh what a beautiful sight.”
But no more. While most of the seafood Americans consume is imported, and eating local has become a thing, a business that processed American sh and sold it to American markets has been turned into a museum.
the sh, loading the smokehouse, moving sh upward in the smokehouse over the course of an 8-week curing process, and then skinning, boning, and packing it. And it was all hand work, “artisanal” it would be called today. e workers made the boxes for packing, carefully laid the sh in, and nailed the lids on. Nothing in the entire operation was auto-
mated; it relied on human beings using their judgment as to how much brine to soak the sh into when the sh were ready. “If they rattle when you bring them down, they’re ready,” says McCurdy. “We sold 15,000 boxes a year. We sold to mom-andpop stores, 100 boxes here, a hundred there.”
In 1991, however, the FDA
“What really got me,” says McCurdy, “is that about two weeks after they closed us, a woman came down from Augusta to talk about how to create more jobs in Lubec.”
REVIEW BY: BOB HUMPHREY
K” “Kings of eir Own Ocean” by Karen Pinchin is a captivating and comprehensive exploration of the history, management, and conservation of the iconic blue n tuna. Pinchin’s personal obsession with the sh drives her on a globe-spanning journey that spans centuries and industries.
e book revolves around the story of a tuna named Amelia Earhart and a sherman named Al, who caught and tagged her before she resurfaced in a Mediterranean sh trap years later. rough this narrative, Pinchin delves into the science, business, crime, and environmental justice associated with the blue n tuna shery. She introduces notable gures like Al Anderson, a pioneering gure who transitioned from catch-and-kill captain to catch-and-release citizen scientist.
Pinchin’s historical accounts provide a rich backdrop, tracing the evolution of blue n tuna shing from ancient subsistence practices to the boom and bust cycles of commercial and recreational shing. e author sheds light on the species’ extraordinary char-
acteristics and the pivotal role sushi played in driving the modern blue n sales boom.
What distinguishes this book is Pinchin’s deep passion and obsession with blue n tuna, evident in her engaging, eloquent writing style. She seamlessly incorporates intimate testimonies from industry professionals, anglers, scientists, and environmentalists, weaving their stories into the narrative.
For those involved in the blue n shery, the book strikes a personal chord, exploring the rise of the industry, price uctuations, scienti c research, potential population crashes, and the path to a hopeful future. Pinchin o ers insights into awed management practices and presents a promising paradigm shift through the Management Strategy Evaluation model.
Not only the story of a sherman and a remarkable sh, it’s a tale that re ects the global challenges we face. With historical depth and thought-provoking analysis, this book deserves a place among the classics of tuna literature. Whether you are an angler, scientist, or simply fascinated by blue n tuna, Pinchin’s work is a must-read that emphasizes the importance of studying history to shape a sustainable future.
KINGS OF THEIR OWN OCEAN: TUNA, OBSESSION, AND THE FUTURE OF OUR SEAS
BY KAREN PINCHIN
AVAILABLE AS AN EBOOK AND AN AUDIOBOOK
WWW.KARENPINCHIN.COM
TWITTER: @KARENPINCHIN INSTAGRAM: @KARENPINCHIN
Anew Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program draft assessment downgrades the Eastern oysters harvested in Chesapeake Bay to the category of “avoid,” drawing criticism from scientists, o cials, conservationists, and shers.
e draft report rated wild-caught oysters in the U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia, harvested both with hand implements and towed dredges as seafood to avoid, citing a “high concern” for the status of the stock and of the management of the shery.
Seafood Watch’s draft assessment said the shery experienced “a notable decline in abundance” and that the reference points for stock assessments in Maryland were based on periods of “historically low abundance.”
“ e reference points used in the stock assessment are not appropriate for the stock,” the draft report states.
e report also criticizes the status of Virginia’s stock, based on “strong signs of being over shed.”
O cials with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources told Maryland Matters the studies used by Seafood Watch in its draft report were awed, and no one contacted the department at any time about their methodology.
“ ere’s missing information, there’s outdated information. ey have misinterpreted information, and they have failed to live up to their own standards of using the best science and collaborating,” DNR Secretary for Aquatic Resources Kristen Fidler said.
Biologists with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science also told Maryland Matters that the Seafood Watch ratings of the shery were based on “old data and are entirely inappropriate.” Data cited regarding abundance being “a high concern” was more than a decade old, they said.
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Scientist Mike Wilberg, who helped lead the development of the state’s stock assessments, also criticized the Seafood Watch rating and told Maryland Matters it didn’t take into account the complexities of the oyster population.
“ e devil is in the details,” Wilberg said.
Virginia oysters were rated a good choice by Seafood Watch in 2018, the highest rating the organization bestows. Since that time, the oyster shery has “steadily improved,” Virginia Waterman’s Association President JC Hudgins told the media. Last year, reef surveys found the highest oyster densities since before diseases struck the species in the late 1980s.
e Chesapeake Bay Foundation Maryland Director Allison Colden, who is also a sheries biologist, also criticized the draft report’s stance considering a new update on the oyster population is coming soon.
Despite the criticism of the report and the relative increase in oyster population in the bay, NOAA Fisheries acknowledges that the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay is at a fraction of its historic population, with only 1 to 2 percent remaining in the wild compared to historic highs. NOAA has created a “blueprint” to restore oysters to the bay, and has partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Program to restore oysters to 10 tributaries to the bay by 2025.
e U.S. Department of Commerce has allocated USD 220 million in shery disaster relief to the U.S. states of Washington and Alaska for a shery disaster that took place from 2020 to 2023.
Lobster season was extended due to June wild res in Nova Scotia. With many shermen and lobster pounds in areas with power outages, generators kept pounds running amid concern over fuel supplies.
By Kirk Moore
With only around 340 North Atlantic right whales surviving in one of the world’s most endangered species, preventing their deaths in ship strikes is critical, conservationists say.
“Even one human-caused mortality puts the species at risk of extinction,” whale researcher Jessica Redfern of the New England Aquarium warned, as a Congressional subcommittee heard testimony Tuesday on new proposed vessel speed limits to protect the whales.
A rule proposal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration could extend 10-knot speed limits in areas when right whales are present, and expand the cover vessels between 35 and protecting the whales, the proposal is seen as a mortal threat by some U.S. maritime groups, from recreational boat builders to charter shing captains and port pilots.
Allowing NOAA to declare 10-knot speed zones would be “the greatest restriction to our nation’s cherished waterways” from Massachusetts to central Florida, said Fred Hugelmeyer, president and CEO of the National Marine Manufacturers Association. Hugelmeyer was one among a panelists of experts invited to the House of Representatives Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.
NOAA’s proposed “strike reduction rule” is aimed at reducing maritime roadkill. “What makes right whales so vulnerable is they spend so much time at or near the surface,” explained Janice Coit, NOAA’s assistant administrator for sheries. “We can’t a ord to cause even one more whale death per year, and achieve our conservation goals.”
By Carli Stewart
Florida shermen all around the state are on the edge of their seats, hoping to gain some good news about the shing industry’s future. ose in Lee County were furious at reports that the federal agency NOAA Fisheries had rejected DeSantis’ shery disaster request.
In late September 2022, Hurricane Ian destroyed nearly all of Lee County, which led to mass destruction of the shing industry within and around Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Sanibel Island, and Pine Island Sound. e western side of Florida has been devastated by the damage that Ian had
caused. On October 15, 2022, Governor DeSantis was joined by shing captains from southwest Florida to show his support for the shing industry’s road to recovery.
To get the shing industry back on its feet, DeSantis requested the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to issue a federal sheries disaster. e request would have provided federal funding to allow o shore, nearshore, and inshore sheries to rebuild. “Florida’s sheries are vitally important to the State’s economy through their impact on commercial and recreational shing and tourism,” DeSantis stated in his o cial request.
“According to the most recent US Fish and Wildlife Service survey, Florida leads the nation in the number of saltwater shing anglers. Florida’s recreational saltwater shing industry has an economic impact of $9.2 billion, while the value of commercial sheries is estimated at $244 million.”
Are inadequate policies and poorly written federal statutes to blame? Or does it boil down to politics? It all depends on who you ask, but from a commercial sherman’s fearful perspective, things are not looking bright for the seafood that comes fresh from Florida.
Commercial sherman Casey Streeter is struggling to pick up the pieces that Ian left scattered, “ is industry is really on the verge of being gone,” Streeter says. In just 12 hours, the storm destroyed everything including his icehouse, his market, and multiple vessels in his eet. Streeter told ABC Action News, “We are out on our own, and there is no one coming to help us. And with the denial that we just received, you know, I don’t want to call it a death sentence to our progress and move forward, but I mean, it sets us back in a way that’s going to be pretty hard to overcome.”
Streeter and the other shermen in the area have completely lost all infrastructure and have undergone a complete shery failure. Without the support of
federal funding, they are not hopeful. According to Allison Garrett, Communications Specialist for NOAA Fisheries/ U.S. Department of Commerce, said they are “conducting a review of the shery disaster request under Section 321(a) of the MSA and the NOAA Fisheries Disaster Policy.”
News update as of June 6, 2023
NOAA Fisheries o cials say the did not reject the shery disaster determination request from the Governor of Florida for impacts from Hurricane Ian, but were still reviewing the state’s request under provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Agency o cials said they “share the concerns about the loss of life, property and income caused by the impact of Hurricane Ian. NOAA is waiting on data from the state in order to assess whether a commercial shery failure due to a shery resource disaster has occurred under the MSA.”
When that information is received, they will work as expeditiously as possible to complete their analysis and provide a recommendation to the Secretary of Commerce.
Catherine “Cate” O’Keefe, a scientist with more than 20 years of experience in Northeast sheries research and management, was named executive director of the New England Fisheries Management Council to replace the retiring omas Nies.
NOAA Fisheries has recommended 40 projects to receive $11 million in grant funding.“ ese grant awards support the promotion and marketing of U.S. sheries which supports U.S. shing and aquaculture industries and our nation’s working waterfronts,” NOAA Fisheries Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Operations Jim Landon said in a statement.
The NC State Seafood Laboratory received a grant through NC Sea Grant to develop eight videos that explain and show the sanitation and safety regulations the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires for seafood processing plants.
The implementation of the video training did result in more job-related confidence and knowledge for workers, which can potentially lead to more significant economic gains for processors, as well as a lower risk of illness for workers and consumers
For more information on this project and the implementation of this training program, contact: Alex Chouljenko, Assistant Professor, avchoulj@ncsu.edu Greg Bolton, Research Specialist, gebolton@ncsu.edu
Read more at: https://seafoodscience.ces.ncsu.edu/2023/05/training-videos-developed-forspanish-speaking-employees-of-nc-seafood-processors/
Seafood processors have a new training tool to provide Seafood processors have a new training tool to provide Spanish-speaking employees with a better Spanish-speaking employees with a better understanding of sanitation and safety requirements. understanding of sanitation and safety requirements.
When the new fishing year begins on May 1, Northeast ground fishermen will be facing some new regulations and management.
The annual winter Chesapeake Bay crab dredge survey shows an estimated 96 million increase in the blue crab population – from 227 million in 2022 to 323 million blue crabs in the Bay in 2023.
The results are from the recently released 2023 Winter Crab Dredge Survey, which has Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) officials and others encouraged.
The good news comes on the heels of a horrid 2022 survey that showed the worst (227 million) estimated population numbers in the 34 years that the survey has been conducted. The last all-time high of 852 million crabs was reported in 1993.
The low survey numbers last year led VMRC and Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to place restrictions on crabbers – cutting down the days they can work and on catch limits.
Early signs of population improvement are being reported this spring from crabbers who work using 450-crab pot licenses in the bay. They are regularly reporting that they are catching the 27-bushel daily limit. It is a reduced limit that was imposed last year.
Cape Charles, Va., crabber Kenny Heath caught his limit on April 14 in a little over a half-day fishing 250 pots in the Chesapeake Bay. “We have been catching our limit regularly, and we are encouraged by the number of crabs we are seeing at the start of the season,” he says.
There has been some concern, however, on Virginia’s western shore as to the slow start of the peeler and soft-shell crab fishery, but most crabbers feel that this is the result of the cooler weather this spring. Lee Walton of Urbanna, Va., says, “We have had a cooler than normal spring, and the inconsistency in weather has led to inconsistency in crabs.”
e winter dredge survey is conducted annually by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and DNR. Since 1990, the survey has utilized traditional crab dredges to sample blue crabs at 1,500 sites throughout the Chesapeake Bay from December through March. By sampling during winter when blue crabs are sedentary and buried in the mud, scientists can develop more precise estimates of the number of crabs in the Bay.
e report is cautious in that it states that although the spawning stock has returned to healthy levels, sheries managers remain cautious about the continued trend of low juvenile abundance.
e juvenile populations from 2021 through 2023 rank amongst the six lowest in the 34 years of the Winter Dredge Survey.
e 2023 adult female abundance of
152 million crabs, however, is promising, though it remains below the target abundance of 196 million crabs.
“We’re pleased to see over a 50 percent increase in the adult female numbers in 2023,” said Jamie Green, Commissioner of VMRC. “ ese results are encouraging, and we’ll continue working diligently with our partners in the Chesapeake Bay to increase blue crab stock numbers.”
e survey shows that all categories of blue crabs, by sex and by age, have shown an increase since the 2022 survey, including the abundance estimate for all crabs in Chesapeake Bay. Adult crabs drove this increase, with adult males nearly doubling and adult females returning to above-average levels.
According to current biological reference points, female blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay are not over shed, and overshing is not occurring due to successful management of the bay-wide blue crab sheries, the report states.
Scientists and managers agree that a robust abundance of adult female crabs is integral to the success of the crab population, as each female can spawn, on average, up to nine million eggs per year. Adult females observed in each Winter Dredge Survey are likely to spawn during the following early- to mid-summer period, contributing to next year’s juvenile population.
e low abundances seen in 2022 spurred interest in a new benchmark stock assessment for blue crabs, allowing researchers to incorporate new data and test new models since the last assessment was conducted in 2011.
is process began in September 2022 with a blue crab science workshop that sought to characterize impacts on the blue crab population from a variety of in uences, including water quality, predator abundance, and availability of habitat.
e benchmark stock assessment is scheduled to be completed and peer-reviewed in 2025. Managers look forward to this new assessment to evaluate the current stock status and guide future sustainability e orts, it states.
e VMRC’s Crab Management Advisory Committee held a public meeting on May 24 at the VMRC Main O ce to discuss the Winter Dredge Survey results and any potential management responses for the ongoing crabbing season. Visit MRC. Virginia.Gov for more information and updates.
We’re pleased to see over a 50 percent increase in the adult female numbers in 2023”
Terry Alexander remembers when northern shrimp were abundant in the cold waters of coastal Maine.
“We used to do really well shrimping. I shrimp shed from the 1970s on – until probably around 2010. When we had a season, it used to be a nice little hit for the local economy for the di erent small towns. It was something we could land in Cundy’s Harbor and be competitive [with] places like Portland. It made a huge di erence…and brought jobs to the local economy.”
Back in 2010, when Alexander was still catching shrimp, Maine shermen landed 255,765,092 pounds
of shrimp with an ex-vessel value of over $456 million.
Alexander, 61, has spent his life as a commercial sherman in Cundy’s Harbor, Maine, a small shing village on a narrow peninsula nestled between a cove and the mouth of the New Meadows River. Over his career, he has experienced rsthand the peaks and troughs of commercial shing, including the shuttering of the Maine shrimp shery, which saw its last season in the Gulf of Maine in 2013. A moratorium, which is still in e ect, was placed on the shery because the shrimp population had collapsed.
“It sucked,” says Alexan-
Contuinted on page 22
BY KIRK MOOREFor nearly half a century, Sansom has been the voice for and a face of the individual commercial shermen in Florida as the longtime executive director of the Organized Fishermen of Florida. His 2022 award as a National Fisherman Highliner recognizes his lifelong work.
Growing up in the Pensacola area with its “big history of commercial shing for generations,” Sansom says that heritage was the basis for his decades of advocacy.
“Protect the resource so you always have it there, and guarantee access to the commercial side and consumers,” said Sansom. “ ese are public resources, and everyone
should have access to it.” Fishermen and colleagues say Sansom’s e orts are why their community has survived in Florida, despite net ban campaigns of the 1990s and continuing political and development pressures.
Whether working with shermen or politicians, Sansom was always straight-up with his answers and recommendations, as well as outlining options and obstacles, says Florida sherman Gary Nichols, a 1998 NF Highliner. Sansom’s intricate knowledge of the legislative process was his superpower.
“It’s so easy to kill a bill in legislation, it’s a miracle we got anything done,” said Nichols.
Sansom, 75, lives in Rockledge, Fla., and handed o the executive director job to Alexis Meschelle a year ago. But he’s still involved, passing on his deep experience.
“We won’t go for anything that’s not biologically sound,” is one of Sansom’s rules. With degrees in marine science from Florida Tech and Florida State University, he could bridge the language for both shermen and shery managers.
Sansom’s original career path was ingenious. With his knowledge of marine science and Florida’s coastal environment, Sansom, then in his late 20s, had done some part-time lobbying for the boating industry, and gured he could cobble together enough livelihood for a good life. Maybe six months working, he thought, and six months cruising with his wife, Dixie, on their 32-foot wooden ketch Borne Free.
en in 1978 Sansom joined the Organized Fishermen of Florida as executive director. “ e opportunity to be that involved, as a marine biologist, couldn’t be passed up,” Sansom recalled.
In the 1980s crowding and competition in the spiny lobster shery led the Organized Fishermen of Florida into proposing an ultimately successful solution to reduce the number of traps. “We developed this project that was the rst of its kind, really, and we did it with the help of the shermen,” said Michael Orbach, a professor emeritus of marine policy at Duke University who worked closely with Sansom. “He has always been an absolute master of dealing with the shing community.”
e spiny lobster shery had been easy to enter in the 1970s. “It was very lucrative” and producing around 6 million pounds a year, said Orbach. But the trap numbers escalated rapidly to around 1.2 million, with diminishing returns for shermen “by the time Jerry got involved,” he said.
Orbach had met Sansom while working on the evolution of federal sheries
management in the 1970s. “Jerry said, “Mike, we have a problem,’” Orbach recalled.
“ e managers knew a lot about lobsters, but not a lot about shermen,” said Orbach, who is trained in anthropology, “so I work on the people side of shing.”
After going out with and talking to shermen on the boats, Orbach had the information that he and Sansom could present in meetings with managers and shermen. ey came up with a trap reduction plan.
Fishermen “all knew they could catch 6 million pounds with one-sixth of the traps,” said Orbach. Issuing transferable certi cates for shermen’s traps set a control limit, where no one individual or company could own more than 1.5 percent of the total, and gave shermen
Jerry Sansom (right), the newly appointed executive director of Organized Fishermen of Florida, in 1978 outside the Florida state capitol in Tallahassee with Port Richey commercial shermen Jim Clark (center) and Gordon Baker.
Florida shermen working in summer 1994 just months before state voters approved a ban on most net shing. National Fisherman archives.
equity investment in their gear worth about $100 a trap, said Orbach.
Florida state managers told the advocates a new state law would be needed, and Sansom got it done in 1990, said Orbach.
“He organized the best lobbying campaign I have ever seen,” with fact sheets listing names and faces of lawmakers and sta ers for shermen to contact at the state capitol in Tallahassee, said Orbach. “He had his shermen come up and walk in wearing their white shing boots.”
But soon Florida shermen faced their doomsday crisis: the net ban.
In 1990 California voters approved a state constitutional amendment to ban inshore gillnets, a measure pushed by a coalition of recreational shermen and environmental activists. Sansom said that victory, and the rise of activist recreational groups like the Coastal Conservation Association, lit the fuse for what happened next.
“When that passed, the Florida outdoor writers decided to use that as their blueprint,” said Sansom. As on the West Coast, net critics’ publicity campaign blamed commercial shermen for depleting stocks
Some commercial shermen refused to countenance any kind of compromise to defuse the ght. Sansom warned his membership against a ght to the nish: “If Custer knew then what we know now, he wouldn’t have done it.”
In November 1994, 72 percent of Florida voters approved a state constitutional amendment to ban entanglement nets in nearshore and inshore waters,
aimed mostly at the then-thriving mullet shery. e ban took e ect July 1, 1995, pushing net shing three miles o the Atlantic Coast and nine miles into the Gulf of Mexico.
Hardest hit were the full-time shermen in traditional coastal villages, without other employment to fall back on, Sansom said.
Commercial shermen could be lulled into believing there was little danger, based on the support they long enjoyed in their coastal communities.
“Twenty miles down the road, it was a di erent story” in Florida’s burgeoning suburbs and retirement communities, said Sansom. ere was a ready audience for the anti-netting, “walls of death” rhetoric that had been pioneered in California.
To their credit, “the Legislature and the agencies fought this really hard,” said Sansom. But it was no match for the publicity machine backed by recreational groups.
State o cials anticipated 1,500 displaced shermen would need training and re-employment assistance. e Organized Fishermen of Florida managed to persuade state o cials
to budget $40 million for a two-year transition period, for job training and gear buy-backs, said Sansom.
O cially retired, Sansom is still a resource for the OFF and its members. “I came on in June of last of year and Jerry has been mentoring me ever since,” said Alexis Meschelle, now executive director of the Organized Fishermen of Florida. Like Sansom’s longtime compatriots in the group, Meschelle says Sansom’s institutional knowledge of government policy-making and legislative procedure is beyond value.
“Right now we’re rebuilding and trying to get back on track” to adjust with recent changes in Florida law and regulations, particularly on the stone crab shery, said Meschelle, whose husband Nathan shes for stone crab, mullet and other species. “ ere have been a lot of changes.” Environmental issues are another top concern now for OFF’s 250-plus members.
“We’re working more on the impacts of water quality,” said Meschelle. Recurring red tides and escalating pollution loads coming out of Florida’s burgeoning suburban communities are triggering shery and beach closures, and shermen regularly pitch in to help state and federal agencies track algae blooms. After the angry 1990s, Florida’s sh politics began to settle down after 2000. e Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has “made it a point to treat the commercial shermen fairly,” said Sansom.
“ e new Florida conservation commission has been pretty straight up. It hasn’t been easy,” he added. “But they recognize the value of the commercial shery.”
Looking back, Sansom says, “I think I was the right person for the job. I was
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20
der. “ ere were a lot of boats on the coast of Maine that depended on that for income in winter. Half the lobstermen used to shrimp, back then.” Alexander says he does not expect to see a shrimp shery come back to Maine in his lifetime. at sort of loss, he admits, goes beyond money.
“It was a historical Christmas meal, and people couldn’t wait for it for their Christmas meal. My family would eat it. My mom would make shrimp stew, shrimp dip, it was a big part of the culture along the coastline.” He remembers seeing trucks parked all up and down the Maine coast with “fresh shrimp” signs on them. “It was its own cottage industry.”
Dr. John Quinn, a former chairman of the New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) has known Alexander for over a decade – and they were appointed to the NEFMC together in 2021. He considers Alexander to be one
of the best in the business, and says that despite the hardships of shing, “he’s an optimistic guy on all fronts.”
“He’s got a combination of skill and likability – and he’s a fun guy to be around while working on important things.” Quinn says Alexander describes himself as “a graduate of Gulf of Maine University” – which is funny, but also something he respects about his friend, how shing and working on management has taught Alexander everything.
Alexander’s education in commercial shing started early. “I’ve been shing my entire life…as soon as I went shing, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” says Alexander. His dad rst took him out, but his grandfather and great grandfather were also shermen. In those early days going out to sh shrimp and ground sh, Alexander would get seasick.
“I’d beg [my Dad] to take me back out! I still get seasick, but I’m a lot better now.”
He says despite the seasickness, he never stopped shing. “I worked my way up, until age 21, when I got in the wheelhouse. I bought my rst boat at 28, F/V Miss Paula, a 70 ft shrimp and ground shing boat. We’d also sh for pogies.” Nowadays, Alexander shes in his 62-foot F/V Jocka (pronounced “joker”), a dragger built in Cundy’s Harbor following a design by builder Dain Bichrest. He shes for cod, haddock, hake, monk and other ground sh and in the spring, he targets squid in the mid Atlantic and around Nantucket.
He says the squid and ground sh sheries are in great shape. “We’re catching more sh than I’ve ever seen before; haddock, monk, hake…more sh than I’ve seen in 40 years!”
But this is bittersweet, since there are dramatically fewer shermen going after ground sh these days. “ ere might be 25 boats from New Bedford to Maine that are competitively ground shing.” Alexander identi es as an independent owner-operator, and sells most of his catch to a longtime shing industry family in Massachusetts.
Alexander’s long career is also distinguished by service on the management side. He has participated in cooperative research on his boats, from Nordmore grate work in the northern shrimp shery to the industry-based cod survey for the State of Massachusetts in the Gulf of Maine. He also served one term on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council in 2009 and was appointed to three terms on the New England Fishery Management Council, from 2012 to 2021.
“It’s awful tough for shermen to be participants in these meetings, and he made every e ort,” adds Quinn. “He’s really dedicated a decade of his life pursuing management opportunities. He’s a great advocate and a great voice. Mixing his knowledge with his earned respect, even those on the other sides of issues would appreciate his approach. He’s really put…not only a decade of service on the council, but a career of service.”
Alexander remains humble about being recognized as an industry leader. “I have survived by being able to adapt to di erent things. You gotta be diverse, you gotta be able to do a lot of di erent things: you gotta be a mechanic, an electronics guy, a lot of things. I’ve always been able to make a living doing it, but we’ve had to zig and zag to pay the bills sometimes. You’ve got some good friends who’ve done it –and maybe some day you can return the favor.”
He says it would be hard to imagine a life without shing. But there was one job he may have done – shipbuilding. “I would have worked at the Bath Iron Works, like everyone else. Back in the day, you worked at Bath Iron Works or went shing, there really weren’t a lot of options then.”
Even though his own daughters have not followed him into shing, he is supportive of their paths.
“I’m glad…it’s not an easy life at all. But I think it’s a good living. I’m happy I’ve been a sherman my whole life. But not every day is the Fourth of July, is it? I hope I never have to go into an o ce. I can’t gure a way to catch sh from an o ce.”
“You got a guy like me [that] grew up very poor, and I made a decent living shing. at makes me happy.” Because he started shing so young, he dropped out of high school. “I went back and got my GED later, when I was 20 [and] that was because I started dating my wife [and] she came from a family of teachers. I did it for her.”
Overall, Alexander is content with a career and lifestyle that suits him. “We’re a weird bunch, me included. We don’t march to the land-based drum. We would not do well in an o ce, most of us. I think that we’re unique because we can’t function on land as good as on the boat. If we’re on the boat, we have freedom.”
Nowadays, when Terry Alexander is not out on the water, he enjoys traveling with his wife Kathy and spending time with his grown kids and family. He says he thinks one big part of his legacy is to be recognized for being a hard worker. “Hopefully I did the right thing for everybody in the shery, try to be fair. I think what’s good for me is good for them.”
“You don’t always end up where you started. I got in this to catch sh and make money– and here I am trying to save the ocean! You end up forming a relationship with that which you’re depending on.”
Some fishing towns have a way of getting under your skin. You land there by boat or by plane, and their docks, pilings and weathered streets could pass for any other port in Alaska. But a few hours after you’ve settled in their details differentiate them all others.
I’m walking in the mud at the side of the main drag through Dutch Harbor and following what appears to be a herd of others whose boots lay the selfsame tracks and lugged sole patterns as my own: Xtratufs. Sure, the knee-high, brown rubber boots have won ubiquity on the fashion front across the globe, but I quickly discern that these are not the tracks of tourists. Their deliberate strides indicate they belong to diehard crabbers, longliners and draggers, who in the absence of other transportation are hoofing it to the stores, the banks or the bars.
There is a hum to Dutch like no other seaport I’ve known. Semi tractor-trailer rigs constantly roll through the intersections as they shuttle containers of frozen who-knows-what to the docks, where a giant crane loads them a dozen layers deep onto a tramper hailing out of Singapore.
The incessant reverse gear warning buzzers, beepers, squawkers and squealers of forklifts, trucks, tractors, loaders, cranes and other equipment leave me wondering if anyone here drives in forward. Somehow, the piercing chirps of bald eagles cut through the din as they proclaim temporary ownership of street lamps, pilings and garbage dumpsters throughout the town.
More than 400 boats lay tied up in three harbors and a dozen other docks in town. I’m trying to estimate the number of containers that move from this port to everywhere else in the world. Crab (until recently). Pollock. Cod. Halibut. Sole. Blackcod. Herring. Bottomfish of every kind. For the past 23 years Dutch has ranked number one in the nation among seafood ports,
with annual landings of 763 million pounds. The port takes second in the nation in terms of value at $190 million.
Then it hits me. A light northeast day breeze stirs the glass calm waters within the port of Dutch Harbor to a textured indigo blanket with whitecaps here and there. The sun is shining. The scent of sun-dried kelp and salt on the rocks immediately take me back to the 16 summers I spent gill netting salmon a few islands north of here. As I walk along the beach my footsteps fall into cadence with the waves, and my emotional odometer rolls back 28 years, to a time when the beauty of this country held me in its grip and I had the muscle to make a go of it. As it turns out, these aren’t the only familiar connections I’ll uncover here in Dutch.
The Aleutians. The Far West. The Wild West. Out West. Home of the TV
show, “Deadliest Catch.” Everyone comes for the money. Most loathe the place for the lack of trees. Some find it alluring for a few transient years, and only a smattering of folks to set foot on the docks in Dutch ever put down roots and call it home.
We’re sipping French pressed coffee in the kitchen of the tidy beach house owned by Peter Neaton. The place was built sometime in the 1930s, restored some by earlier owners, and he spends time clearing the lot of debris and puttering with outdoor light fixtures around the place.
“This is my money pit,” he says. “This is my passion project.”
As for how he got here – and stays here, Neaton, 34, met Claire Laukitis, the woman who would later become his wife, while attending college in Vermont. When he heard that her father owned fishing boats in Alaska, he hired
on as a crew member during the salmon seine season. The boat, Stanley K, fished in the Shumagin Islands north of Dutch that year, and the season was a bust.
“I didn’t know anything,” says Neaton, who grew up a sheep farm in Minnesota. “I didn’t know what a good catch was supposed to look like. Nobody was catching anything.”
In an effort to salvage the season financially, the skipper of the boat steamed several hundred miles south, hoping to load up on pink salmon north of Dutch. But that was also a bust; so the skipper decided to tie up in town for a few days.
“I had been to Sand Point, King Cove, False Pass, and I’d been to Homer,” says Neaton. “We came around here and saw all these lights, and I wondered, what is this place? There was just so much activity, and I thought, this seems like a place where a guy could make a lot of money. So I always kept in the back of my mind as a place I’d come back to.”
Money, yes. But he could have bought a house anywhere. With part ownership in Oracle and the Halcyon, two 58-foot Fred Wahl, “Super 8’s” that fish cod, salmon, halibut and blackcod in the nearshore waters of the entire state, Neaton spends a portion of the year tied up in at least nine other ports. But this house in Dutch is home.
“Oh, I love it here,” he says.
We’re hovering near a hot woodstove, starting through his living room windows at the blue water of the bay.
“Look at how close we are to the water.”
For the moment we are mesmerized by the waves lapping the shore. We acknowledge over a cup of coffee how the Aleutians have a way of gripping a select few of us. I learned just hours before meeting Neaton that he and I were born
in the same small town, Watertown, Minn.
While it may be complimentary genetic glitches that drive Neaton and I to favor the windswept beaches and volcanic promontories of the Aleutians over the rolling hills and hardwood forests of Minnesota, a DUI in Arizona brought Charlie Gaspar to Dutch.
Gaspar, 67, originally hails from Hungary, and his drinking days as a cabbie cost him his operator’s license in Phoenix some years ago. He came to Anchorage for a fresh start, drove a cab for a few months but smelled the lure of money that could be found in fishing. He saved up some cash, went to Kodiak, got on a boat, the Steadfast, and eventually wound up working the back decks of the Stanley K and many others here in Dutch.
These days he owns a small house in Dutch. He and his wife Rowena run their two taxi vans when he’s not out hauling longline gear for halibut and blackcod or pulling pots for cod. He talks about hanging it up, that last year’s trips at sea will be his last, but there is a lack of conviction in his voice as he looks out over the water on a sunny afternoon when Neaton and I pile into his taxi for a drive out to the end of Captains Bay. The meter is running, and charges are ticking past $14, but there won’t be any money exchanged as
currency of the day is stories.
We’re weighing in, the three of us, recalling our favorite and most perilous times on the water and trying to define what it is that draws us here, to this place we affectionately call Dutch. Neaton likes salmon seining, tendering and hauling pots for cod. Meanwhile, salmon gill netting on nearby Unimak Island tops the list for me.
“Opies,” says Gaspar in his thick Hungarian accent.
“Opies?” I ask. His response would have held greater surprise, had not Neaton hinted earlier of Gaspar’s penchant for challenges at sea. Most deckhands through the years dread the excruciating hard work of opie seasons, the prerequisite to earning their employment on the boats during the more lucrative king
crab seasons.
“Why opies?” I’m half expecting a joke.
“Because it’s hard, you know,” he says. “It’s tough. You’ve got to be very very good. You’ve got to be strong to finish out the season.”
Neaton and I agree that Gaspar may have struck upon a common strand that defines our love for this place. With its fetch from the northwest running all the way to Russia, and with the Pacific open past the equator to its south, its incessant gales, freezing spray, sleet and monster waves ensure that fishing – and life – will never be easy here. Harsh for some; but for others the big water and the 1,100-mile string of islands hold allure, perhaps as a place to prove ourselves.
“It’s beautiful here,” Gaspar suddenly adds.
Make that a beautiful place in which to prove ourselves, a place to embrace. For those with a sense of adventure and love for fishing, big money, big water and volcanic vistas, Dutch Harbor will always be home.
The day-to-day life of a working waterman is constantly dealing with challenges that just come from being a commercial fisherman.
While operating Kenneth T. Heath Seafood in Townsend, Va., Eastern Shore waterman Kenny Heath and Linda, his wife of 38 years, have faced it all together their entire marriage.
That day-to-day adversity was magnified for the Heaths when on Oct. 16, 2022 the couple were riding home on a motorcycle from the Daytona Biktoberfest. They were both nearly killed on Interstate 95 just south of Savannah, Ga., when they crashed going 70 m.p.h. into the back of a utility trailer. Linda’s left foot was severed from her leg at the scene, and Kenny’s left leg
and arm were greatly jeopardized. After being in a coma for two days, Kenny awoke to life-threatening injuries and facing a decision on whether or not he should go through the year-and-a-half and over 100 operations that doctors said would be needed to save his leg.
“I never thought about giving up or feeling sorry for myself,” says Kenny sitting in the helmsman chair on his boat. “My thoughts were only about how Linda and I would move forward. Every year that I’ve worked the water, I’ve had to face some type of adversity. I’m used to adversity. When I asked the doctor, ‘If I do the reconstruction surgery will I be able to go back to the water?’ When he said, ‘No’ I made up my mind to amputate.”
It was 10 days after the accident that
Kenny made that decision and instructed doctors to amputate his leg. His left leg was amputated above the knee and bone grafts were applied to reconstruct his left arm.
Five months and a week after the accident, Kenny and his crew were back fishing crab pots aboard his 40’x13.5’x54” fiberglass workboat, the Thomas Jaiden, named after the Heaths’ first two grandchildren.
At 4:30 a.m. on Friday April 14 Kenny and his crew of two were at the dock at Cape Charles, Va. getting readying for of fishing. Kenny and his veteran crew have worked together for four years.
After the accident, the only modification made to the boat for Kenny was a portable fiberglass three-stair step that is lowered into the boat to help him get on and off the boat. Other than that, everything is the same on the Thomas Jaiden.
When aboard the boat, Kenny went straight to the pilothouse and jumped up in the helmsman seat as his crew Justin Travis, 38, and Chris Derwort, 28, disengaged lines and prepared for a day of fishing. Kenny cranked up the 1150 h.p. C18 Caterpillar Diesel engine.
As he sat in the seat warming the engine up, he pulled out his cell phone. He has a prosthetic leg with a wireless Bluetooth connection in his phone that allows him to set the leg in either bend or lock mode. The Genium X3 prosthesis cost $145,000 but according to Kenny is worth every penny, as it is a
key part of the miracle that has allowed him to continue to work.
When working pots at the outside helmsman station, he stands all day with his leg in a locked mode position. “I tried it both ways but I found that the lock mode keeps the knee from bending and allows me to stay steady on my feet,” he says.
He feels blessed that the accident mostly impacted the left side of his body. “I’m right-handed and -footed and I use my right hand and right foot mostly to work my crab pots,” he says. “I’m able to work the same way on the boat that I did before the accident.”
With lines were ready and everything else ready to go, Kenny steered the boat out to the mouth of Cape Charles Harbor, and when out in the bay throttled her up and headed for his first line of pots near Old Plantation Flat Light in the bay. He has a license to fish 425 crab pots.
On arrival at the first line of pots, the sun was peeking through the darkness. But the tide was running hard and dragging Kenny’s crab pot buoys underwater, making it hard to see the buoys.
When the tide slowed, crabbing began
and it was obvious Kenny and crew were seasoned watermen. When potting, Kenny steered the boat, used a handheld gaff to hook the rope and buoy, placed the rope into the pot hauler and then engaged the hauler by using his good foot to work the floor foot pedal.
When a pot surfaced, Justin pulled the pot from the water and disengaged the line from the hauler. Chris releases the pot opening to let the crabs out. Justin flipped the pot over and emptied the crabs onto a stainless steel culling station. Cat-quick, the pot was emptied. Chris baiteds the pot with razor clams and Justin had it back in the water in an instant. With the pot back in the
water, Chris culled the crabs, throwing undersized crabs overboard and legal size crabs into the appropriate bushel baskets – a process that goes on over and over with each pot
Just like clockwork the crew continued to fish lines of pots all day and by 10:55 a.m. had the 27 bushel limit having fished 250 pots. There were two bushels of prime jimmies and 19 bushels of sooks.
After catching his limit, Kenny full throttled the 1,150 h.p. engine and arrived back at Cape Charles in about 35 minutes. A crab buyer was there waiting at the dock in a refrigerated truck to take his catch. After the catch was off-loaded Kenny with one flick of his wrist and blink of an eye steered the boat back into his mooring slip.
After a day of fishing, Kenny and Linda sat down in their kitchen and reflected on their experience. “We would not be alive today if it wasn’t for our helmets,” says Linda. “A lot of things had to go right for us to have survived that accident.”
“We found out that we have a lot of friends too who gave money and support to us,” says Kenny. “My hospital bill alone was over $400,000 and we were blessed that insurance covered most of it but we had a lot of other
Every year that I’ve worked the water, I’ve had to face some type of adversity. I’m used to adversity.
expenses that were not covered.”
As part of their recovery, Kenny and Linda set goals for themselves. “My main goal was to be on my boat working my crab pots this season and Linda wanted to be on the boat at the annual Cape Charles docking contest,” says Kenny.
Unfortunately, Linda recently slipped on a towel and re-injured herself. She will not be able to participate in this year’s docking event. She has been one of the organizers of the event for many years.
Kenny Heath's $145,000 prosthesis enables him to continue to work his crab pots on Chesapeake Bay.
Kenny Heath felt fortunate that a motorcycle accident in Oct. that resulted in amputation of his left leg above the knee did little damage to his right arm and foot that are critical to him working his pots.
Linda and Kenny Heathhave worked together in the family seafood business over the 38 years of their marriage. The loss of Kenny's left leg and Linda's left foot in a motorcycle accident in Oct. has only strengthened the bond between them.
After their memorable journey, the crew comprising Chris Derwort, Kenny Heath, and Justin Travis proudly display their deep appreciation for Virginia's crab heritage. Larry Chowning photos.
“Yes, I’ve had a hiccup but it is not the end of the world,” says Linda. “I’m still keeping the books for the business. We are going to keep moving forward. Throughout all of this doctors, nurses, friends and family have just been wonderful.”
“I can’t thank everyone enough for their support,” says Kenny. “We have a long ways to go with this but we are going to continue to work through all the hardships with this to live a normal life.”
As the Alaska summer sheries quickly approach, it is time for seasonal shermen to think about packing their du e bags. What goes inside is a key part to a comfortable and pro table season. Below is a guide of what to pack to wear on deck, from head to toe.
BY BRIAN HAGENBUCH
As a baseline, we always recommend one of the tried and true, heavy duty jacket and bib combinations. The cornerstones here are the good old Grundens Herkules 16 raingear or any of the heavier weight Guy Cotten alternatives, like the X-Trapper line. Both of these are thick and durable, with a relaxed, old-school fit that allows for layering underneath.
There’s nothing fancy about the Herkules—it’s just PVC-coated polyester—but there are reasons it has been ubiquitous in the industry since Grundéns rolled it out in 1954.: It keeps you dry in almost any conditions and will hold up for multiple seasons. Having said that, both the Herkules and the X-Trapper lines are a bit cumbersome, with a baggy fit and stiff, clunky material that can be suffocating under some conditions, especially in Alaska’s active summer fisheries. They are also slow to dry and quick to mold, meaning most deckhands now have a small quiver of gear they can rotate through, with a handful of jackets and bibs for different weather conditions and times of the day and night.
The past decade or so has seen a flood of new products made of tons of different materials that have made raingear lighter, more breathable, and easier to move in. Grundéns has been a leader here
too, with their Neptune line among the most popular. The Neptune jacket and bibs feature a stretchy medium weight polyester fabric coated in polyurethane that is easier to move in than the Herkules. The only gripe about the Neptune has been that it nicks easily and leaves you wet by mid-season, a complaint Grundéns has attempted to counter with their new, beefed up Neptune Pro Line.
Without sacrificing wearability or mobility, this new line adds abrasion resistant overlay panels to wear areas on both the jacket and bibs and should give the Neptune a longer life on deck. The bibs also feature built-in, removable knee pads.
Reliable alternatives in a similar vein as the Neptune include the Helly Hansen Storm Rain jacket and bibs, which are very well made. Many fishermen now want alternatives that are not “rubber” and newcomer Vallation has a couple good options.
Vallation was founded recently by Cory Jackson, whose dad Dave and uncle Mat ran Grundéns’ operations here in the US for nearly three decades. His Dark Rain jacket and bibs are made of heavy duty nylon with a teflon shield, and both have a very solid feel to them for nylon. We haven’t had the chance to try them on deck but out of the box they inspire confidence and are very wearable.
We also talked to Pacific Northwest fisherman Christian Tom, who has been testing gear for Vallation for the past year. Tom called the Dark Rain gear “bulletproof” after putting it through the wringer this winter. He wore it in nasty Northwest winter weather in several different fisheries—crab, shrimp, salmon, even shellfish—and with different gear types, including pots, seining, and set netting, and said the Dark Rain has no nicks and still keeps him dry.
Tom also had good things to say about Vallation’s Ocean Watch jacket, a coat inspired by the discontinued Red Ledge coat that many commercial fishermen
used. The coat has nice features like pit zips and velcro cuffs, and Jackson said the nylon on his Ocean Watch is very high quality. The Ocean Watch feels more papery than the Dark Rain, but Tom said it has surprised him, even holding up to the snags and rigors of crabbing with pots. Jackson is only selling Vallation through marine supply stores.
If you can, always try raingear on, as certain companies tend to make gear that fits a certain body type, and sizing can be a bit erratic, even with an established company like Grundéns.
The right boots are the foundation to a good fishing season, and much like coats and bibs, fishermen were once faced with an easy decision. You went out and picked up some XTRATUF Legacy boots (or even better, you just pulled last season’s Legacy boots out of the closet and went to work). But XTRATUF opened the door to competition over a decade ago when they moved manufacturing to China and their boots were no longer so extra tough, and competitors rushed in to create what is a now a diverse and evolving market.
Many fishermen will stick with the familiarity and fit of the old XTRATUF Legacy boots, and if they work for you
there is really no reason to change. However, we’re still under the opinion that the Grundéns DeckBoss boots are higher quality and more comfortable.
e injection molded DeckBoss boots will not delaminate, and the outsole is built out like an athletic shoe, providing more comfort and support. is season, Grundéns is adding to their line of 15inch deck boots with the new Deviation Tall Boot. Originally a very popular ankle boot, the 6-inch Deviation Boot has a heavily lugged sole and feels thick and cushy underfoot. ese attributes have been transferred to the Deviation Tall Boot, along with a wide neoprene cu around the calf to facilitate getting them o and on.
ese boots will not be everyone, especially if you like the low pro le of XTRATUF’s Legacy boots. ey will ride higher on deck and will need to be
pers they will be just the thing. ey would make an especially good boot for setnetters or other shermen who are jumping from deck to muddy shores.
Showa Atlas is still the top dog here, and they have kept a grip on the glove market by maintaining consistent quality in recent years.
e orange Showa Atlas 620s are like the Herkules of gloves, dependable stalwarts that will get you through the season. With double-dipped PVC, a 12-inch cu , and a track record of reliability, every deckhand should have a package or two stowed away in the galley.
to the 490s but even more exible, with a specially treated nitrile coating that doesn’t freeze until -22 Fahrenheit and a cozy polyester eece lining. We also wouldn’t hesitate to count on Marwear’s unlined Nitrile NBR Supported Gloves as your everyday gloves for summer sheries from gillnetting to longlining and everything in between.
Also, another note: Be sure to pack plenty of Neosporin and bandages and be diligent about keeping cuts and nicks on your hands doctored. e smallest wound can fester under gloves, get infected, and prompt unpopular down time, if not ruin a season altogether.
For a warmer glove, we’ve raved before about the Showa Atlas 490 gloves and we’ll do it again. e 490s have triple-dipped PVC over an acrylic eece liner and provide a nice combination of warmth and mobility. And while we still like the 490s, new competitors are nipping at Showa Atlas’ heels.
Icelandic company Marwear may be making the best gloves out there, especially for colder weather. In particular, the Blizzard Nitrile Gloves are fantastic. ey are eece-lined and warm but allow for enough digital dexterity to pick sh, bait hooks, and sort through net, and stay pliable through extremely cold temperatures, making them great for the freezer.
Marwear’s Polar Flex Nitrile gloves are another insulated option that are similar
Before one of my rst jobs in Bristol Bay, a former skipper suggested that I pack my du e bag with the same layers I would use for skiing. As a skier, I knew exactly what that meant, and it turned out to be the perfect way to go about it. Not everyone is a skier, like the guy I worked with one summer who wore
skinny jeans under his bibs, but the main point here, and we’ve been beating this drum for a while, is to avoid cotton as much as possible.
ere is an incredibly wide variety of options in wool and synthetics, or a blend of the two, that runs the gamut in quality and price, with basically all of them outperforming the traditional cotton hoodie. If you’re one of these shermen who has hit recent big years in Bristol Bay, for example, and are looking for maximum performance and comfort, head on over to the Smartwool website and spend a little chunk of that hard-earned crew share on their Classic ermal line.
If wool is not appealing (it can be a pain to care for—not the best on a boat), and that money is burning a hole, any of Patagonia’s Capilene layers will do the trick for multiple seasons.
Helly Hansen is a reliable alternative
as well. eir Merino blend base layers have a synthetic LIFA lining to pull moisture away from the skin and a warm outer layer of wool. If you are on a budget, check out discount websites like Sierra Designs, or go to any of your local outdoor stores like Cabela’s, Dick’s, or REI and just pick up their basic thermal layers. Any synthetic fabric like polypropylene,
nylon, or polyester should do the trick, just as long as it is not cotton. is same logic extends to socks. If you have money to spend, get the Smartwool or Darn Tough (if you want to be especially on brand get the Salmon Sisters collaboration with Darn Tough), and it if you are on a budget just pick up a couple packages of wool socks from an outdoor store.
It is also worthwhile to look into a heavier layer that can worn under a raincoat or on its own for lighter duty on deck. Grundéns Bering Sea Hoodie ts this bill, and will likely be the garment you wear most during the season. It is made of extra thick eece and has some polyester overlays on the shoulders for a bit more water protection making for a very warm, comforting layer. e Buklhead coats from Grundéns are also recommended, with a rugged outer layer of DWR-treated nylon over a grid eece backer
When cotton was king in the South, wooden boats built in Maine carried the crop to the mills of England. Now that scallops and lobsters are the kings of New England and Mid-Atlantic fisheries, many of the boats for these fisheries are being built of steel in the South.
In 1988 Tarpon Springs, Fl., boat builder Junior Duckworth delivered a 70-foot dragger to the late Pete Bramante in Boston,
Mass. Thirty-five years later, Bramante’s son, Tory – who owns Atlantic Coast Seafood on the Boston Fish Pier – is taking delivery of his own new dragger from Duckworth.
Tory Bramante’s new boat, called the Mr. Pete, after his father, splashed in late February, after some delays. “We just had to wait to get some water,” says Duckworth. “It’s hard to get a good tide around here in February.”
Junior Duckworth started his own company in 1976, after work-
ing for a Florida boat builder from the time he got out of the Army in 1965. Since founding Duckworth Steel Boats in Tarpon Springs, he has averaged about a boat a year.
Duckworth had planned to deliver the Mr. Pete earlier, but a labor shortage slowed things down at the yard. “Right now, we have about 15 people working, including my granddaughter, she’s a welder. I’d like to have about 30 but it’s hard to nd people who can do the work these days. Everyone in the business is having trouble.”
In spite of those obstacles, the Duckworth family has crafted a modern trawler for the Bramante family. “ is one is 90 feet,” says Duckworth. “It’s 28 feet wide and it’ll draw 13 feet.”
e new vessel was designed by Garrett Norton and the New England naval architects rm Norton and Farrell. “It’s a pretty typical New England dragger,” says Norton. “But at 28 feet it’s wider than they used to be, which gives it signi cantly more stability. And it’s deeper
because Tory wanted more sh hold capacity. We spent a lot of time with him working on how the boat was going to be laid out.” e nal hold capacity is 6,500 cubic feet, Norton notes, and the fuel capacity is 11,400 gallons.
While the Mr. Pete is 90 feet overall, its registered length is under 79 feet. Norton is eager for the day the 79-foot limit on shing vessels that don’t need to
While many builders have switched to steel panels pre-cut with plasma cutters from CNC les prepared by naval architects, Junior Duckworth is old school, cutting the steel panels from the architect’s drawings and stick building, as it’s called. . Junior Duckworth photo.
At Williams Fabrication,
are built upside
be classed under U.S. Coast Guard rules gets changed. “ ey were supposed to change it to 180 feet when they rewrote the rules. But they forgot to,” says Norton.
Unlike many builders these days, Junior Duckworth does not use CNC (computer numerical code) les and a plasma cutter to cut steel plate for the vessels he builds. “We send him the drawings and he cuts the steel,” says Norton. According to Norton, the bottom plating is 3/8-inch steel and the forward side shell is 5/16-inch plate. Midship, side shell frames 23 to 33 are 1/2-inch plate, and aft of frame 33 is 3/4-inch plate. Deck plates are 5/16-inch with 1-inch inserts. Wheelhouse plating is 5/16-inch at the front and 1/4-inch elsewhere.
While the Mr. Pete is pretty much a classic New England dragger, the outriggers that became common on most boats since the 1970s have been replaced with hydraulic wings that extend out from the hull below the water line. Duckworth’s first encounter with the wings was in 2020 with the launch of the Heritage, an 85-foot scalloper he built for Nordic Fisheries.
“The Arsheim Junior, a scallop boat we built the year before for Knute Arsheim, went and had their outriggers removed and replaced with wings,” says Duckworth. “They like them better.”
Originally designed by Marine Expert Plus in Quebec, Canada, where they have become the standard, wings are gaining popularity in the U.S. for several reasons. Besides helping lower a vessel’s center of gravity, the wings work to stabilize the vessel on both the up
roll and down roll – unlike outriggers and birds, which work only on the up roll. Controlled by hydraulics, the wings can also be lifted out of the water more quickly and easily than outriggers when docking or not needed.
For power, the Mr. Pete has an 800-hp, V-8, Caterpillar C32 Acert, Tier III main engine. According to Caterpillar literature, “the C32 ACERT marine propulsion engine is available at ratings that meet both EPA Tier 3 and IMO II emissions regulations. It has a separate circuit aftercooling system for A through C ratings and a seawater aftercooling system for D and E ratings. The C32 ACERT has seven ratings with Wide Operating Speed Range and extended oil change intervals. Other benefits include proven engine operating history and performance iron with thousands of validation testing hours for quality and durability.”
“It’s got two Northern Lights generators, both 65kW,” says Duckworth. “And a Cat C19 hydraulic engine. That one’s around 400-horsepower.”
The main engine has a 6:1 Twin Disc gear turning a 6-inch, 1045 steel shaft with an Aquamet 17 tail shaft. The 75x76, four-blade propeller turns in a 76-inch Kort nozzle. “The prop size is for towing, not for speed,” says designer Norton.
The Cat hydraulic engine will power two net reels on the stern and two Pullmaster trawl winches, as well as other smaller demand machinery and the wings. “It’s got the two net reels and two stern ramps,” says Duckworth. “I guess so if they tear up one net, they can set the other and keep fishing.”
Duckworth does not contract out the galley design as some builders do. “We take the drawings, which are always changing anyway, and work with the owner,” he says. “We find out what they want and that’s what we build.” The galley and staterooms for the Mr. Pete are on the main deck level. But according to Duckworth, Bramante wanted some additional crew space.
“On the main deck level it’s got the captain’s stateroom, and two others, one with two bunks and one with four. But then there are more bunks down below near the engine room. Right now they’re set up for storage, but they have bunks in them because he might rig over for scalloping and he’ll need more crew.”
Tony Vieira, who with his wife Karen owns T&K Marine Electronics in New Bedford, Mass., has flown down once and is scheduled to fly down again to install the electronics.
“It’s my second home,” Vieira quips. “Nobody down there asks me, how was my flight anymore, because I tell them,
Vieira ew down in the fall to install all the antennas and was scheduled to return in March to set up all the components of the wheelhouse package. “He’s got a lot,” says Vieira. “Two Furuno radars, the FR8125, that’s a 12kW open array, and an 1835, that’s 4kW in a dome.”
According to Furuno, the 12 kW FR8125 features state of the art signal processing, which makes it easier to identify targets in heavy rain and poor visibility. For tracking the movement of other vessels at sea, “True Motion Trails” can be displayed as well as AIS/ TT target-tracking with a zoom display function. e 1835 features detection of even small targets both at short and long range, and boasts all-new display modes for varying conditions.
According to Vieira, the Mr. Pete’s package also includes an SC76 Furuno satellite compass, a Furuno FCV1150 sounder, and two Furuno GP39 GPS units. “It’s also got a Dirigo 6-inch magnetic compass in a binnacle, a Nobeltec TimeZero Pro 4 plotter and a P-Sea Windplot II.”
For communication, Vieira is installing two Icom 510 VHFs, and an Icom 7803 single sideband. But he reports that so far, no decision has been made on satellite communications.
“We just have to get that stu installed and do the sea trials to make sure everything’s working and get it up to New England,” says Junior Duckworth. “After that we have a scalloper to nish. And after that I don’t know.”
Like Tory Bramante’s sh house on the Boston Pier, Duckworth Steel Boats are a well-known feature of New England sheries, and likely to remain so as long as there are sh to catch.
“Well, I would,” he says. “I’d like to.”
Skilled journeymen in the boatbuilding industry remain in demand, and the knowledge that has been passed down, often for hundreds of years, continues in places like Bayou La Batre. roughout the commercial shing industry, there is a cry for young people, and in some regions, programs exist to teach the skills needed. is writer, for example, is a graduate of the University of Rhode
Driving out the gate of the Williams Fabrication yard, I wondered if Dale would nd a way to share not just his knowledge, but his values, with more than one young person at a time. e industry is saying that it needs what he, and others like him carry in their heads, so that the next generation can “set down and get creative” when it comes to designing boats.
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On commercial shing vessels, winches and booms are important for bringing products aboard. On the most basic level, a reel is a winch, and a rod is a boom, and that’s all blue n tuna shermen use when landing sh that can weigh more than half a ton.
With valuable sh on the line, literally, the equipment needs to be the best, and the choice of many champions these days are the Reel Easy, Trident 80130 rod, and the Alutec-
nos, Albacore 130 2-speed reel.
Je Fontes and his father started building Reel Easy rods around 15 years ago, and as Fontes explains, the rods they make are the latest stage in a constant evolution.
“Starting in the ‘30s, tuna was mostly a sport sh, people were chasing giants, but in the 1980s there was a group called the Moonies, they had a whole eet catching tuna to sell, and they would buy tuna from other commercial shermen.”
According to Fontes, handlining was popular into the 1980s, and that’s how he started, but when the action really started in the 1990s, many commercial shermen used the Penn International 130 reel and the Penn 130 rod.
“It was 5-foot, 6-inches long, very sti . e short rods gave you more leverage, but they had to be sti . ese sh hit like a freight train, they hit at 60-miles an hour, they feel the hook, and then one of two things happen, they either break something, or you’re hooked and o to the races.”
A close-up the Alutecnos 50, little cousin of the 130, shows some of the features found in both, including a push-button 2-speed on the crank, a lever to set the drag on the side of the reel, and a button to allow full free spooling. Alutecnos photo.
Fontes notes that at this point, the reels began to change.
“Penn came out with the 130st, a two-speed reel—a high speed for when the sh is coming at you, and a low speed for when you need to lift the sh,” he says. “ en Shimano came out with the Tiagra 130, which was smoother, it had a better drag system, and the two-speed was push button.” New reels also came from makers such as Okuma, and an American Company, Accurate. Fontes notes, however, that an Italian-made reel, the Alutecnos, is nding favor with many New England tuna shermen.
As the reels changed the rods too changed too, and that’s where Reel Easy created its niche.
“ e sh got smarter,” says Fontes. “People found they were getting more bites on lighter gear and started to switch to 80-pound rods. ese are longer, and they have a lot more ex.” e problem, as Fontes describes it, is that the 80-pound rods have not been the best for getting sh aboard.
“ ey were seeing a lot of boatside losses after ghting a sh for hours.
We were just coming into our own at the time, and we started talking to guys like Dave Carrera of tuna. com, and asking, what do you guys need? What can we do to get our rods on your boats?”
e answer turned out to be simple. Fishermen want the best of both. “So, my dad came up with the idea of a rod with the soft tip action of an 80 and the strong backbone and power of a 130,” says Fontes. “ e rods start with blanks that we buy from a number of manufacturers. We went to a couple of them and told them what we needed. We told them these rods are going to be on TV on ‘Wicked Tuna’, and they absolutely cannot break.
ey have to be able to deadlift 100 pounds. at’s the drag pressure, and no reel out there can create 100 pounds of drag.”
According to Fontes, one of the companies came through with a prototype, and when they tested it, it withstood 194 pounds
without breaking.
“We started building it, people started using it, and then word got out.
If you want a rod with a soft tip but able to bring an 800-pound sh alongside the boat, the Trident 80-130 is it,” says Fontes.
He and his father make the rods with several butts, from straight to bent to adjustable. “We got paired up with a company called Winthrop Tool in Connecticut, and they make guides a little bigger, so you can pass a swivel through them,” he says. “We use six of those plus the tip. ey have exibility built in, they come with roller or bearings, and they come in di erent colors.”
If the Trident 80-130 is the prime rod for the pros, the Alutecnos, Alabacore 130 2-speed is the reel. According to Mason Featherston, national sales manager for Alutecnos, most of the Wicked Tuna shermen have Alutecnos reels.
“ ey like the quality of the machining, the quality
of the gearing, and the simplicity of the design,” says Featherston. “ e precision tolerances give you consistent breaking power when you have the big sh on.”.
Manufactured in Monselice, a small city in northern Italy, the Albacore 130 2s, has a push button two speed on the crank handle, a lever drag adjuster, and other features.
“We use the best materials we can get,” Featherston
says. “ e bearings are made of German stainless steel. e gears are made of 3-16 stainless steel, which is hard and durable. e aluminum is 60-82 airplane-grade aluminum, and we’re very proud of our anodizing. You don’t see pitting or discoloring on our reels.”
Along with everything else these days, the price of the Alutecnos reel has gone up; it now costs almost $2,000. But for commercial blue n tuna shermen, it’s worth paying for top-end equipment if it means more sh at the end of the day, or season.
Wicked Tuna shermen. Alutecnos photo.
A new season calls for new gear. Do you have a new product we should review?
Please let us know at www.national sherman.com/about/contribute
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Join us this November 8-10th for Pacific Marine Expo, the largest commercial marine trade show on the West Coast, serving commercial mariners from Alaska to California.
If you make your living on the water, you just can’t afford to miss it!
• More than 500 exhibitors including equipment companies, propulsion, builders, and suppliers and more
• Education sessions on marine safety, business management, regulatory issues and technical advancements, and more
• The Alaska Hall, daily free happy hours, the King County Maritime Economic Forecast Breakfast, an Authors & Artists Corner, a special Fishermen’s Lounge, the National Fisherman Highliner Awards, performances by Fisher Poets, and the epic Fisherman of the Year contest
Registration opens August 15th. Visit www.pacificmarineexpo.com to sign up for the latest news!
