Category: Fishermen Profiles

Lobster Trap Tree Wars Covered By The Associated Press

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Lobster ports create Christmas trees — from traps

AP

Albert Carver AP – In this photo taken on Dec. 2, 2010, Albert Carver, looks at a 50-foot-tall Christmas tree made of lobster …

By CLARKE CANFIELD, Associated Press Clarke Canfield, Associated Press – Sun Dec 5, 10:55 am ET

PORTLAND, Maine – Lobster fishermen are known for bragging about who has the fastest boat or the biggest pickup truck.

Now, some of the top lobster-fishing ports in New England are claiming bragging rights about who has the biggest and best Christmas tree created from lobster traps. As the holiday season gets into full swing, a new lobster trap tree in eastern Maine is stirring the pot.

Gloucester, Mass., started the trap-to-tree tradition 12 years ago, and Rockland, Maine, followed five years later. Both are threatening to be upstaged this year by the small lobstering town of Beals, Maine, which is getting into the act with a monster tree that stands 50 feet tall.

For the rest of the story click the link

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lobster_trap_trees

I’ve been hearing from friends all over the country that have read this story.  I guess it was the lead story on the Yahoo news page over night.

Rockin and Rollin Aboard The Degelyse With Nate and Sean Part II

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Is Sean Ever Serious? Nate Says His Antics Keep Going ALL DAY LONG.

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Rockin and Rollin Aboard The Degelyse With Nate and Sean Part I

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Last week the boys led by fearless leader Tuffy got the day in lobstering while most of the fleet was tied up due to  rough seas.

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Light and Demolishing

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Down the dock we have a saying.  Well I should give props to mark Ring for being the first one I ever heard coin the phrase but it has been  adopted by many of our lobstermen.

The phrase is used when the weathermen really fuck up a forecast and call for light and diminishing winds but in actuality the wind is heavy throughout the fishing day making for horrible fishing conditions.

Lobstermen and fishermen depend on weathermen to know when it is safe or manageable to go fishing. The day before yesterday was one of those days when the weathermen were calling for light and diminishing winds.  The average forecast was for 5-10mph of wind.

In actuality the wind screamed out of the Northwest 20-35mph all day and it was bitterly cold.

One by one our lobstermen hit the dock and commented about the off-the-mark wind forecast.

It wasn’t light and diminishing.  More like Light and Demolishing.

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Bob Ritchie Identifies Curious Fish as Shortspine Boarfish

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Joey,  I believe the Mystery Fish is a Shortspine Boarfish  (Antigonia combatia);  "body shape varies from ovate to roughly diamond-shaped.   Head and body reddish pink above, becoming silvery below.  9 spines in  first dorsal fin, 26-30 soft rays in 2nd dorsal fin;  23-28 soft rays in anal fin.  Size: up to 5 in.  Range:   NJ and south to Brazil, at  depth 400-2000 ft., generally on or near bottom on the deeper continental shelf and the upper slope, especially near ledges and rocky outcroppings."    Source: C. Richard Robins, A Field Guide to Atlantic Coast Fishes of North America, Houghton Mifflin 1986.   Available at Dogtown Book Shop (books, used and unusual)  $8.00
Bob
Bob Ritchie
Dogtown Book Shop

Bob’s email was in reference to this curious fish that Tony Gross brought up in his trap last week.

Click the picture to view larger-

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Tony brought it down the dock for me to photograph and all our lobstermen passed it around the office (there was probably 500 years of lobstering experience in the office at the time) and not one of our lobstermen had caught one in their traps before.  Tony caught this one just off of Lanesville. Rare indeed.

Available today at Dogtown Book shop

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Can Anyone Identify This Fish That Came Up In Tony Gross’ Lobster Trap?

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

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It looks like some type of tropical but I can’t figure out what the heck it is.

Researchers make key observation about animal behavior patterns

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

From Northeastern News–

Researchers make key observation about animal behavior patterns

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March 26, 2009

Northeastern University and MIT researchers have observed—for the first time—the origin of a mass gathering and the subsequent migration of hundreds of millions of animals. Utilizing a new imaging technology invented by the researchers, they were able to instantaneously image and continuously monitor entire shoals of fish containing hundreds of millions of individuals stretching for tens of kilometers off Georges Bank near Boston.

They found that once large shoals of Atlantic herring reach a critical population density, a “chain reaction” triggers the synchronized movement of millions of individual fish over a large area. The phenomenon is akin to a human “wave” moving in a sports stadium. They also observed that the fish “commute” to the shallower waters of the bank, where they spawn in the darkness, then return to deeper water and disband the following morning.

The findings, published in the latest issue of Science, confirm general theories about the behavior of large groups of animals that, until now, had not been verified in nature. Previously, these theories for diverse animal groups, ranging from flocks of birds to swarms of locusts, had only been tested with computer simulations and laboratory experiments.

“As far as we know, this is the first time we’ve quantified this behavior in nature and over such a huge ecosystem,” said Nicholas C. Makris, professor of mechanical and ocean engineering at MIT, who co-led this project with Northeastern professor Purnima Ratilal.

Click here for the entire story

I’m asking myself “is this really news or some type of discovery?”

Any fisherman who has looked down on a school of fish from up above can tell you this.  From the dock when you see the little schools of baby mackerel and as soon as the lead fish turns the entire school turns the same direction in wave-like fashion.

These scientists must have been from the midwest or something because anyone that has spent any amount of time as a fisherman could have told you this for centuries.

They coulda bought me lunch and saved themselves a whole lot of research dollars.  I would have told them, LOL

Eagerly awaiting what Doug Maxfield (the maniac that writes my favorite blog) has to say about this.

File under: Duh!,Captain Obvious Awards

One Inch Baby Lobsters Filmed and Released Video

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

99.999% of folks never get to see what these tiny creatures look like at this stage of their development.  We filmed the ones that came up in Toby Burnham’s aboard the Jupiter II traps and then released them to live another day.

Have you subscribed to Good Morning Gloucester yet?  If not you may miss these things and what kind of Gloucester person wants to miss out on the insider stuff?

What 99.9999% Of Bostonians Never Get To See- Bity Baby Lobsters

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro
Click the images for full sized versions-Video tonight

Toby Burnham aboard The Jupiter II brought them in and released them after we photographed them.

To see all the different mutant lobsters including albino ones, blue ones, yellow lobsters, speckled lobsters and more click here for past videos and pictures from our dock

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Rare Golden Sea Robin Landed and Released At Captain Joe’s

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Matt Cooney Aboard The Miss Merideth Landed This Extremely Rare Golden Colored Sea Robin

Click Here To Check Out The Rest of The Curious Sea Creatures Landed At Our Dock Including Albino Lobsters, Triple Clawed Crabs, Blue Lobsters and More

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imageUp Close Macro Video Of GoldenFish Coming Tonight at 6PM

Yep it’s Closing In On Winter Boys!

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

The Shocker!  Nate, Sean and Tuffy

Yesterday Sean took a wave over the side that completely engulfed him in water.  Good times! Damn it Tuffy the least you coulda done for us was get a picture!

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Jo-Anne Castano Forwards Links To Lobstering and Quarry Working in the the 30’s in Gloucester and Rockport

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Hi Joey,

I just remembered these so went searching and thought you might like them.   These are from The Library of Congress, American Memory.  http://memory.loc.gov/

If you do a search for "Gor Svenson" you’ll find about 7 web pages of oral history.  I copied down some excerpts below to give you an idea of the stories from the WPA era, living in Glouceter and Rockport. It is a record of a series of interviews with a Swedish-born American who was for most of his adult years a quarry-worker in Gloucester (Bay View and Lanesville) and Rockport, Massachusetts and who is now (then) engaged in lobstering. (1938)  How much has changed since then?  Stories are flavorfully Cape Ann.

Goes along with today’s events, Lookin’ For the Sunny Side of the Stree – America’s 1930’s in Gloucester.

Enjoy,Jo-

Also provided a link to the photography archives containing 503 records such as the one below.

There are images of,

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On board the fishing boat Alden out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Vito Gioclone, fisherman of Gloucester
1943 June. | 1 negative | Parks, Gordon, 1912-2006

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On board the fishing boat Alden out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Vito Gioclone. Gloucester, Massachusetts
1943 June. | 1 negative | Parks, Gordon, 1912-2006

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Gloucester, Massachusetts. Gaspar Favozza, son of an Italian-American fisherman
1943 May. | 1 negative | Parks, Gordon, 1912-2006

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=gloucester%2C%20massachusetts

Lobster traps stacked in an old net house. Gloucester, Massachusetts

Lobster traps stacked in an old net house. Gloucester, Massachusetts

  • Title: Lobster traps stacked in an old net house. Gloucester, Massachusetts
  • Creator(s): Parks, Gordon, 1912-2006, photographer
  • Date Created/Published: 1943 June.
  • Medium: 1 negative : safety ; 4 x 5 inches or smaller.
  • Part of: Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)
  • Reproduction Number: LC-USW3-031669-C (b&w film neg.)
  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions. For information, see U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs(http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/071_fsab.html)

Other images of Gloucester, MA search 844 results containing "gloucester" :

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=gloucester&sg=true

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940

Chickity Check It! Commercial Fishers: Atlantic Cod

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

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I saw some of the Fishing company posters on MonkeyFists site

You ought to check out the Commercial Fishers:Atlantic Cod pictures from Gloucester’s fishing industry in the 1800’s.

Here is but a small portion of their site.  Click this link to see all the rest of the pictures and stories

A Terrible Mortality

Gloucester’s dependence on the North Atlantic meant a close acquaintance with tragedy and death. “The history of the Gloucester fisheries has been written in tears,” wrote an anonymous reporter in 1876.

Between 1866 and 1890, more than 380 schooners and 2,450 Gloucester men never returned from the fishing grounds. In a single storm on August 24, 1873, nine Gloucester vessels and 128 fishermen were lost. In 1865, community members formed the Gloucester Fisherman’s and Seaman’s Widows and Orphan’s Aid Society Fund to help fishermen’s families.

Widows’ Home

This house was built for fishermen’s widows in Gloucester around 1870. It had ten apartments of three rooms each. Rent for each apartment was $3 per month.

“When will the slaughter cease?”

In 1882, Capt. Joseph Collins asked this question in Gloucester’s newspaper, the Cape Ann Weekly Advertiser. Too many fishermen perished at sea, and Collins and others lobbied for new schooner designs featuring deeper, more stable hulls and sail plans that didn’t require a long bowsprit, the spar that projected forward from the bow.