My View of Life on the Dock
I got some video when dropping off some empty fish totes at Cape Seafoods yesterday. Looks like the Plan B will be making its maiden voyage as a herring seiner soon. Yesterday they were loading the net aboard.
Video at 1PM
Plan B Herring Seiner, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
I caught this on FOB (friend of the blog) Craig’s Commercial-Fishing.org forum
I know lots of people that check out the site are designers and have love for working ports so I thought I’d pass this along-
http://www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org/ In New Bedford they are having a tshirt design contest-
The Working Waterfront Festival invites artists 16 years and older to submit a creative design for the 2009 Festival T-Shirt. Designs should convey festival’s emphasis on the commercial fishing industry and the working port. The winning entry will receive a $100 cash prize. Entries must be emailed by or postmarked no later than May 29th. The winning entry and designer will be announced at the June 11th AHA Night in Downtown New Bedford! Applications can be downloaded from the festival’s web site: www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org.
Keith From Kelly’s Fish House Takes Us To The Crab Cooking Room At Kelly’s Fish House-
They can cook up to 500 pounds of crab claws in this industrial cooker. At first I thought they cooked the entire crab but they rip the claws off and cook only the claws and toss the crab back to the ocean to regenerate new claws. A half ton winch lowers and raises the boiling container out of the vat.
Video coming up tonight at 5:00PM
Industrial Crab Cooker Kelly’s Fish House Naples Fl, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Donna Marie Naples Longliner, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Keith at Kelly’s Fish House In Naples Florida Explains Commercial Crabbing Out Of Naples-
Whenever I go on vacation I try to get down to the commercial docks to talk to fishermen or fish dealers. Kelly’s Fish House is just down the street from my parents crib so I swing by there when I’m in Naples to see what’s up.
Here is Keith working. I got a couple interviews to share with you guys from Kelly’s to share with you once I edit them.
This is a conveyor that boats pull up to and offload their catch. There is only a three foot tide in Naples so they don’t have the much larger swings in tide like our 9-10 foot tides in Gloucester. I was shocked that they don’t have a take out boom but they don’t need it. The conveyor works out just fine for them.
Kely’s Fish House, Naples, Fla, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Longline Hooks Ready To Be Clipped On The Main Line, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Crab traps are very similar to lobster traps but are square shaped instead of rectangular. They also have the openings on the top of the trap and do not have knitted heads like a lobster trap.
Crab Traps, Naples Fl, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Many Gloucester fishermen have fished out of Naples at one time or another, mostly longlining for swordfish back in the day. Mark Ring has a few great stories he tells from his days fishing in this port, none of which I can repeat here.
The heavy monofilament line is wrapped around the spool. It goes up and through the blocks and out the stern of the boat with clips of mono and individual hooks on them. Hopefully each hook has a fish on it!
Naples Longliner Donna Marie Longline Set Up, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
As always with any of the pictures on the blog if you click on them it will bring you to the flicker page where it is hosted. There you can select the option “all sizes” above the picture for the full size version in which you can see the pictures full size and in greater clarity.
Other than the obvious hauling and setting from the stern of the boat can any of our commercial fishermen readers comment on any other differences between how they longline out of Naples versus Gloucester?
The Donna Marie- Naples Longliner, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Longlining explained aboard the Donna Marie. For any commercial longliners that watch the video feel free to jump in and correct any of my mistakes from the video. I’m not a fisherman but would like this to be as acuurate as possible. Just leave a comment below the video if you would.
Look for the video at 1:00PM. Matty is splicing this wire cable to combine two lengths of wire and load it aboard a Gloucester dragger.
Matty Splicing Wire Cable, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Craig and Jane are the couple who run Commercial-Fishing.org. They stopped down the dock the other day while in town which is always nice. I love it when people that dig GMG stop by to say hi. They were in town for a couple days and then were heading to New Bedford.
It doesn’t look like the weather in New Bedford is going to be very kid to them for the Seafood Festival they are having down there, but I hope they had a good time nonetheless. If you have any interest in commercial fishing you owe it to yourself to check out Craig’s site and get involved. There are forums and a whole slew of things you can check out there.
Craig and Jane From Commercial-Fishing.org, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Good Morning Gloucester 