Wash. boatyard builds jet-powered seine skiff; covid-19 dragging down boatyard production
Published onRozema Boat Works had nearly finished a 20' x 11' seine skiff in mid-April thats going to Prince William Sound. As opposed to the three 19' x 10' seine skiffs the Mount Vernon, Wash., boatyard had previously built with the steering console in the bow, making it easier to go from side to side and hand lines off to the seiner, the new 20-footer is more traditional with the steering console mounted about amidships on the starboard side. Whats different on this Rozema skiff is the HI500 Thrustmaster waterjet, the first waterjet thats gone into a Rozema Boat Works seine skiff. Its matched up with a 500-hp Cummins QSC8.3. The addition of the jet resulted in the skiffs design being updated all the way around, says Rozema Boat Works Dirk Rozema. The nozzle skiff wasnt ready for a jet, so we reshaped the hull to make ...
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Boat of the Month: Cordelia
Published onWith a grandfather in the Navy and a scuba diving father who took on epic sailing ventures, its an understatement to say that Sam Shragge grew up in a nautical family. But it wasnt until an undergraduate degree in business, a masters degree in international logistics and marine transportation, a series of maritime jobs and the death of his mother that he made his way to fishing and the F/V Cordelia. My mother had just retired after working her entire life and preparing for retirement, only to have that taken away from her, said Shragge. It was a big wake-up call for me to find something fulfilling to do with my life, something I would enjoy every day. After a handful of bad starts to a fishing career in southern Oregon in less than ideal fishing operations, Shragge, a lifelong entrepreneur, decided to run his own boat. He ...
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Atlantic mullet: Production and prices down for roe, and red tide worries
Published onThe hits just keep on coming against mullet fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico hub of southwest Florida: low production of roe mullet this past winter; a covid-depressed international market; and, lately, a red tide bloom in the Fort Myers area. We didnt have a lot of buyers because of the covid, said Roy Kibbe, who operates St. James City Fish Co. on Pine Island. Our production was maybe a third of what we usually do. Boat prices never got over 80 cents. A lot of fishermen didnt fish. During previous peak roe mullet seasons, which generally run from November through February, boat prices hovered around $1.75. Conversely, Kibbe said the domestic restaurant and retail market for non-roe mullet is strong. Were buying at $1 and selling it at $1.15, he said. But he and other fishermen are keeping a wary eye on an emerging red ...
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They saw a lot: Washington’s Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op is still buzzing
Published onOn a 2019 visit to Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op, I picked up a T-shirt with the image of a bandsaw on it. I wondered, why not a ship? But the saw turned out to be a symbol of how the founding shipwrights started the business. In 1981 about six or seven guys bought a planer and a ship saw from a shop that was going out of business, says Jeff Galey, one of the dozen current member-owners of the co-op. Its our logo. The saw came from the Western Boat Co., which was co-founded by Joe Martinac, who later started the Martinac Shipbuilding Corp. The Western Boat Co. operated from 1916 to 1982 and built the Western Flyer a purse seiner made famous when it carried writer John Steinbeck on a journey that he wrote about in The Log from the Sea of Cortez that ...
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Butler family sells railway after 106 years; Butler-built classic wooden boats still at work
Published onSince 1906, Reedville Marine Railway in Reedville, Va., has been owned by the Butler family. In April, the 106-year stint of ownership came to an end as George M. Butler, 69, sold the railway. Butlers grandfather, Samuel Butler, and Joseph Davis purchased the railway in 1906 from Isaac Bailey who had opened Baileys Railway on Cockrell Creek in the early 1890s. Samuel Butler bought Davis out sometime in the mid-1920s, and then Samuel and his son George P. Butler ran the yard. George P.s first job at the yard as a boy was to fire up the boiler to the steam engine that powered the planer and band saw. The saw and planer worked off a jack shaft from the ceiling inside the shop. Samuel died in 1933 and George P. took over the operation. He built boats and operated the railway until his death in 1976 ...
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Northeast scallops: Prices high as rotational closures reduce supply, boost production costs
Published onThe Atlantic sea scallop fishery predominantly centered around New Bedford, Mass.; Point Judith, R.I.; Cape May, N.J.; and Norfolk, Va., ports is the largest and most valuable wild scallop fishery in the world. Projected landings in the federal fishery are expected to be around 40 million pounds in 2021. The allocation was developed using survey data from 2020, and then projecting growth, harvest, natural mortality and recruitment, says Jonathon Peros, fishery analyst and scallop lead at New England Fishery Management Council. In 2019, commercial landings of Atlantic sea scallops totaled more than 60.6 million pounds (shucked meats) valued at around $570 million. Landings have dropped by 10 million pounds per year the last two years. This was expected, adds Peros. There were two exceptional year classes in 2012 and 2013 that the fishery has been catching. We are in the twilight of those two cohorts. Despite expected ...
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Maine yard sends tuna boats to Massachusetts; lobstermen are laying down rubber decks
Published onMainely Boats in Cushing, Maine, sent a Calvin 34 about 11 miles up the coast to Rockland for an early May launching. That was the Bottom Line, and it was built for a Boston tuna fisherman. S.W. Boatworks in Lamoine, Maine, built the Bottom Line as a bare hull and top before sending her to Mainely Boats, which finished her off with composite construction, including fiberglass I-beams under the deck. Its pretty much all we do, says Mainely Boats owner, Mike Hooper, referring to the composite construction. The Bottom Line has a full wheelhouse that was raised 6 inches and extended aft 4 feet. That allowed the 500-hp Cummins QSC 8.3 main engine and a Cummins 5-kW Onan generator to fit under the wheelhouse, while providing ample room up above for the guy at the wheel, as well as cupboards, a table, bench and captains ...
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Alaska halibut and blackcod: As market recovers from covid, biomass future looks bright
Published onQuotas and ex-vessel prices are on the rise for Alaskas longline fleet, but values are still down by about 30 percent of what they were a few years ago. The market was down by 55 percent last year, says Bob Alverson, manager of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association in Seattle. State budget cuts to the Alaska Marine Highway System and its fleet of ferries crimped transportation of halibut from Alaskas primary seafood landing ports to secondary transportation services in Seattle. That and the onset of the pandemic depressed the markets until near the end of the season, which ended on Nov. 15. By then, the infrastructure had recovered enough to absorb product. The retail market moved really well last year, says Alverson, adding that this years season began on March 14 with low inventories. He reported that ex-vessel prices in May were running 20 percent higher than at ...
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Our House: Pandemic Survival 101
Published onWelcome to Our House in The End Times of 2020-21: Things I never ever thought I would see happen. May 2020 Selling fish off the boat The Old Man of the Sea has always sworn he would never do this until this pandemic thingie came along. So this is what happened in Our House. Somebody called me a Karen. In the great world of Facebook on one of the pages that sells things, somebody posted that they had fish for sale. That looked interesting so I had to do a little digging. I checked the sellers profile page to see if he was anyone we knew. He was a car salesman from a city near us, and there were no references to fishing whatsoever no boat pictures, no posts about fishing in general. So that made me a little bit suspicious. I asked him if he had a commercial ...
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Fisherpoets: The Hammock
Published onThe old gal was talking in her sleep again. Shed groan like a tired black lab whenever the weather came up from the stern quarter. She kept time with the drop of the bow and the yaw of the gimballed compass illuminated by a faint red glow. It was the only thing I could see from the helm, but I just stared straight ahead. I didnt have to look down. I knew right where we were and right where we were going and so did she. It was a groan of comfort and good fit with no sharp edges. We were lounging in the hammock, lollygagging along at eight knots in the trough of a long slow swell that built up out of the northwest in the late summer. Back in March, running north for herring, it was all sharp and edgy and uncertain. But now, we were going home ...
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Northern Lights: The covid trail
Published onAmericas largest seafood producing state kept working through the covid-19 pandemic, but under difficult and constantly changing conditions. Seafood consumers were unable to eat out but became hungrier than ever for everything from king crab to Alaska pollock fish sticks to canned salmon. For at least nine months retail seafood sales were up 20-30 percent above pre-pandemic levels a higher sales bump than all other parts of the grocery store. Those increases tell the story of high demand, but also of the hard work and sacrifice that kept boats fishing, processing lines operating, and shippers moving products to where they were needed. To better understand how covid-19 is affecting the industry, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute commissioned McKinley Research Group (formerly known as McDowell Group) to produce a series of surveys and briefing papers. Mitigation and Response Costs Fortunately, Alaskas winter/spring Bering Sea and Aleutian ...
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Editor’s Log: Our family to yours
Published onThe Pilothouse Guide began as a companion issue for the faithful readers of Alaska Fishermans Journal making the annual springtime trek from Seattle and points south to Alaska for the bustle and boom of the summer fishing season. The NF crew has been proud to produce the guide in one form or another for the last 15 years, and we welcome it back again this year as part of our July issue. Pilothouse Guide has always highlighted fishing stories of all kinds. The content evolved over the years from classic stories reprinted from the pages of the Journal to more of what todays readers need to run their businesses, as well as their boats, from California to Alaska. The port listings including amenities, slips, anchorage depths and more are the meat and potatoes of the guide and can be found starting on in our digital and print editions. In addition ...
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In the bag
Published onPacking for a trip or a season occupies the minds of fishermen in every port heres what a few of them say they cant live without Tyroan Rediske of Homer, Alaska, is 20 years old and has been fishing the waters off his home state for the last three years. Were trawling for pollock now, said Rediske at the end of 2020. Just killing time until they start cod back up. Rediske was heading back to the Aleutians in January to fish pot cod aboard the F/V Icy Mist, one of the famous Fred Wahl, Super 8s. Its a 58-foot by 26-foot boat, one of the earlier ones. I think it was built in 2009. It can be brutal in the Bering Sea in January, and Rediske has a suite of gear to help him stay comfortable in a harsh environment. Unpacking his gear bag, he uses ...
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The Road to 60 North
Published onA Cordova-based processor gets fresh life through a local fishing partnership and generations of Alaska fishing history Icould see that longlining wasnt going to be able to provide for my family like it had been, says Alaska fisherman Rich Wheeler. I had been thinking I wanted to go to Southeast because I wanted to have my family with me, like a lot of fishermen do. I had the dream of having a boat with all my kids on it. So, fortunately, someone talked me into buying a boat and a permit on Prince William Sound. That move set the stage for Wheelers family to launch a new business and be able to spend summers fishing together. But the groundwork was laid two generations before on the rocky coast of Norway. When Lars Jangaard emigrated to America in 1938, Europe was on the verge of war. By 1940, his homeland ...
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Silver with a heart of gold
Published onProut family angling to lead Bering Sea crabs next generation on the Silver Spray It was during Sterling Prouts first crabbing trip that one his dads catchphrases took on a new, more ominous undertone. As a young teen, Sterling had spent pleasant enough summers salmon tendering in Prince William Sound on the family boat, the F/V Silver Spray. Then, when Sterling was 17, one of his dads crab crew got hurt during the opilio season. Bill Prout known on the ground as Hip offered Sterling the spot, and Sterling recalls thinking, Sure, no problem. Ill fly out to Dutch (Harbor), and it will be just like tendering. It was shockingly different from tendering. The Silver Spray got throttled by rough weather on the way out of Dutch Harbor, and Sterling got seasick. Soon enough, he was on deck in the middle of the Bering Sea winter with older men ...
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Jumpers on the flats: See more of the action with good glasses
Published onWrap-around gas station glasses seem to be the industry standard for summer fishing in Alaska, but those looking for a little more complete protection for their eyes might consider a larger investment. In a recent, extensive online debate among Bristol Bay skippers, the three brands that came up most were Maui Jim, Native and Costa del Mar. Silver Bay Seafoods chose Maui Jim for a spring gift for its fleet, and for good reason: Many claim Maui Jim makes the best lenses in the business. Among several lens materials, the best bet for the Alaska summer salmon is likely the SuperThin glass, which is 32 percent thinner than standard glasses and offers Maui Jims crispest optics and best scratch resistance the latter key for the constant grime and brine clearing that is inevitable while fishing. Four different base tints are available, with the Maui Rose and HCL Bronze probably ...
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