Reporter Don Cuddy goes aboard the Sea Escape for a week long fishing trip…
Last month, in researching a story on new fishery regulations, I found myself talking to Tom Vinagre aboard the New Bedford dragger Sea Escape. We talked about fishing for an hour and Tom finally said: "You should come out with us. We're leaving tomorrow."
Thus it was that on Friday morning, April 16, with my sea bag stowed, I watched the hurricane barrier recede as the 64-foot Sea Escape cleared the harbor bound for the offshore fishing grounds. April was proving a torrid month for the 30-year-old vessel as it strove to use up its remaining allocation of "days at sea" before their expiration at the end of the month.
The boat had already gone out fishing on April 1 and returned on the 11th. With only three men aboard, it had been a particularly grueling trip. There was precious little sleep as even the captain worked the deck. They landed a good catch, some 30,000 pounds of groundfish, but were dismayed to learn that prices were down. Scrod haddock, for example, fetched only 50 cents per pound at the fish house, and deckhand Joao Bernardino received just $800, roughly $4 per hour, as his reward for 10 days of backbreaking labor.
But as I came to discover, for men such as these, fishing is not a job. It's their way of life and a part of their makeup.
Read the complete story at The South Coast Today [subscription site]
NOTE: The Standard-Times is a subscription site. Unregistered visitors are able to read three stories per month, and registered visitors may view ten. For unlimited access, please follow the subscription instructions on the site.