I have been messing around with a little bit of video editing and I have tons of fishing video so I thought I would throw a clip into my Foto-Friday article. Sort of a trailer for what I am going to be putting together. The images are of the Western Venture and the video clip was shot from her back deck and depicts a transfer of the end of the net from Osprey to Western Venture. That is me throwing the hook and (you only see my hand) and that is my dorky sounding voice on the video.

 This article is a Foto-Friday article and is a feature of the NV photographers. I would like to state my personal gratitude and give a big shout out to Sir Richard Owen for offering advice and instruction on how to properly size images for the internet. My images will henceforth be published in a format that should be much easier to load. For that I offer my sincerest thanks and hope that there will be a way to return the favor some day.

 This is a photo article for the Newsvine Photographers. All images are copyrighted all rights reserved.

These pictures were taken on George's Bank in the Atlantic Ocean from the back deck of the Fishing Vessel Western Venture. The fishing net that was being set out is a swan net ltd. design mid-water trawl. It requires an estimated 1600 horse power to tow the net through the water. The two vessels towing it are both able to tow it alone but find working as a pair to offer better control of the net for adjusting the opening, turning, and lifting the net up and down to move it into the path of the herring and catch them.

Contrary to the many statements by those who make their living maligning fishermen mid-water trawling is an extremely low bycatch type of fishing that has a low impact on the environment. 

This article is for Week end exposure and is a feature of the Newsvine Photographers. All pictures were taken in Gloucester Massachusetts by a Fisherman stuck in the town due to a variety of factors including the high price of fuel and interference in regulation by oil funded trusts (I still have copies of the receipts but that is another article). I leave you with.....

The Fisherman's Blues

Ps- All images are copyrighted material.

Weekend Exposure Exposing The Trouble With Old Boats

I am currently engineering a fishing vessel named the Osprey. It was built in 1984 by Sanchez Marine for fishing in the scallop fishery out of New Bedford. Converted to mid-water trawl in the mid to late 90's she is a part of the herring and mackeral fisheries. The Osprey is not a new boat and some trips she really shows her age.

The images you see here are about holes appearing in the pipes and plates of steel that make up the material that keeps the ocean where it belongs (out of the boat). The pipe leaks were discovered under way while trying to pump out a side hold that had shipped water (probably from the holes in the deck). The flooding caused by these leaks was caught very quickly and due to the slow rate of water coming in offered a moment to do some exposure work with the camera.

I take a lot of pictures of fast moving subjects quick capture of the best possible image under difficult circumstances. Taking a little time with the camera to work on artsy exposure type pictures (while sinking) seemed like a good idea and funny so here is the result of my efforts. I am going to leave the caption copies below so that anyone who has trouble reading the tiny, dim words under the pictures can refer to the bottom of the article.

Weekend exposure is a feature of the NV photographers and I am assuming it is about trying different exposures to expand the skill of setting up the camera for the perfect exposure of any shot. I missed any instuction there may have been.

1 This image is just a starting point. Water pours from a break in the 8 inch pipe behind the main engine in Osprey's engine room. Notice the black diagonal pipe in the background. It was installed last month due to the same issue.

2 Shutter speed 1/200 of a second, aperture 3.5, ISO 200.
The fast shutter speed freezes the water in mid air and makes the stream look really thin.

3 Shutter speed .3 second, aperture 3.5, ISO 200. The water is thicker at this slower shutter speed.

4 Shutter speed .6 second, aperture 3.5, ISO 200. The water stream is very misty and streamy looking now and the image has some blur from hand holding for over a half a second.

5 Shutter speed 1.3 second, aperture 3.5, ISO 200. The water stream is now very streamy but you can see where I am startin to lose it. Things in the background are very blurry from what is a really long hand hold on a boat that is in motion.

6 This is a new pipe that I made and installed as a replacement. This is the best possible repair for a pipe that is springing holes.

7 This evil little hole sprang up while the pipes were all apart (You would have to ask the crew how that is possible because I still don't understand their explanation). Notice the bunch of small dots surrounding it, That is where a sharp hammer was used to ensure the rest of thepipe was ok.

8 This is a patch type repair made by cutting a piece of pipe and fitting it over the bad spot and welding it on. It is not the best repair but can be expected to hold right up until the stupid pipe starts leaking again.

9 The back deck of Osprey in New Bedford Harbor. Nice little scene but what are those little dots on the deck?

10 Of course... more holes.

11 Notice the texture of this shot. That is caused by pitting, rust and holes generally experienced when the deck of the boat is painted by persons that are somewhat less than qualified to run a paint brush. That and it is just an old boat.

12 The solution an additional plate of steel (called a doubler plate) welded over the top of the holy place. Notice the 6 holes in the new plate that have some weld. Those are put there on purpose to add points of bonding to the steel above and below so that you don't get flexing in the middle of the two plates.

*This is the Osprey on the job with partner boat Western Venture. copyright jjthefisherman

In the middle of September 2010 a pair of trawlers sailed to George's Bank to catch herring. On the night of September 14th a crewmember died in the water just astern of Western Venture. The crew was unable to revive him and no help was available to us that far out to sea. Returning to Gloucester with a dead crewmember left a lot of questions about what could have been done to prevent his death.

The problem that caused a crewmember to don diving gear and get in the water that night was that the net had fallen down into the rudders and become fouled. The Western Venture was disabled due to the nets entangled in proximity to her propellers. In order to solve the issue of the nets falling down there we designed and constructed a bar that when deployed sticks out of the side of the vessel and provides a place for the net to lay. Held up out of the water the net cannot fall and become fouled in the rudders.

In order to facilitate the plan we needed to build a device nobody had seen before that wasn't readily available. We purchased a hydraulic cylinder off of the shelf and had it sent to Rose's Machine Shop in Gloucester Mass. They dis-assembled the cylinder and built a new shaft for it that was longer than the original and made of stainless steel shafting of the type used for drive shafts on boats. This ensured that the shaft would not rust in the salt water like so many high chrome steel shafts from OEM sources.

We welded an extremely strong pipe nipple onto the cylinder end and bought a large forged steel coupling to weld into the hull. An UHMW plastic (white cutting board material) bearing was made up and threaded into the other side of the coupling to provide both support and a surface to retract the rod of the cylinder into keeping out all foreign material and protecting the shaft when it is not deployed. The use of pipe and couplings enables us to actually thread the cylinder into the hull by turning it clockwise. Thus we can remove the cylinder for service (shaft seal replacement and such).

The valve was mounted directly above the cylinder so the operator can see the rod extending and ensure that it has been retracted all of the way. We were able to plumb the new components into the existing system with very little difficulty which kept the expense of the project reasonable for high pressure system work. The project has been successfull so far in both function without issue and that it accomplishes what it was designed to do. It keeps the net out of the rudders.

The AED we sourced for crew medical emergencies is the same one used on all of the NOAA ships. I have a friend that works on them and asked him to go to one and get me the make, model, and serial number. Owning the same one as the government allows that when we need a battery for ours there might be one available as gov. will need thousands of the same. A good defribillator can be used to revive a person that has had a heart attack or drowned both factors in the loss of our crew member.

We are too far away most days to rely on CPR until help arrives. The only chance a person with a heart stoppage has is the one we provide by being trained and having the equipment available to revive them. Tragedies happen and it is not possible to save everyone, the best a person can do is take what they learned and use it to make sure that we are ready to do our best for our people in the future.

It is definitely winter out here and not every day is going to be nice weather. We sailed out of New Bedford into freshening breezes and a building swell. I was preparing a salmon dinner and enjoying a little bit of Internet. By the time I was supposed to be putting my Alaska Sockeye fillets in the oven it was positively nasty out. I am the engineer of the boat and usually don't cook but our current cook (Corndog) is on the beach with his wife who is ready to have a baby.

When the weather got up we were bucking into it (driving right at it). I decided to delay dinner a bit and take a few pictures of the Western Venture and find out if we were going to be in the lee of something (some land to break the wave height down some). Nice to have it a little calm when it is time to serve the food. The Osprey is a rolly (insert derogatory expletive here!) and dinner and photography were very challenging. I hope these go over as good as dinner did (It is hard to screw up wild salmon).

This photo-essay is a Foto-Friday Feature and as such was brought to you by the News Vine Photographers. I would like to especially thank the New England Fisheries Management Council and our friends at the PEW oil trusts for the wise policy help that puts us out in the worst weather possible. (What do they think is going to happen when they make it illegal to fish when the weather is good and where the fish actually are?)

A shout out to the Fishermen of the World. You boneheads knew the job was dangerous when you took it.

Yesterday they were giving Storm Warnings, Heavy Freezing Spray, and advising all vessels to make port . Today at 2 pm we are sailing out into it. This means I may be able to get those rough weather pictures I have been wanting to get. It also means I may not be around to post my foto-friday pictures. So welcome to my first ever Foto-Thursday feature. I will have to go without the NV photographers logo but I still credit them the inspiration for the project.

These pictures are from the sail into NewBedford. The place hasn't frozen over lately so I got some pictures of boats stuck in the ice. That happens in mushy surface ice conditions due to all of the little cooling systems that require saltwater flow on boats. The strainers on those systems fill with ice and the water just stops coming. This leaves boats with engines over-heating while surrounded by ice in freezing weather. Sounds kind of ironic doesn't it.

The solution that eludes many is removing the strainers. An over heating engine cannot be blocked by ice.

note- There is no picture 13 it a cancelled picture.

This year has seen the most dramatic losses of fishing jobs of any year I have ever heard of. Another year like this one will be an extinction level event for the fisheries of the US. While it is clear to most fishermen that the political agenda is driven by corporate greed, the rest of the public is strangely silent. The perversion of the environmental movement into a tool of control by and for the corporatists does not seem to matter at all. I was at a herring meeting today and learned that even though the fishery is held to the highest standards on the planet, that 6 to 7000 people in collusion with the PEW charitable trusts are screaming for more restrictions and regulations to pile on top of the existing ones.

We in the fishing industry have all seen this movie before. There are no real environmentalists left. Just these corporate shills that know nothing of fishing and everything about predatory regulation. They regulate to destroy. To destroy jobs and ruin families. To eliminate as many fishing boats and fishermen from the waters of the US as possible. The ocean has a lot of value as real estate for wind mills and natural gas storage, as a source of almost 70 percent of the worlds minerals and of course.... oil, black gold.... texas tea.

The corporatists know that future growth requires new wealth. There are not many sources of new wealth available......save one. The ocean. Fishermen were the only people that had a way to stop the ocean's exploitation. For that we are being persecuted and our livelyhoods destroyed.

Please enjoy these pictures of a soon to be forgotten era in US history. The photo essay of the mid-water fishing style that you see here is a description of one set. It is to be continued...............

Coming up in part 2......... a big ass bag of herring is pumped aboard Western Venture.

Here is the Audio of the fishermen in New Bedford talking about being regulated out of business. Listen to minutes 34 to 39 to Owen talking about how screwed we are in the herring industry and how it is all because of the activity of the PEW charitable trusts (BIG OIL FOR A BETTER TOMORROW).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! I hope you liked the dramatic BS pictures (BS=Boston Skyline). These pictures were taken from the bow of fishing vessel Osprey about a week ago heading out to sea to fish for herring. There was a pretty good swell running so I was really happy with the results of these pictures. Photography was limited when darkness fell, due to time needed for proper exposure being too long for the amount of motion going on.

Someone told me when I put one of these pictures up recently (in another place) that they put it as a background on their computer and then removed it because of my copyright note. Even though I retain the rights of any copy made as far as commercial uses are concerned, I would be frickin honored if somebody had one of my pictures as the background of their computer or cellphone. It is necessary to retain copyright so nobody else claims it and tells me I can't use my own pictures for stuff. As far as personal use like a background or something, I am just a fisherman with a camera and would be excited to hear that somebody liked a picture that much.

This is a Foto-Friday Article and is a feature of the Newsvine Photographers. All pictures are copyrighted to me (JJ) and are recent original works.

Music by the band Boston

More Than a Feeling

Don't Look Back

Peace of Mind

Foreplay/ Long time

The final days of the herring fishery in the Gulf of Maine were dark and grey. There was no sunrise nor sunset. The cloudy grey sky reflected from the oceanturning the world into a grey and colorless place. The sea and sky were so similiar the horizon was nearly impossible to find, a thin line lost in a drab grey haze. In the middle of this grey world a few splashes of color on the ocean worked at catching fish.

The fishing wasn't very good as it was late in the year for this northern fishing ground. The herring had already spawned, their eggs strewn throughout the ocean hatching new little fishes to carry on their important role in the ocean eco-system. Once the herring spawn they usually don't stay very long. Most of them begin their journey south to warmer waters. Driven by the cooling water and instincts born of a history I can only guess at. As depressing and colorless as the world seemed, out there in the grey fun was being had.

Dolphins had come their jumping and playing visible from a long ways off. Their very existence a celebration of life and the wonder of it all. Their lively frolick a riot of playfull activity in a dreary world. Why do they jump and do flips looking like they are having the time of their lives? Perhaps just because they can. They seem to be curious about us but not enough to stick around very long. Maybe there is too much going on in dolphin social circles to get worried about what we are doing. This is probably a good thing as our activities are dangerous for them. Some of them are harmed and even killedevery year from fishing gear.

I am going to write about the topic of marine mammals being killed by fishing gear in a future article (I am still doing the research). My thanks to the NMFS observer that was on the Osprey during this fishing trip. Her efforts to identify the Atlantic White-sided Dolphins in the photographs were a big help.

In the mid-water herring fishery we are gratefull to the observers and the job they do in documenting what actually occurs in the fishery. Even though the data they collect is often dismissed out of hand because it doesn't support the accusations of the people who insisted we bring observers. That's the way it goes in modern science.

No Dolphins were harmed during the making of this photo-essay by us (I can't speak for the gill-netters that were present.)

The Atlantic White-sided Dolphin Marine Bio

The Atlantic White-sided Dolphin on Wikipedia

This is a foto-friday article and is a feature of the Newsvine Photographers.

These are the challenges my friends..... I hope you like them~~~the song is for our resident Newsvine Scrapper~~~~

This article is a Foto-Friday Article and as such is a feature of the Newsvine Photographers. Every week on Friday the NV Photographers submit their latest work, photo-essays, projects for the enjoyment of the community. If you liked this article please look for the Foto-Friday logo and enjoy the latest efforts of our very talented and hardworking members.

for dkaz You are missed. ):

On the night of September 15th 2010, heading in to Gloucester from George's bank the atmosphere on the Osprey was somber. We were cutting the trip short due to a fatality on the Western Venture. (That is a different story) I was laying in my bunk trying to sleep for even twenty minutes that night. Suddenly the boat felt weird like there was water sloshing somewhere and it was causing a hesitation in the natural movement of the boat. Many years of life on the water caused me to go from trying to sleep to extremely alarmed in a second.

As the boats engineer it is my job to make sure that the ocean is staying where it belongs, outside the frickin boat! I immediately jumped up and headed for the engine room. Engine room flooding is the most dangerous due to the fact that everything you depend on to control flooding is there. Pumps, electricity generation, and propulsion are all lost when that space floods. When I hit the top of the stairs I knew I was getting wet. A pipe had failed on the main engine and the water was spraying on the back up generator right in the path to the pumps.

What a bummer!! Thinking, "What next?" because of the rule of three (disasters always come in three's). I turned on all the pumps and pumped out the engine room and the shaft alley (water from the engine room had filled it). Remembering the video camera mounted 6 feet away and pointed right at the spraying water, I headed to the wheelhouse to find out why the man on watch hadn't seen this incident. The camera system was directed to the steering room and got stuck there. Ignorance is bliss so rather than allow that, I told the watch man that we are taking on water in the engine room. Everybody loves to hear that.

Of course we made it to town. Then the police wouldn't let us off the boat to get the pipes and stuff to fix it, until they were done investigating the fatality we had. That was your Foto-Friday short story. This article is a Foto-Friday presentation. Foto-Friday is brought to you by the Newsvine Photographers. If you liked this article please look for the Foto-Friday label and enjoy some of the pictures of a variety of subjects from all over the country and even the world.

Crewmember Dies On Western Venture (The Loss of Duane“Charlie” Rine on George’s Bank)

I never thought citizen journalism was going to be easy, who knew there would be days like today? Sailing out of Gloucester to go herring fishing on George’s Bank there was no way of knowing we would be bringing home the body of a crewmate. I am not impartial in this matter, tragedy has struck our little company and it is with a heavy heart and more than a little regret that I write this.

The following occured on September 14, 2010. It was an evening set pair trawling, on the Osprey we were taking the end from the Western Venture and towing for herring. We had just given the end back to the Venture and they had hauled the gear up and pumped the catch aboard. The trouble started when the net was empty and they tried to reel it up on the stern. The net had become entangled in the rudders. This happens occasionally in calm weather due to an open rudder design and the net lying under the boat and catching on them.

On Osprey we were on stand-by to tow our partner out of the mess. One of the crew over there was a scuba diver and had tanks and all of the gear on board. Duane“Charlie” Rine had dove on the boat before and was willing and able to clear the net from the rudders. They elected to have him dive and clear the net from the rudders and around 7:30 to 8pm he got in the water.

Charlie was able to immediately clear the port rudder but the starboard rudder is more difficult. He was under for around 10 to 15 minutes and when he surfaced he had abandoned all of his dive gear (tank, weight belt, etc.). He was conscious and shouting to the crew when he surfaced but after they lifted him out of the water with the sling he quickly lost consciousness and stopped breathing.

The crew of the boat began performing CPR and did so for over an hour. The A.E.D. (Automatic External De-fibrillator) that they needed to help him was still on the “wish list” of safety equipment for the boat and had never been purchased (it is a little late coming now). They did the best with what they had and tried hard to save Charlie. They failed to resuscitate him and with no help on the way stopped CPR after 9pm. As we drifted by their stearn I could see the crew carrying his body to shelter from the back deck. At 9:30pm the captain of Western Venture told us that we had lost Charlie.

When the Venture was able to pick up her gear, they found all of Charlie’s dive gear tangled in the net. That he became entangled in the net under the boat is a fact. The rest of the circumstances surrounding his death can only be speculated upon. Heart attack, injuries, partial drowning and/or blockage of the airway. Medical forensics will have to determine, if possible the exact cause of death. I am certain that entanglement was a contributing factor.

Charlie served his country in the Navy and like a true, “Navy man” would go to great lengths to get anything done that the captain requested. Diving on the Western Venture under those conditions was an incredibly brave act, he knew how dangerous it was and went anyway. That he lost his life in the service of the vessell is reason enough to honor him, his courage and efforts above and beyond normal duty makes it imperitive. As a person who would benefit from his efforts on that dive I owe him that and more.

Thanks to the fishing vessel, “Victor Ray” for relaying our distress calls to the Coast Guard. A “tip of the hat” to Sean Walsh for his death defying leap from Osprey to Venture while trying to help, (crazy former Marine). I have been trying to find a reason to thank the Coast Guard but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t think of one. It seems like they want all kinds of up to date information about accidents like this one for press releases, not from any intention of helping at all. They were of no assistance at all.

I am releasing this short video clip of Western Venture, shot from the deck of the Osprey while trying to manuever alongside of the Western Venture it has some of the conversation with Coast Guard.

I will not be releasing any other video, but will update with links and details as they become available.

This is the link for the Gloucester Daily Times Article

Here is a link to the memorial article. It has all of the other links.

I have 2 music selections for you to listen to while viewing the pictures, Indulge me and try one of them..... click and then minimize the window that pops up after turning up the sound.

Otis Redding- Sitting on the Dock of a Bay

Styx- Come Sail Away

These pictures are of Western Venture and Osprey going out for a herring trip out of Gloucester on Wednesday afternoon. I did not go with them which is always a situation of mixed emotions. One feeling is I am missing the boat, the other is the peacefull feeling of the boat repairman seeing the work head out to sea. If you listen to the music each one of the songs conveys one of those emotions and goes with the scene. If you are reading this you are currently enjoying a Foto-Friday Article, these pictures from across the world on a variety of subjects and styles is a feature of the Newsvine Photographers. If you like this article please check out some others that carry the Foto-Friday logo.

On July 10, 2010 I stood on the top of the Osprey's wheelhouse at night and took pictures of fireworks. I had no tripod or fancy, multi-setting ,expensive camera, just an idea and some perseverance. I was going to get some good pictures for a foto-friday and be early for the deadline instead of late. I am really happy with the results. I was using long exposure night settings so all of the fire works had time to develop a streak effect that made them really pretty I thought. Thank you for looking at my pictures you are the judge now.

The Fireworks display was a part of Sailfest a 3 day event that has rides, events, live music, free kids entertainment and of course a big regatta complete with a bunch of sailboats. I had to work and missed all of that but I could not miss the thunderous sound of the display booming into my job sight in the Osprey's Engine room where I was repairing an air compressor. Sailfest was from July 9 to July 11 this year and was quite the festival from what I gathered talking to the locals.

Mohegan Sun Casino deserves a shout out for financing these fireworks and the city of New London for permitting and allowing the event. New London is a really pretty town with friendly people and old world buildings. An architecture photographer like Mtherof3 would probably walk out of that town with an epic collection of photographs. I was lucky to get these, if you were here last week I was chasing ducks around the shipyard.

These pictures are a part of foto-friday which is a feature of Newsvine Photographers

Herring fishing being a little slow, we decided to take an opportunity to do some much needed hull maintainence on the boats. The Shipyard here has a huge dry dock that easily fit Osprey and Western Venture in an end to end configuration that left the rudder and propeller work for the two vessels in the same location. This is a good thing due to the fact that the tools for that work are very large, (the less you have to move them the better) and generally no matter how big the shipyard is, the rudder and propeller teams are the same group of outside machinists and welders. You can see the propellers, and rudders of both boats. They will have to come off for rudder bearing work and cutless bearing (in ocean shaft bearing before prop) work.

You can see in the pictures, power washing of the hulls being done and tasks involving the removal of muscles, and other sea creatures. This work which needs to be done every 2 to 3 years is important to the life of the vessel, and possibly crew. The lower hulls, (normally below water) will be painted with anti-fouling paint and corroding anodes, (Zincs) will be renewed to provide protection to the hull from electrolysis and fouling from marine growth. The hull transducers for the fish finding equipment will also be cleaned, and the sonars maintained. The Western Venture was built in 2006 in Bayou le Batre', Alabama, which is in America, (for those concerned about the foreign fishing vessel thing). This is the first hull paint job for the Venture.

The Osprey sitting directly aft (behind or toward the back) of the Western Venture is looking a lot like a little toy boat in comparison to Venture. She is not small. With a length of 120 feet she is an industry regular in her class of boat, she is a former New Bedford scalloper. Converted to herring fishing in 1996 she is an oldy but a goody. In the pictures she is out of the water for hull painting and propeller work. They will also renew her zincs, and clean all of her sonars and fish finding equipment. We did a bunch of rudder repair work while she was in the water last year so I think her rudder should be ok. Times are not as good as they were in the past in the fishing industry (flawed science pushes agenda) quotas are very low, so it's not like we are trying to spend a bunch of money we don't have. It's too bad because shipyard workers depend on businesses like ours to provide work and when we (get) cut back they suffer.

New London Conneticut is pretty and interesting from what I have seen. There is a submarine park called, "Conning Towers Nautilus Park", just across the river from us. You can see the subs from here I took a picture of one but it's far for a point and shoot camera. You can also see the Gold Star Memorial Bridge which is hwy 95 crossing the Thames. Just up the road is the town of Mystic Conneticut, which is supposed to have good pizza being served by nice people (Who seem to always need a man from what I saw in the movie) I should go see what the deal is, if it's just like the movie.

So that's what is going on here, I have a knee injury and some life things to take care of, so when the boats leave here they will be sailing without me. I don't mind that as I have had less than 3 weeks off this year. We have also been working the crews shorthanded because of our reduced revenues we are operating with 20 percent less people. I will be on the water again, but until next time this is JJ your ocean reporter saying, "Eat local fish, unless your from the Gulf."

Update This is the last day I am going to be in the shipyard so I decide to get pictures of it for this article. The work is progressing as best it can but the fishing season is happening right now and the delays that are keeping the boats here will soon be overcome. The addition of the sub picture was just an added bonus we missed them going directly astern of us or I would have had some close shots.