The Northern Gulf of Maine management area stretches from Boston to the Canadian border. Regulations for it are based on annual population assessments and capped by NOAA Fisheries, which typically passes rules before the season begins. If this is not the case, a stopgap measure is implemented, which involves smaller, temporary quotas.
Those quotas could be gone soon, which is causing stress among fishermen. Unless there’s enough quota left, it could be time to pack up and head home.
The Time Bandit
Johnathan Hillstrand and Andy Hillstrand co-captain the F/V Time Bandit, a 113-foot power scow that appears on Discovery’s reality series Deadliest Catch. The brothers are maverick fishermen who tackle the Bering Sea’s treacherous waters, risking it all for a shot at big money and fame.
The pair have a reputation for running a tight ship, which is why Homerites, as the locals call themselves, respect their crew’s hard work and fearless attitude on the ocean. But the brothers are also a little bit wild and crazy. They often play practical jokes on their crew, such as detonating “flour bombs” or teetering buckets of water.
One of those pranks turned deadly: In 2013, David Zielinski, the vessel’s deckhand, was injured in his right hand and arm when the weapon he was holding exploded prematurely. He sued the Hillstrands for $2.7 million, arguing that he’d been ordered to fire the fireworks at a rival crab boat called Cape Caution.
In addition to his injury, Zielinski claims he had post-traumatic stress disorder after the accident, which he says was caused by a lack of training and supervision. In his lawsuit, he says the Discovery Channel lost footage of the incident and that another member of the crew threw the launcher and firework fragments overboard after the explosion to conceal the truth.
The Cornelia Marie
A recreational scallop diver was killed on Sunday off the east coast of Tasmania. The man, in his 40s, was attacked by a great white shark while diving from a small dinghy with his daughter.
The death was the latest in a long series of fatal attacks against shellfish divers, many of them on small dinghy boats. The incident occurred in a shallow area of water near Lachlan Island, off the east coast of the Australian state of Tasmania.
After decades of effort, it looks as if the tide has turned for Peconic Bay’s scallops. The shellfish aren’t back to their heyday of the ’80s, but each year since 2010 has produced more of them than the previous one.
Scallop fishermen have been working hard to fight the pathogen that’s killing them. Cornell scientists have recruited generations of young scallops from Moriches Bay and Martha’s Vineyard. They’re being grown to spawn at a state-of-the-art hatchery in Orient. The hope is that the new babies will help replenish the population of adult bay scallops in the wild.
The Cornelia Marie, which was built by Horton Boats in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, in 1989, has always been an impressive fishing vessel. The 128-foot-long, 28-foot-wide hull sports a classic aft cabin design. She fishes for king crab and also offers tendering for salmon and herring.
The Big Valley
In all the 19 seasons of Deadliest Catch, we have seen a variety of different crab boats take on the treacherous seas of Alaska. While some boats have become recognisable to viewers, others have slipped away without a trace. One such ship was the F/V Big Valley.
The 92-foot vessel was a familiar sight in the Kodiak area, as it often was chartered by government scientists for fisheries research. One of the missing crew members, Gary Edwards, was a well-known fishing captain in the community. Edwards was a safety-conscious person who took great care in his boat, according to Brad Stevens, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist in Kodiak.
Investigators determined that the Big Valley was overloaded, carrying nearly 30% more weight than allowed, which may have contributed to its sinking. The ship also had an unusually large amount of bait, which could have weighed down the vessel and affected its stability at sea.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck as stern widow Victoria Barkley, The Big Valley ran for four seasons with 112 episodes from 1965 to 1969. It was one of the few Western TV shows to feature a strong female lead and is considered one of the best Western series ever produced. Many of the exterior shots for the ranch house were filmed at the CBS Studio Centre, located in Los Angeles. The studio is easily accessible from downtown by taking the bus route that runs along Laurel Canyon Boulevard.
The Sultan
Aside from his childish mind and pomposity, the Sultan is a worthy ruler who takes his duties seriously. His diplomatic skills enabled him to form alliances with other nations, and he is also the only man to have defeated a dragon queen in battle, which led to him and Jasmine going on a date in the episode “From Hippodethdethh Love”.
The Sultan’s most obvious flaw is his gullibility; he often falls for Jafar’s schemes and believes everything that he says, including his lies. This gullibility has made him vulnerable to many of Jafar’s attempts at controlling the kingdom.
On the bright side, he has a kind heart and is a great foil to his daughter’s no-nonsense personality. He also has a dark side; he can be very violent when needed and will not hesitate to kill to maintain peace in his realm.
The Sultan and the Saint tells the story of two men of faith, one an itinerant Christian preacher and the other the ruler of a Muslim empire, who bucked a century of war and distrust to find common ground. The film is a beautiful and respectful production, but it also poses difficult questions for our times. Several experts, including art historians and religious thinkers, collaborated to bring this important story to life.
