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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 1
September 2007
Blivy Fish first boat hang-down casualty of MA sink rope rule
GLOUCESTER, MA – In our July 2007 issue, Commercial Fisheries News ran a safety alert about dangers reported by inshore lobstermen in Massachusetts who, under state regulations that went into effect earlier this year, have had to start using sinking rope for groundlines on the hard bottom where they fish.
One documented casualty now can be added to the close calls reported in that article.
Veteran Gloucester lobsterman Thom Burns and his son Cody were working the hard bottom right off Eastern Point lighthouse aboard their 42' Arethusa alongside another Gloucester lobster boat, the 33' Blivy Fish, which is a Young Brothers solid fiberglass hull with a glass-over-plywood top.
It was about noon when Thom Burns said they heard “a loud bang, above and beyond what you would normally hear, immediately followed by the angry shout, ‘That f***ing sinking rope!’”
After motoring over, Burns and his son saw the Blivy Fish’s 23-year-old owner, Joe DeSalvo, and sternman John Nicastro, both of Gloucester, standing near the hauling station visibly shaken and on a damaged boat.
The davit and support post and the cabin corner window had been torn out. The senior Burns had a camera on board and documented the damage.
DeSalvo explained what happened this way.
“I was hauling in a 10-pot trawl when we got hung down solid with the 5/8" sinking groundline in the hauler. The tide was screaming. The davit started to go,” he said. “Everything happened so quickly that I just had time to run to the back of the boat when, bang, everything let go. It sounded like a firecracker exploding. I was lucky I didn’t get killed.”
DeSalvo said he had never experienced anything like this throughout his seven-year lobstering career. He also used floating groundlines up to 2007.
The sinking groundline has a propensity to hang down solidly on hard bottom. When this happens, something has to give – either the line or something on the boat like the hauler or davit or, even worse, the boat itself. Strong tides, swells, or choppiness only exacerbate the danger.
The calamity cost DeSalvo two weeks of lost fishing time and approximately $2,000 for repairs.
“Most lobstermen have nothing against using sinking groundline outside where the whales are, but it just doesn’t work inside,” said Burns. “The bottom here is just too hard and jagged in many places, and you don’t usually see the whales inshore unless they are sick or dying.
“Already with the sinking groundline this year, I’ve not only noticed excessive wear on that rope, but also that a lot of fishermen, including myself, have lost a trap here and there,” he continued.
“Multiply that number times the (number of) full-time Massachusetts lobstermen and that amounts to hundreds of traps needlessly lost each year,” said Burns.
“But, most important,” he concluded, “if either DeSalvo’s davit or block hit him, that would have killed him. It’s a matter of time before someone gets killed.”
Peter K. Prybot
Pigeon Cove, MA lobsterman Peter Prybot is a field correspondent for Commercial Fisheries News.
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