Now There Are Two...

 

 

 

 

There used to be three of these mid-water trawlers, Endeavor, Challenger, and Voyager. Now there are two. Voyager is being refitted in a New Bedford shipyard to become a crab catching/processing vessel.  Ten years ago, these three trawlers would come in with upwards of a million pounds of herring. In ten years time, due to their efficiency and rapacious fishing cadence, there are scant few herring left to be had. The fishing grounds have been locked down. Endeavor and Challenger might have one scheduled run for October and then one or two more in January 2023.  The boats, once all gleaming blue are rusting and banged up. The revenue stream just isn't there for things like cosmetics.. The company that owns them, an Irish company, has applied to the US government for $5M in relief funding to be used to start another, different business..  I'm on the fence about the owners getting more dough. On the one hand, they supply herring to all the lobstermen in the area.. If they go away, I would imagine that the price of lobster bait would go up, squeezing already squozed lobstermen.. Not good.. On the other hand - the owners of the boats did this to themselves by going out and essentially vacuuming the ocean.. Not Good..  ~