T.T. Gillie Working In Tight Quarters

by Constantine Gregory

Title

T.T. Gillie Working In Tight Quarters

Artist

Constantine Gregory

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Forty Seven Year Old Fishing Trawler
Vessel Name:T T GILLIE
Year Built:1967
Length (ft.):55.3
Hailing Port:NEW BEDFORD MA
Hull Depth (ft.):8.3
Owner:T T GILLIE INC
Hull Breadth (ft.):18
Gross Tonnage:54
Net Tonnage:37
An excerpt from an article written in 2003 about the Coast Guards role in enforcing commercial fishing regulations :
This time the order is to enforce the regulations that govern commercial fishing off the coast of New England. The next day the area is closing to commercial fishing and the records show the T.T. Gillie out of New Bedford hasn't been boarded in a while. Team Bravo led by boarding officer Ensign Jonathan Burby 23 of Madison Conn. files down a narrow hallway through double-latched steel doors to the fantail deck the back of the ship. The team all men in their 20s with close crew cuts wear blue one-piece jumpsuits with the Escanaba's name -- not their own -- on the front. They carry handcuffs batons pepper spray and sidearms; underneath their coveralls they wear bulletproof vests.The team faces over the starboard deck and upon command lock and load their 9 mm pistols. "Usually it's a warm reception. A lot of (fishermen) realize we're here for them" Burby later says of boardings. "It's different when we do boardings down South" where the Coast Guard does more drug and illegal alien interdiction. "In this day and age you never know what you're going to see.” This might be a fishing patrol but there's at least one significant homeland security overlap protocol now calls for positively identifying everyone on board and checking documents -- such as green cards and passports -- to make sure they're legit. The Coast Guard may board any American vessel any time day or night anywhere to make sure it is operating safely and not violating the law. The team puts on orange life jackets and crash helmets and three of them -- a coxswain and two engineers -- climb into a 20-foot inflatable boat and the team skims along the ocean toward the T.T. Gillie. It's the first day of a five-day trip for the T.T. Gillie which is looking for groundfish before this area closes. In the pilot house Ensign Gary Murphy is interviewing the ship's master Brian Mello 53 of Fairhaven and filling out a standard form that accompanies every boarding. Another member of the team checks the survival gear. The mate Bill Berube 22 of Fall River was about to haul back the gear when the Coast Guard appeared; now he and Mello will have an audience as they bring in their nets. "It's getting tougher with all the regulations to make a living" Berube said explaining this boat used to have a crew of three not two. Three members of the team descend into the fish hold to see if the catch meets regulations. Meanwhile Mello manning the wheel and looking out over the gently rolling swells as he smokes a cigarette seems unconcerned by this visit. He has been fishing since he was 16 years old -- 25 years on this boat. "It doesn't bother me" he said. "As long as they don't interrupt the fishing -- and I've never had a problem with that yet. They've got a job to do the same as everyone else.” Several minutes later Berube is hauling in a catch. A squirming flapping pile of fish spills onto the deck some more yellowfin a few dogfish that get thrown back a few monkfish two old lobster pots a green glass bottle a cod and an old piece of orange hose. There's no problems with the nets the catch or the fish stacked on beds of ice in the hold. But there is a problem that earns a citation. The oil in the bilge water -- which the T.T. Gillie was warned about the last time the Coast Guard paid a visit -- is still there. Later in his debriefing Burby tells McPherson the smell of diesel fuel hit him in the face as soon as he opened the engine hatch door.

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September 18th, 2014

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