JFK’s relevance 

To the editor:

Really? A Kennedy assassination conspiracy story in The Working Waterfront? (December/January issue story, “Friendship legislator tracks JFK’s killers”).

There is nothing new in Mr. Evangelos’ findings as you describe them that hasn’t been presented since the first “Who Killed Kennedy?” lectures. What will he do when we have a truth and reconciliation commission and no one comes forward? Must be those darned conspirators again. Evidence for the lack of a conspiracy is the media market place—so much of this has been sold and resold that one would imagine that the “real story” would have been offered up years ago for money, revenge, fame, patriotism, etc.

While I strongly support freedom of the press and editorial discretion, I don’t look to The Working Waterfront to read about conspiracy theorists. But, hey, it is always useful to know the state of mind of public representatives and we wouldn’t want to miss out on that 50th anniversary bandwagon!

Charles Calhoun

Annandale, Virg.

 

Piracy, not advocacy 

I am appalled at the support you give Peter Wilcox and his fellow hoodlums simply because he is a native son of Islseboro (“Islesboro man held by Russians in Greenpeace protest,” November 2013).

The attack of drill ships at sea is by very definition piracy and all involved should be grateful Vladimir Putin didn’t lock them up for life or worse. I am indeed a merchant mariner active in the offshore oil industry—the very ones that procure the fuel oil that powered the Arctic Sunrise to its clandestine operation.

During my career at sea I have occasioned past Execution Rocks at the Long Island Sound entrance to New York Harbor where pirates such as these were made a spectacle of and got what they deserved in full view of those entering New York waters to discourage such activity. Such is the treatment crews should expect when they “occupy” sovereign vessels engaged in trade.

Daniel Secor

Brewster, Mass.

 

DMR against diving?

To the editor:

I’ve been a commercial diver in Maine for over 23 years. I dove commercially for urchins, sea scallops, clams, periwinkles, muscles, lobster and logs. I’ve tried all of the above to try to make a living in my off-season. By trade I am an urchin diver but with the mismanagement of the urchin fishery by the Department of Marine Resources I’ve had to try new avenues for my diving skills.

In the late 1990 we tried diving for soft-shelled clams. It took us divers a lot of days at sea at for nothing, then we started to harvest 2 bushels or more on some days. The shore diggers got jealous and DMR closed that fishery to diving, even though some shore diggers harvest over 2 bushels a day quite regularly.

In the early 2000s we started to harvest periwinkles. There was quite a learning process to this and we had to invest $2,000-plus in equipment. After a long learning curve, we started to harvest 500 to 1,000 pounds a day. Again, hand harvesters raised a fuss and again DMR closed that fishery to divers.

In the mid 2000s we asked DMR if we could dive non-commercially and commercially for lobsters. Non-commercially we asked to only harvest 25 lobster a day, commercially we asked to harvest 100 pounds a day—the bare minimum of a day’s pay after expense.

Lobstermen convinced DMR that we would take lobster from traps, even though there are a lot more lobster out of traps then in them. We only asked to harvest enough to get us through our off seasons, but again, DMR sided with the established

Commercial scallop licenses are no longer available even though the best divers would have a hard time to harvest over 50 pounds a day, where in the past draggers have routinely harvested over 100 pounds a day and it is not unheard of for one boat to land 500 pounds of meat in a single day!

Log diving requirement are now so difficult that only a few divers have the constitution and patience to file all that paperwork. The last time I dove for logs I had to file over 100 pages of paperwork to four different state agencies to get my permit.

In the 1990s there were about 2,500 commercial divers in Maine. That number has dropped to about 250, mostly from mismanagement of different fisheries and closing other avenues to diving altogether.

Is Maine diver friendly? Is the DMR dead set against all diving endeavors in the Maine waters? I’ll let its record speak for itself.

Quinton King

Corinth