Chatham Fisherman Charged with Humpback Whale Crime

God forbid it wasn’t a seal. Give the guy a break. The whales come out of nowhere sometimes. At least it was released w/o any harm.

I read the article. Don’t know Bob I think. But I hear from everyone who does know him that he is an incredible father, husband and man. quiet and very serious about his job. I think what really made me angry id that a government observer can get on any commercial boat whenever they want and “watch” fisherman do their job. I would not tolerate this in my business! Whats more upsetting is that win or lose this man and his family will probably lose everything trying to argue this case. He is a fisherman! Where is the public outrage? Where are the organizations who exist that are supposed to help fisherman navigate murky federal waters? Shame on them for not stepping up and helping Bob! I am just one person but I want to help Bob. Hopefully I can rally the forces and do so.

Sounds like the government doing there regular crappy job.  A fisherman has no control over a whale jumping out of the water and getting tangled in his lines.  It should have never been reported if the federal person could tell it was an accident.  An accident is an ACCIDENT and he should have never been charged.  What they need to be checking out is the large processing ships that come in and drop there boats and start dragging for everything.

I was so happy to find your web page.
I had read about the fisherman and the whale. I mailed the story to several friends. Everyone had the same reaction. The fisherman was right in what he did. Ok, so he could have been hurt, but that is besides the point.
Good grief, the Whale could have died waiting for NOAA to show up and help.

Not a relative—-I don’t think. We keep voting people into office who want to control every aspect of our lives . Then we complain when they do what we knew they were going to do in the first place. The way we’re going right now, we’re going to have to check with the government before we take a breath.

According to the latest news, the government says “He wasn’t able to disentangle the whale but cut his fishing lines, which freed the whale to swim away still entangled in 25 to 30 feet of sinking fishing line.”
Is this accurate according to your knowledge of the incident?  If it is correct, then it arguably would have been better to call in an expert, and the $500 fine finally imposed is not so harsh.

Hi Brian,

I am not sure of the details of the case beyond what I heard at the time.

I am not sure however that the whale would have been better off waiting several hours for the “experts” to arrive on the scene.

I would imagine it would have taken them several hours to get there and the whale would have been struggling against the firmly anchored gear and the tide, which runs pretty hard off Chatham.

I am also not sure what the term “expert” means in this case. From most of the news footage and stories I have seen these “experts” seem to be young volunteers. Similar to the crews on Whale Wars, whose seamanship skills are lacking to say the least.

Many of the news clips I have seen where the “experts” in zodiacs are trying to get lines free from whales look like pretty “hokey” operations at best.

If I was the whale, I would rather have the fisherman release me immediately, rather than wait for 5 or 6+ hours until the “experts” arrived on scene.

It is time the American people stood up to defend ourselves against a government out of control. Band together and take back our rights as free americans.