Fish Tales: Russell Sherman
Survived Frigid Waters,
Fears Feds May Finish Him Off

by Sean Horgan, Staff Writer for the Gloucester Daily Times

This story originally appeared in the Gloucester Daily Times. The complete story and video can be seen at: http://www.gloucestertimes.com/news/local_news/fish-tales-russell-sherman-survived-frigid-waters-fears-feds-may/article_ddb1a028-80dd-5f6b-83f3-f10e8e984073.html

There are days, as he navigates his 66th year on the planet and his 43rd year on the water, that Russell Sherman feels like a relic on his way to becoming an anachronism.

The world around him has changed since he first stepped on a Gloucester boat in 1971, and like all fishermen, Sherman has adapted as best he could.

He traveled the well-trod path from crew member to captain and to owner-operator, meeting and at least holding his own against the shifting landscape of regulations and restrictions, against the rollercoaster runs of good fishing and bad, all the while looking over his shoulder at that ominous sound rustling in the treeline: the dangerous forces — both natural and man-made — that make fishing such a precarious life.

Now, as retirement beckons, Sherman is trapped in a physically demanding profession that only grows more so as he gets older, with a boat he can’t afford to fish and can’t afford to leave swaying at the dock to the tune of at least $1,000 a month.

That was all before last Monday. Last Monday, things got significantly harder.