Waterman

Hardly a month goes by that The Sun does not further document how Chesapeake Bay pollution is eroding the livelihoods of our watermen. In a cynical moment, I once wrote in my book, "Bay Country," of a day when "we will memorialize the vanished watermen in a Colonial Williamsburg - Watermens' World, we'd call it ... tourists could view actors tonging Fiberglas oysters from the comfort of underwater viewing lounges.... " Now I'm encouraged to report that the Chesapeake Conservancy has an innovative program up and running that trains real life watermen to share their skills with tourists, supplementing their incomes while we work to restore the Chesapeake's seafood bounty.

Lawrence W. "Larry" Simns Sr., a fourth-generation waterman and longtime advocate for the Chesapeake Bay and those who make their living from its waters, died Thursday of bone cancer at his Rock Hall home. He was 75. "Larry stood sentry for the watermen of the Chesapeake Bay for over 40 years and courageously carried their banner into the 21st century," Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said in a statement. "He fought to preserve their traditions and their opportunity to work on the water like their forefathers," she said.

On Tuesday, March 23, 2004, FRANCES K. (nee Jones), beloved wife of the late Edward Waterman; devoted mother of E. Eugene Waterman; sister of Fred Jones and Edgar Jones. Friends may call at the LORING BYERS FUNERAL DIRECTORS INC., 8728 Liberty Rd (2 miles W. of Beltway Exit 18-B) Thursday 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral Service Friday 11 A.M. at Augsburg Lutheran Home, 6811 Campfield Rd. Interment Druid Ridge Cemetery.

Hardly a month goes by that The Sun does not further document how Chesapeake Bay pollution is eroding the livelihoods of our watermen. In a cynical moment, I once wrote in my book, "Bay Country," of a day when "we will memorialize the vanished watermen in a Colonial Williamsburg - Watermens' World, we'd call it ... tourists could view actors tonging Fiberglas oysters from the comfort of underwater viewing lounges.... " Now I'm encouraged to report that the Chesapeake Conservancy has an innovative program up and running that trains real life watermen to share their skills with tourists, supplementing their incomes while we work to restore the Chesapeake's seafood bounty.

I've lived on the Chesapeake Bay for longer than I have lived anywhere else in my life, but I am not a sailor, nor a fisherman nor a waterman, so I have not made more use of its astonishing natural beauty than the occasional boat ride with friends or trips to the shore. It is a deficiency that deserves correcting in any case, but especially as we watch a kindred body of water down south destroyed by the worst oil drilling disaster of all time. So, when my friend Betsy invited a handful of women friends to meet the fisherman who has been her husband's best friend and fishing pal since elementary school and to see the Eastern Shore of Virginia through his eyes, and on his boat, it was easy to say yes. We traveled to Cape Charles in Northampton County, on the tip of Virginia's Eastern Shore, and unloaded our shorts, T-shirts, cameras, shell-collecting bags and wine at Sterling House, a bed & breakfast graciously restored by Steve Hairfield in a town full of such houses.

ON March 3, 2006 LYMAN BYRNEWATERMAN SR, beloved husband of the late Helen S. Waterman, he is survived by children, Lyman B. Waterman Jr, and Robin K. Waterman, brother David Waterman of California, and sisters, Mary Miller of Tennessee and Jane Anderson of California. Visitation and funeral services will be announced at a later date. Services entrusted to STERLING-ASHTON-SCHWAB-WITZKE FUNERAL HOME OF CATONSVILLE, INC., 1630 Edmondson Avenue. 410-744-8600

On Wednesday, February 19, 2003, at home, of Huntingdon, PA. Beloved wife of the late Russell Edwin Waterman; loving mother of Jeanne W. Smith of Plaistow, NH, Claire W. Barnes of Sykesville, MD and Elaine W. White of Westminster, MD; devoted sister of the late Mildred Morrison and William Wagner. Also, survived by six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Mrs. Waterman was a member of 12th Street United Methodist Church, Huntingdon, PA and had been a member of Standing Stone Art League, Huntingdon County Arts Council and Huntingdon County Literacy CouncilMemorial Service will be Monday, February 24, 2003 at 2 PM in the 12th Street United Methodist Church in Huntingdon, PA where Pastor Wayne L. Richards will be performing the Eulogy.

Until this year, a Maryland Bass Federation member had never made it to the Bassmaster Classic, the sport's signature event. Japan and Zimbabwe have been represented, but not the 70-club federation. Guys came close, but close only counts in things like shaving and the sleeping arrangements in my tent. Now the streak is over, times two. Russ Colwell, a contractor and native of Dundalk, and Kevin Waterman, a plumber from La Plata, qualified for the 37th Classic, a three-day competition that begins Feb. 23 on Lay Lake in Birmingham, Ala. "It's a very difficult thing to do," Maryland federation president Roger Trageser said about securing one of the Classic spots.

L. Byrne Waterman, a retired Chessie System railroad executive and maritime historian whose philanthropy and documentation of Chesapeake Bay-built whaling vessels earned him a national reputation, died of cancer Friday at St. Agnes Hospital. The longtime Catonsville resident was 85. Mr. Waterman was born in Elyria, Ohio, and was raised in Wheeling, W.Va. After graduating from high school in 1938, he was a junior bank bookkeeper, messenger and traveling steel company auditor. Drafted into the Army in 1942, he served as a radio operator with the 9th Armored Division in Europe and participated in the capture of the historic Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen from German forces on March 7, 1945.

The family of a Talbot County waterman who was shot and killed by a Natural Resources Police officer last year has filed a federal lawsuit against both the department and the officer, seeking $80 million in damages. Officer 1st Class Hubert F. Brohawn shot waterman Thomas S. Sherwood Jr., 49, three times in the chest on a dock in Bellevue in August. Brohawn said Sherwood was advancing toward him and swung a bumper jack, and the officer said he felt threatened. Sherwood died at the scene.

It's 1943. First light colors the summer Chesapeake Bay off the fishing village of Rock Hall, revealing a 6-year-old boy rowing a wooden skiff, struggling to do it quietly, so not to scare the blue crabs his great-grandfather dips as they run their trotline. The crabs back then came up "thick as mosquitoes at dark," several at once attacking the eel baits tied along the trotline. As they work, the old man teaches the boy skills he'd need in the water business; he also speaks with sadness about how the state arbitrarily changed the fishing rules, ending his long career as a top bay captain.

I've lived on the Chesapeake Bay for longer than I have lived anywhere else in my life, but I am not a sailor, nor a fisherman nor a waterman, so I have not made more use of its astonishing natural beauty than the occasional boat ride with friends or trips to the shore. It is a deficiency that deserves correcting in any case, but especially as we watch a kindred body of water down south destroyed by the worst oil drilling disaster of all time. So, when my friend Betsy invited a handful of women friends to meet the fisherman who has been her husband's best friend and fishing pal since elementary school and to see the Eastern Shore of Virginia through his eyes, and on his boat, it was easy to say yes. We traveled to Cape Charles in Northampton County, on the tip of Virginia's Eastern Shore, and unloaded our shorts, T-shirts, cameras, shell-collecting bags and wine at Sterling House, a bed & breakfast graciously restored by Steve Hairfield in a town full of such houses.

A Leonardtown waterman was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison Tuesday and ordered to pay $240,000 in restitution for poaching nearly $1 million worth of striped bass. The Department of Justice said that commercial fisherman Thomas Crowder Jr. was part of a black market operation that involved more than a dozen defendants and tons of fish taken from the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River over several years. But the attorney for Crowder said there was no criminal scheme, just a broken state measuring system and a failure to report inaccuracies that benefited his client.

GREENBELT - A Virginia waterman was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Wednesday to one year and one day in prison, was fined $4,000 and was ordered to make $40,000 in restitution for his part in the largest striped bass poaching case in the history of the Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile, the sting operation widened as federal prosecutors charged a St. Mary's County waterman and fish wholesaler and his business with falsifying catch records and illegally selling...

Virginia watermen used illegally submerged nets to fish out of season and altered and reused fish tags as part of the black market responsible for illegally catching millions of dollars worth of striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River, according to affidavits for federal search warrants. The court records, filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., present a picture of a much larger operation, one in which one waterman boasted to undercover officers of making $600,000 in one year of poaching and hinted at making bribes.

Nearly 100 watermen attended a meeting in Annapolis last night to hear state officials' proposals for restricting Maryland's blue crab harvest in hopes of protecting the increasingly struggling crustacean. The options on the table include bushel limits for crabs, restrictions on the soft-crab fishery and a maximum size limit on females. Lynn Fegley, the Department of Natural Resources' blue crab expert, said the department is hoping to have a draft proposal ready in two weeks and will introduce the regulations in mid-April.

Anyone who plies the waters of the Chesapeake Bay for 33 years is bound to have some stories to tell. Fifth-generation Shady Side waterman Tommy Hallock has more than a few: the time he caught more croakers than his boat could handle. Or the times he netted a dead body, and a shark. One of his favorites is sinking his boat at age 15, and nobody believing his pleas for help because it was April Fool's Day. "Fishing is in my blood," said Hallock, 47. "Since I was a little fella, there was never any doubt as to what I wanted to do."

A lot of people are introduced to Rock Hall by way of the Chesapeake Bay. A home port for many out-of-town pleasure boaters, this former fishing village has almost as many slips (1,421) as it does people (1,600). In summer, Rock Hall swells with tourists drawn to the Eastern Shore town for the boating, the natural environment and, as the local business association frames it, "life the way it used to be." It's also a town with a great sense of humor. Where else is New Year's celebrated with a rockfish dropping at midnight?