From STAFF REPORTS
COAST NEWS ONLINE
Fisherman dies fighting tuna
A
deep-sea fisherman whose 35-foot boat, Flat Calm, was based in Morehead City,
N.C., will be buried at sea following his death Tuesday when he apparently was
entangled and pulled overboard by his fishing line that held a giant
tuna.
Capt. Bruce Bartlett of South Plainfield, N.J., apparently
harpooned the fish, then got his left leg caught in the 200-foot line, Coast
Guard officials told local news reporters. When the tuna swam away, Bartlett was
pulled into the ocean off Morehead City and drowned.
Another fisherman
discovered his empty boat cruising off the North Carolina coast Tuesday morning
with its harpoon line in the water.
When he reeled in the line, he found
a live bluefin tuna speared on the end -- and the captain's entangled
body.
Bartlett was a commercial fisherman who traveled up and down the
coast, Coast Guard officials said. He was alone in Flat Calm, when he died,
fighting a fish that can weigh from 200 to 500 pounds.
A fund is being
set up to help his family, including twin 14-year-old sons.
"They're not
easy to handle by yourself," Ensign Andy Green-wood, with the Coast Guard's Fort
Macon group, said in reports carried by several newspapers, including the News
& Observer of Raleigh.
Greenwood said Bartlett's was one of several
boats that left Morehead City early Tuesday. He was last seen at 8
a.m.
The fishing line was wrapped around Bartlett's ankle, said Spurge
Krasowski, captain of the Moonshine. "The fish was still there."
Bartlett
normally did not fish alone, said Brett Wilson, who had dinner with Bartlett on
Tuesday night.
They are among fishermen on eight boats who travel
together from Florida to Maine chasing bluefin and yellowfin tuna, Wilson
said.
"He was a good friend of all of ours," Wilson said.
Richard
Lucas, who also works on the Moonshine, said he grew up with Bartlett in New
Jersey.
"He was a good guy, hard worker, good friend," Lucas
said.
Bartlett had three sons, including the two who are teenagers, Lucas
said.
Relatives will take Bartlett's cremated ashes from Beaufort, N.C.,
to Ocean City, Md., where 100 boats are expected to participate in the service
at sea on Monday or Tuesday, depending on the weather.
"The other boats
will follow in a parade, and his ashes will be scattered," said Dave Wiley, the
husband of Bartlett's sister, Cheryl Wiley.
About 9:30 a.m., another
fisherman found Bartlett's boat 13 miles offshore, its motor running. The man
climbed aboard and pulled up about 150 feet of the line before finding
Bartlett's body, Greenwood said. The catch was on the line, but it got away
before Coast Guard officials arrived.
Anthony Ng of Winterville, a
commercial fisherman who was also in the area Tuesday morning, said 6- and
7-foot swells were battering the boats.
He said many fishermen work
alone, hauling in tuna on giant rods, then stabbing them with harpoons and
chasing them until they tire. A single tuna can sell for thousands of
dollars.
Ng told the Raleight newspaper that it is more profitable to
work alone but, of course, more dangerous. "Those fish, they pull hard," he
said. "All it takes is one slip."
The Coast Guard advises against fishing
alone. But even having company can't always prevent accidents. In 1994, a man
was pulled overboard during the Morehead City-based Big Rock Blue Marlin
Tournament. He had wrapped line around his arm and was trying to pull a fish
aboard a 52-foot boat. His body was never found.
Members of the
struggling fishing industry have created a memorial fund to help Bartlett's
sons, Travis and Max Bartlett, who live in Sandy Creek, N.Y. An anonymous donor
kicked in $500 the first day, fishermen hung fliers in marinas, and friends plan
to collect money at Saturday's barbecue and annual meeting of the Winter Bluefin
Association in Morehead City, N.C., said Pete Manuel, the association's
president.
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