ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


WorldView

In Chesapeake Bay, Efforts to Save the Historical Skipjacks Vessels

Aired August 19, 2000 - 10:23 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: Maryland's Chesapeake Bay was once famous for its oysters, which are now struggling to make a comeback. The ships that harvested the shellfish also are fighting to survive.

CNN's Kathleen Koch now reports on the efforts to save the skipjacks, the United States last commercial sailing fleet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's another workday for Captain Wade Murphy and the Rebecca Ruark, at 114, Maryland's oldest skipjack. A fleet of 700 vessels like this once dredged the Chesapeake Bay for Oysters.

WADE MURPHY, CAPTAIN, REBECCA RUARK: If I happen to check out, don't bury me at sea; bring me back in.

(LAUGHTER)

KOCH: But now, seven months a year, Murphy hauls tourists.

MURPHY: You can't make a living entirely catching oysters anymore since the decline of oysters. But since I've been doing sailing charters (ph), I use the boat 12 months a years.

KOCH: Only 10 of the single-masted skipjacks still go oystering in the offseason, Murphy has permission to dredge a lick to check the size of the shellfish.

MURPHY: See how fat they are? That oyster is fat as butter.

KOCH: The Rebecca Ruark sank in gale of Tillman Island last year.

MURPHY: It blew my sails away at about 40 mile an hour, 50 mile an hour wind.

KOCH: And it was then that Maryland realized its historic skipjacks were in jeopardy.

LOUISE HAYMAN, EXEC. DIR., MARYLAND 2000: We clearly felt that the skipjacks were one of our treasures, and we needed to take a serious look, and quickly, at whether that skipjack fleet could be maintained.

KOCH: So the state loosened fishing restrictions on the aging boats, set up a loan fund for skippers, and a charitable restoration program at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

RICHARD SCOFIELD, CHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM BOAT SHOP: It is harder to restore than it is to build a boat new. You not only have to take it apart, but you have to work with what is there, fit new pieces to it.

JOHN VALLIANT, EXEC. DIR., CHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM: By saving these vessels, we believe we're really saving the way of life, the culture.

MURPHY: I'll sell them for as much as $32 a bushel, and I'll sell them for $2 a bushel.

KOCH: A way of life some will never abandon.

MURPHY: It's like you're living with the wind, the weather -- it's get part of you. And when you're dredging under a sail, you're part of the boat, you feel like you're part of the elements, and I just love to do it.

KOCH: Kathleen Koch, for CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top  © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.