A fish story
While the rest of the city is in a state of posttraumatic stress over the bellicose version of hockey that happens when the local hockey club goes “on the road”, I look for amusement in other sections of the local newspaper. And no, not the “funnies”.
This morning, there’s a story about the legal challenges facing a fisherman from further down the river, who had the unfortunate “luck” to catch an undersea cable on more than one occasion. Not very valuable at wharfside, and a real aggravation when you have to heave to and untangle your gear. He did the obvious thing; he checked his charts to see what the cable might tie together. When he couldn’t find any sign that it was more than a very real “catch of the day”, he contacted the local fisheries officer. There too, nothing in evidence that this was anything more than an abandoned cable dating back to the days when wires held the world together.
Now, fishermen are polyvalent, so he took his best circular saw with that diamond edged blade and he cut the offending wire apart. Unfortunately, the cable wasn’t filled with copper and gutta-percha. Instead, he had managed to separate a recently installed fibre optic cable, and the owners were NOT amused. Of course they called in the police, and the whole unhappy mess landed on the docket in the local courthouse. Our fisherman was found to be innocent of all charges, but lawyers and sharks are persistent. Things have now ended up in civil court (the one that doesn’t require you to be guilty) and the telecommunications company (don’t tell us your name and we won’t ask you who you are) now wants $1.3 million in damages.
The fishing industry is one where risks are high, and insurance policies are part of the basic foul weather gear. But, insurance companies also have lawyers, and they’re now insisting that when they underwrote risk, it didn’t include unmarked cables that have been cut by a high seas carpenter. Who’s hung to dry on this one; of course, the fisherman. His boat has been seized, and he may have to hang ashore this season.
I’ll be watching this case, because it demonstrates that when the cod are gone, there will still be sharks.
