As of August 2014 the fishing vessel Onyx has been owned and operated by Otolith's favorite fisherman, Murat Aritan. Kidding aside, Otolith appreciates all low impact harvesters who provide wonderful wild fish sourced from well managed resources of a renewable seafood resource. That is exactly why it makes me happy when any fisherman recovers financially and emotionally from a setback that has threatened his/her ability to continue fishing.
Otolith Sustainable Seafood celebrates and introduces the Onyx. This troller, as you may know, is standing in for the Matie W. The Onyx is a different style of troller entirely than the Matie W. For starters, the Onyx is a double ender; meaning both bow and stern come to a point. Additionally, as you may have noticed the Onyx is vividly painted white with red, blue, green and yellow trim. The previous owner had selected these uncommon vessel colors to attract birds to the boat in spring and summer during long lonely days at sea. These colors are claimed to have successfully lured beautiful hummingbirds to the Onyx each year, and Murat hopes this summer they will again.
Although the Onyx is only 1 foot shorter in length than the Matie W, it is more than two feet less broad across the deck, and the hull of the Onyx is two feet more shallow. These small reductions in dimension make for a much smaller living space and deck space from which to work hauling and setting gear. One thing Murat's trollers do have in common is their engine. Both the Matie W and Onyx have a well maintained, fully functional, fuel economy 6 cylinder D37 engine manufactured by Nissan.
The Onyx was moored for the year on November 12, 2014 and scheduled to return to work trolling in the spring of 2015. We are grateful to Apollo Stone for his boat watch services this winter. We are happy to share with you some pictures from Murat's 2014 fishing season on board F/V Onyx. Thank you for following Otolith's Blog: Seafood For Thought. Finally, we thank
Theo Grutter, the previous owner of the F/V Onyx, for the many years he had endeavored to spend his life as a commercial fisherman .
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| On Grid for a Hull Inspection before Buying |
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| Bob on Stern |
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| A Trako of Coho |
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