Page 8 - IAV Digital Magazine #531

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
By Ben Hooper
Sept. 29 (UPI) - - A Maine fishing crew's accidental catch of a 600- pound tuna became about 350 servings of food for a local soup kitchen.
Ross Alex, cap- tain of the Kathryn Ann, said he and his crew were fishing for lobster bait off the coast of Belfast when their nets cap- tured something unexpected.
"We saw some fish kind of pop- ping off the sur- face, so we were getting ready to set, and we made our set and kind of hauled our net back. The fish went gone. We were like, 'Where did they go?' We got our net, like, three- quarters of the way back, and there was a tuna," Alex told WABI-TV.
Alex said the vessel was not licensed to catch
bluefin tuna, so they attempted to free the large fish, but deter- mined it was too entangled in the nets to revive.
Jamie Steeves, owner of J&J Lobsters, con- tacted the Maine Marine Patrol to explain the situa- tion. Steeve's contact made the necessary calls to get the boat's crew permission to harvest and donate the tuna.
Doug Shartzer, a friend of Steeves, was summoned to butcher the fish and arrange
for it to be donat- ed to the Belfast Soup Kitchen.
Officials at the soup kitchen said the 600-pound tuna became about 350 serv- ings of food deliv- ered to the com- munity on Tuesday.
"I think it's a won- derful opportunity for the people of Waldo County, for us to be able to give them this through Belfast Soup Kitchen," said Cherie Merrill, executive director of the Belfast Soup Kitchen.
Pet Detective Reunites Florida Woman With Dog Missing For 59 days
By Ben Hooper
Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A Florida woman was reunited with her Yorkshire terrier 59 days after the canine went miss- ing thanks to a pet detec- tive.
Anita Maharaj said her dog, Milo, went missing from her Lake Worth Beach home in August, after a security guard in her subdivision spotted the canine leaving through an open gate.
"It was heartbreaking," Maharaj told WPTV. "It was stressful. It's like a different type of pain."
Maharaj enlisted the servic- es of pet detective Jamie Katz, who set about using online posts and paper fly- ers to spread the word about Milo.
"I've been telling her this whole entire time we're going to get him back," Katz said of Maharaj.
Katz said tips started pour- ing in, but most turned out to be dead ends.
"There's a lot of background checks. We had a lot of calls coming in, a lot of kids calling pretending to have her dog," she said.
The detective's efforts paid off when a West Palm Beach woman who saw Milo on a poster called to report she had found the canine and brought him to her home.
Maharaj was reunited with Milo 59 days after he went missing.
"This is an experience that I don't want any pet owner to ever go through," Maharaj said.
Katz said Milo's reunion was only her latest success story. She said she currently has a 67% success rate in reuniting people with their lost pets.
Fisherman's Accidental 600-pound Tuna Catch Benefits Soup Kitchen